Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from PART TWO: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku) If nothing else came from our New Year’s experience, I definitely took from it a pretty good training needs analysis of Ben’s strengths … and his “opportunities.” (er-hem) Ben was and remains overflowing in his many loveable qualities. He’s cuter than most dogs out…
The Ball Warrior
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Tooth-Fairy) The dark boughs of the chestnut trees were almost empty. The desiccated and thorny outer shells of the fruit lay decomposing everywhere and their large leaves littered the large park where Ben and I played a few times a day. By the middle of the month, the…
Tooth-Fairy
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Ben the Foody) By November, Ben had settled into our expanded life that now included him. Routines were being rewritten … and so were my values. For the first time in my life, I now had to think of “someone” else’s needs – another living creature was now…
Ben the Foody
(Benjamin: continued from What’s in a Name) In 1996, the world was only seven years removed from the Berlin wall coming down and the country was still navigating its dynamic and very rapid transition from a “socialist” post-Soviet bloc nation into whatever it imagined it wanted to become. As such, the pet food industry was non-existent in Poland,…
What’s in a Name?
(Benjamin: continued from Ben Trains Us) What’s in a name? What do you name a creature that comes crashing into your life and bites you within an hour of knowing you? What to name a dog that quickly evidences himself a supremely smart little dog? (I hadn’t finished my first 12 hours with him before…
Ben Trains Us …
(Benjamin: continued from Three Strikes, I’m Yours) The first night, Ben trained us. Apparently a throbbing and punctured finger wasn’t going to deter me from the delusion that I could become the alpha in our burgeoning relationship. I knew from what little firsthand “adult” experience I had with dogs (most of which came via my…