Pat Bean's blog

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable” – Helen Keller

Always up for adventure, Pepper is telling me to hurry my lazy butt along — Photo by Pat Bean

I Live With One 

Pepper! Did you do this?

         “Properly trained, man can be a dog’s best friend.” — Corey Ford

In March I lost my beloved canine traveling companion, Maggie, a black cocker spaniel that I had rescued from a life of abuse when she was a year old.  She went from being scared of her shadow to a spoiled diva queen after I promised her no one would ever hurt her again.

Maggie’s replacement was a four-month-old Scotty-mix puppy that turned out to be as different from Maggie as a spoiled regal queen is from an exuberant pig-tailed tomboy. Of course I’ve come to love her every bit as much as I loved Maggie.

Pepper, who is now about nine months old, is a rowdy thing who enjoys nothing more than rough-housing with dogs twice her size. While there’s not a hair of aggression in her, she’s usually a bit too rambunctious for smaller dogs.

“Me?” Yes, you. “The cat did it.” We don’t have a cat.

She is truly a free spirit, although she prefers accomplishing her hijinks within my sight. She bonded to me the first second she saw me. It took me at least two seconds before I knew I had a new traveling companion.