Thursday, March 5, 2015

He Ain’t No Benny

In case you haven't been reading for a while (she said tongue in cheek), you may not know that Benjamin and Luna passed away over the summer, subsequently Henry had some health problems and is now blind. Ok, glad we caught you all up.

It is funny how all the puggers were so different in talents and personality. Luna was a little spitfire, alpha female who was quick to capture the love of many mostly be she had a "story" while Baby Benny was most known for his velvety wrinkles and in person, he simply loved you unconditionally (and he love all the ladies the same---with all his heart and oozing sweetness). Henry has been more of an adventurer and possessed a certain wisdom that neither of the others had. But what this is really about is the NOSE.

If we were to rate the quality of their sniffers, it would be that Benny would hold the top spot smooshy heads and curly tails above all the rest. Then it would be Luna who would mostly spot out only super stinky stuff. Then at long last, Henry pulling up the rear as we have wondered if he had any sniffer at all! I mean, c'mon Hank, are you even a dog with your lousy nose?! Just kidding! We know you are a dog, but holy moly pug.

In fairness, this comparison was pre-loss of B & L and post Henry going blind. NOW, Henry's nose works in double time. Don't get me wrong, his nose in no way can hold a candle to Benny on his most congested day but Henry is starting to pick up the pace that he needs to keep in touch with the world at large. You see, if a crumb of a crumb of a cheerio would make it's way under the oven, Benjamin would scratch and whine and throw a fit until he got that fleck of cheerio. It would not be uncommon that we would be stooped down by the oven with a flashlight and a yard stick to try to fish out whatever tiny tidbit of food may have made its way under there. We would not be able to spot the item and would tell Ben that there was nothing there and he would argue his point more staunchly. He'd be ever so demanding in his point. And invariably he was correct! We were never right. There was ALWAYS something to be found if Benjamin told us so. I'm telling you, he really should have been one of those narcotic sniffing dogs or dogs that find dead bodies. (ew) We'd never go for that but he would have been GREAT! We helped him miss his calling.

Luna, too had a pretty good sniffer. But seriously, unless it was fish guts, bird poop, cow manure or some other equally delightful disgust she didn't have much interest. But she could still smell it from a mile away.

And then like I said, poor Henry. Unless you literally put it on his nose, he would likely not even know it was there. It was crazy. Now, though this is how we find Henry in the house. We listen closely to hear where he is because all he does these days is sniff. And it is pretty loud. It's like he has to take really deep breaths to suck in the air so that he has a chance of catching a whiff. On a windy day now though, he will change the course of his route by being pulled off into a whole different direction because he caught a pleasing scent. This is rare, though. We are still having to hold his dinner bowl in front of his nose just so he knows it's dinnertime. If that was Benny, you could put the bowl down in the garage with 4 doors closed in between and he'd try to claw his way from room to room to make his way to the meal.

Henry may be #HenryStrong, but his nose ain't no Benny nose! #HenryKeepSniffing #StilLoveASnifferlessPug