M.K. Clinton's Blog: M. K. Clinton's Barking from the Bayou

Remembering Bentley

    Thereis one certainty in life and that is death. No matter how hard you try to avoidit, one day you are going to have to say good-bye to someone you love, and thepain will be unbearable. I know this because on February 3, 2024, we had to sayour last good-bye to Bentley, the best Basset Hound ever. He was 16 years and 2months old. Life will go on, but it will never be the same. This is the mostdifficult blog post that I’ve ever written. There will be tears shed andprobably some ugly crying because I am trying to continue without my soul dog.When he left us, he also left a tremendous void in my life that can never berefilled.

   Myfirst inclination is to share how much I hurt and how sad it was to let him gobut that is not what Bentley was about at all. He was 50 pounds of love, humorand happiness. 100% pure Basset joy. I know that he does not want me to be thissad. I’m trying not to be for him and Pierre. I’m going to share with you someof the wonderful memories of the most wonderful dog I’ve ever known. We have somany that it is difficult to choose the ones to share. I will let him guide meas he does with all my writing.

   Youcan read how we came to be Bentley’s family on our Bentley’s Story tab. It waslove at first sight with him and as the man whose birthday gift he was supposedto be said, “I think Melissa is supposed to have this puppy.” Truer words havenever been spoken. Bentley was born to be our dog from the #7 on his hip (hewas our 7th dog) to the inspiration for my book series. He filled myheart with a love I didn’t know I needed.

   Bentleywas the cutest little pup with enormously long ears that he tripped over thenjumped up like he meant to do a somersault. His precious gigantic paws got intoeverything! We once left him out of his kennel along with our senior GoldenRetriever, Tucker, while we ran up to the 7-11. The entire trip couldn’t havebeen over 15 minutes long. Imagine our surprise when we returned home to seeour living room carpet pulled up from the corner about 6’ out and the paddingchewed and strown all over! Tucker let us know very quickly that it was not himbut his crazy new little brother.

   Asyou look through the photos at the end of this post, you will notice only a fewpuppy favorites. I took a million pics of him that first year with my new flipphone and thankfully, Skipper took a bunch with his camera. Of course, hisdaily puppy antics were captured on my cell phone. Why aren’t I bombarding youwith all of them? That’s a very funny story…Bentley and I have always snuggledon the floor but one day as I got up, unbeknownst to me, my shiny red phonefell out of my shirt pocket. It was a bit later when I reached for my phonethat I realized it was gone and Bentley had been unusually quiet. Those twothoughts sounded alarms and I rushed to our room where Bentley sat with his bigol’ puppy dog eyes, a grin from one long ear to the other and his paws on mybeautiful phone which was now chewed into pieces. I was crushed because thiswas before “the cloud” so when pictures were lost, they were simply lost. Icried and he gave me licks which to this day makes the memory a true Bentleymoment. Much to his dismay, the rest of his life is pretty much in photographs.

   Bentleywas just too darn cute and sweet to stay mad at for more than a couple ofminutes and he used it to his advantage for 16.2 years. He could drive us crazywith his stubbornness but come put his head on your lap to apologize.Immediately all was forgiven, and we were putty in his paws. His mischief andstubbornness are now funny memories to cherish.

   Ihave a million stories over sixteen years that I’d love to share but nobody hastime for all of that so I will tell you some things you might not know abouthim. We shared a lot of his life on this blog and invite you to scroll throughsome of his funny posts. Bentley had a wonderful sense of humor. He would dothings for no other reason than to make us laugh. This realization is one of thereasons I am trying not to dwell on my grief of losing him but to beginremembering all the awesome times we shared. He would never want us to be this sadfor this long, so we are trying. It’s been three months now and I can hardlyproofread this post without breaking down. This is another reason it has takenme so long to publish my thoughts.

·       Bentley taught himselfto sit up. He was just a little guy when he came and sat up in front of us as ifhe wanted to join our conversation. His posture was impeccable, and he couldsit for long periods of time. I posted a pic of him sitting up on Twitter yearsago and some guy messaged me to say he’d made a meme from my photo. It wentviral and still gets thousands of likes/shares. If you ever see it, you can say“I know that good boy!” The caption reads, “Enough is enough, Stephanie. I needto know who the good boy is. My patience is worn thin.”

·       Belly rubs were life,and he would not hesitate to throw himself belly up in front of friends andstrangers if he thought they were good for a scratch. My husband would pretendto shoot him with his finger, and he’d walk over and play dead at Skipper’s feet, so he’d rubhis tummy. Bentley and I started our mornings on the floor with his head on myshoulder while I rubbed his belly. We did this for 16.2 years and I miss thatmore than words can explain.

·       He loved to travel andwent to Nashville, Las Vegas and even toured the Grand Canyon. Road trips werefun for him, and he was a great passenger. He only howled once in his life, andit was when he was excited to go to the park. We began to howl, and he joinedin for just a minute.

·      Foodwas important to Bentley, and he was an expert beggar. This caused him to bequite overweight as a young dog. We met Ms. Wendy from Dr. Harvey’s at ablogging conference in 2015, and it changed our lives. We became brandambassadors that day and he began eating Canine Health along with some of theirsupplements. He dropped 20 pounds and maintained a great weight for the rest ofhis life. Vets could not believe how healthy he was in his senior years.Several told us they’d never seen a Basset Hound his age in such great shape! PLEASENOTE: I credit Dr. Harvey’s exceptional food and supplements for Bentley’slongevity. We have never had a dog live such a long and healthy life. We arecontinuing our ambassadorship with Pierre because he needs to live at least 16years and know this food and supplements gives him the best chance!

·      Everynight Bentley would do the “Basset Hound Shuffle” and run ahead of us to hisbed so he could get his bedtime treat delivered. We always said it was hisversion of a mint on his pillow. He never missed a single night. As he aged,he’d go to bed around 9:00pm and we’d stay up. They eat at 11:00pm due toPierre’s IBD so at 10:20 pm, he’d get up and come sit with us so we’d know thathe knew we should be thinking about feeding them. He’d eat, do his outside businessand go back to bed. At 12:30a.m. if we were still up, he’d poke his head aroundthe corner and give us “the look”. Most times, we’d get up, get his nighttimetreat and all go to bed. If we stayed up later, he’d continue checking on usuntil in desperation, he’d come out of our room, sit in the doorway and beganto “sigh” deeply as only he could manage. It’s a wonder we know when to doanything anymore. He was our literal watchdog.

·      Bentleyhad his favorite people and if you were one of the lucky ones, he loved youwith his entire heart. Our family was everything to him. He loved our son somuch that as a puppy, he used to tinkle just a bit whenever he came in thefront door. I am so glad that his daughters were able to know and love Bentley.He made himself their personal protector and sat in the doorway of theirplayroom after seeing what they were doing. They might be our granddaughters,but they were HIS girls!

   Our daughter was one of his special loves.He adored her from day one and the feeling was mutual. She surprised us with avisit in December, so he was able to get lots of love and belly rubs from hissister. Best surprise ever!

·      Bentleyhad two dog best friends. When he was a puppy, Tucker the Golden Retriever washis role model. He was able to teach him how to stalk squirrels, eat acorns, alertus to snakes and how to be a good boy. When Tucker left us, we were lost. Hehad been our Golden Child and we missed him terribly. Bentley missed him evenmore if that’s possible. Believe me, there is nothing sadder than a depressedBasset Hound. That was when Pierre came to stay with us. The difference inBentley was stunning. He was smiling and running around for the first time inweeks. We found ourselves smiling and laughing again along with them. Pierre belongedto our daughter, who was getting married and moving to Alaska. It was decidedthat Pierre would stay with us. Bentley had a new best friend, and we were onceagain a happy family of four.

·      Webought a laser light for Pierre one Christmas because he is so cat-like in someof his actions, we thought he’d love it. Much to our surprise, it was Bentleywho loved chasing the light around. He’d tap Skipper’s leg and go look at wherewe kept the laser. He enjoyed the laser more than any other toy.

·      Mywriting career began because of Bentley and the #7 on his side. We knew he wasgiven to us for a reason but couldn’t figure it out. Sitting in the backyardone day, my husband called Bentley, “#7”. He pointed out the perfect 7 on ourpuppy’s left hip. It was so obvious. As we looked in awe at his number, wequickly realized he was our 7th dog. Kind of freaky, right? We contactedSeagrams 7 and 7-Up thinking he’d be the perfect advertisement. Fate knows bestand it wasn’t long before the idea of an F.B.I. agent with a badge #7 who diesand comes back as a Basset Hound was born.

   Once I began writing his story it flowedlike a river. I’d wake up in the night with The Returns talking to me and wouldhave to write things down. Bentley has always “talked” to us, but he was reallyenjoying spinning this story. The second book, The Returns 2 ~ Showstoppers,included THE quote that has become famous all over the world. It’s been inmagazines, books, and painted on the side of a pet store. I’m listed in the 50Famous Dog Quotes between Agatha Christie and Charles deGaulle! I can promiseyou that would never have happened if it hadn’t been for Bentley. That is whywhen I say, “He changed my life.” I mean he actually changed my life. I willhave a quote that will live on long after I join him in our next forever. I amvery proud of this accomplishment, but the credit always goes to Bentley and Inever failed to tell him whenever I’d see it published.

·      Ibegan my blog as an Indie author with book reviews, etc. It wasn’t long after Ibegan that I discovered pet blogging was a thing. It was perfect for me becauselike most pet parents, there is nothing I love more than talking about my dogsand showing off photos of them.

Asa blogging Basset, Bentley was hilarious. The boys did a BFTB NETWoof News eachweek that drew in hundreds of viewers. We did regular product reviews for Dr.Harvey’s, Chewy, Treatibles, Pridebites, along with hundreds of independent toys,shampoos, chews and treats. The Bayou Boys never missed out on any new dogproducts and were considered authorities by many of our readers. The boysaccompanied us to two blogging conferences. We walked the Red Carpet with them,and they loved all the attention. One of our favorite memories was walking intoa room with the boys where people would say “Hey! It’s Bentley and Pierre!”They never once said, “Hey! It’s Melissa and Skipper!” The Bayou Boys werestars and the perfect comedy duo.

·       Bentley was terrifiedof thunderstorms and fireworks. We used to nap during the evening if a storm wasexpected overnight because we knew there would not be any sleeping until thethunder passed. Thankfully, when we moved to Houston six years ago, thethunderstorms were much less severe, and he only had to endure a few before hishearing allowed him to ignore the noise.

·       Bentley loved beingclean so bathtime was never a problem. He used to climb in the tub for me. The funniestthing was his love of having his teeth brushed. If he was in the yard and Iwanted him to come inside, all I had to do was show him his toothbrush and he’dcome running. Our vets were also always impressed with his pearly whites.

   I know Bentley’s passing seemed sudden to mostof you and I apologize for the shock. We noticed a lump on the back of his rightthigh last November. A trip to the vet confirmed our worst fear. He had softcell carcinoma and because of the tumor’s location along with his age, it wasinoperable. Our vet told us to take him home and love him for as long as we hadwith him. I chose not to tell everyone because sharing it on social media wouldmake it too real. He acted fine and although he slowed down considerably, hewas happy, loving and oh so loved until his last breath. I’ve put off writingthis blog post not just because it is so painful, but it once again makes ittoo real. My baby boy is gone, and we have to try to be okay until we see himagain.

   I could honestly write about our lives togetherfor another sixteen years. I loved every dog and cat that has left pawprintsdeep in my heart, but Bentley was different. He was my soul dog and I thinklife only gives you one of those dogs if you’re very lucky. The moment Bentleycame into my life, I became the luckiest person in the world. He made me abetter human and personified my quote:

“The world would be a nicerplace if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.”

Forever Bentley

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