A Prince Born of India?

Well, as much as I’d like to say that dream had come true, the new Indian adoption procedures still need to iron themselves out and Pat and I continue to get older, so we must be contented with our family size as is for now. Well, sort of. In the meantime, we’ve adopted a Prince Born of Colorado who just happens to have an Indian name. Meet Bengal! He is our 9 month old greyhound pup. 

BENGAL!

Though we were not quite ready for a dog, I’m a sucker for anything Indian related and taking his name as a sign, look what I got us into this time! Arriving at the airport shortly after his arrival, we could hear the unmistakable roo of a greyhound permeating the cargo warehouse. Image our surprise when the huge garage doors rolled up revealing a pet carrier that measured about the size of a Mini Cooper. Having raised adult greys before, I was aware of their size, but had no idea what size a pup of his age might be. That would be....LARGE! The staff all came out to witness his grand entrance into our family. Pat opened the carrier, snapped on his leash and like a majestic procession, he emerged in all of his animal glory, prancing out to the first available patch of grass. At first sight, he looked so much like our Cayenne that he took my breath away. With feet the size of luncheon plates and long gangly legs to grow into, he is all ready as tall as our Konrad was as an adult - with about 1 to 2 inches in height to go.  I can barely straddle him now.

A gentle giant, he adores the girls and follows them where ever they go. Treya is just tall enough to drape her arm over his back and walks everywhere with him, though there is no doubt who is walking whom. This is remarkable, considering how she normally responds to animals of any kind, recalling the disaster of the  “pig incident” last September at the state fair. She loves to put her face on his back and say, “Take my pichur!” or “I lub my puppy dor eder and eder!” Devi kept time by sleeps until he arrived and hasn’t stopped smiling the whole time. She loves his soft fur and can sit uninterrupted for an hour petting his head cooing to him and telling him what a good boy he is and how much she loves him. 

So excited to have him loaded in OUR car!

 

All the excitement wore everyone out on the long drive home.

Apparently, he was leash trained by a 7 year old girl and once that fact was disclosed, it sort of sealed the deal for us. We were going to adopt another retired racer like we had in the past, but because all the tracks in our area have closed, to find a dog young enough be a vital family member until the girls were near young adult hood and to find one that had exposure with children all ready was proving to be an difficult task until our Bengali Boy was found. Immediately, the search for the perfect middle name came up. It is still open to debate, as so far we have Devi’s suggestion Bengal Beautiful and Treya’s choice Bengal Baked Potato to choose from. Definitely, a work in progress. 

So far he has gotten car sick twice, had an *ahem* accident inside three times, has chewed on our house plants, stolen one of Treya’s shoes, climbed into the shower with me, tasted a night stand and fallen over in the fetal position upon spotting another small puppy. No doubt he needs some training and maturity, but he’s captured our hearts all ready in the two days he has been home. Watching as he played bubbles with the girls the other day, and how he lovingly lets them hang on him, I know he will be our perfect fit. Pat is thrilled to have a little more testosterone in the house, feeling out numbered most of the time. Me?  I’m just thrilled that we are once again a dog family. In just two short days he has brought more laughter with his funny antics than we’ve heard in a long time and the girls are loving their new responsibilities in caring for a pet...including scooping the P**P! 

Welcome to the family Bengal_____? Suggestions gladly taken :)