Beautiful Baby Ben - One More Time

This is the first color sketch that I did of Ben and I think I will draw sketches of him many, many times. He is my "buddy" who lies happily on my left hip when I am in the chair and quietly on my left side on the rare occasions that he is allowed in the bed.

Ben was an unexpected acquisition. Two of our dogs had been accidentally killed one evening when they escaped from the yard. I still don't understand how they managed to get out of all the careful security that I added to the gate, but they did. One of the dogs was the companion of Alice, my first doxie. She was grief stricken without her best friend and the other household pets were well aware of the two missing spirits. Alice got more and more sad and I became more and more depressed.

I was surrounded by pets that were aging and starting to have health problems. I was struggling with my own problems with aging and significant changes in my health status. In addition, I had recently left my career due to circumstances beyond my control and was unsure of how I was going to add any substantial income to our home. My mother, as well as a dear friend of many years died around the same time. And, to add to my distress, my long-term partner decided on a life change that ended our relationship. It was a difficult few years.

My friends and family thought that the addition of some "new life" might help me maintain my mental health and more successfully survive the recent losses. Thus, Benjamin came into my life. His mother's name was "Fanci" and he was the only puppy in the litter. I fell in love immediately! Alice, however, was not as pleased with his addition to the household. After all, she was twelve years old and he was nine weeks old! Alice was tolerant of Ben's attempts to play but found his needle-sharp, puppy-teeth to be an irritation to her ears, lips, feet and tail. Through it all, she contained her irritation and good-naturedly played with him.

It quickly became apparent that Alice's energy level was not up to Ben's standards. What to do? Why, get another puppy so Ben can have a friend! It didn't take us long to find Yeshe, a black and tan doxie, just a bit younger than Ben. Yeshe was the perfect solution - Ben had a friend to play with, and Alice, now relieved from her responsibility of being the "big sister," could watch from a distance while the little boys chewed one another's ears and left her to rest.

Ben and Yeshe are three years old now, Alice's muzzle is white, she's a bit deaf, can't see as well, and walks with some difficulty. Two of my cats have died in the interim, and Mittens, whose big eyes you can see in the upper right of this page, is getting frail. She has passed her 16th birthday and the signs and symptoms indicate say that she probably won't see her 17th. After Alice and Mittens leave us, we will learn to manage without them. All of us will mourn but we will adjust to the space that their spirits will leave. Their urns will join those of P.J., Miss Ninny, Crow, Gertie, Maxx, and Dolly.

Over time, I will post sketches of the other animals who live with us. A little bit of Yeshe has already appeared in the drawings of Ben. Pumpkin (feline) and Christy (my avian companion), are more difficult to draw but I will do my best to share their shapes and their spirits. Even though they are older than "the boys," I think they will be around long enough for me to get a lot of practice in.