Front Porch Stories: A New Puppy

By KATHY BOHANNON, Special to The Coweta Shopper

We lost our precious little Winston this past May. He was a Boston Terrier and full of personality.

Winston stayed busy building what we called “Bonehenge”. It was a daily exercise in construction that meant retrieving all of his chewy bones into the middle of the living room. Sometimes they were configured in a straight line, other times they were in a circle or oval. Once the pattern was complete, he often just curled up in the middle of his work and took long naps.

Winston hired help, though not actually “good” help. His crew consisted of Bear and Bear. They were stuffed bears, both of which were missing an arm. We are pretty sure the loss of limbs was a result of some insubordination on the jobsite.

“Winnie” was six years old when he had a massive seizure that he never recovered from. It was awful, horrible and traumatic to witness.

His best friend Miele was still at our side and did her best to comfort us after the loss. But Miele is my Velcro dog and didn’t share the amount of love that Winston offered to my husband.

Winston was infatuated with John. He followed him everywhere and sat in his lap for hours on end. In the nearly 50 years I’ve known him, John has never been partial to a dog. Winston clearly won him over.

It was July when we began searching for another Boston. We wanted a rescue, and my friend Denise helped us find a perfect match. Rosie was in East Tennessee, currently living with a foster family while she waited for her furever home.

We jumped through all the hoops during the application process. There was the extensive application itself, many emails, then a phone call, and finally a facetime where a volunteer safety coordinator would deem us to be a safe home environment.

Once approved, we counted the days until we would meet Rosie, nose to nose. We planned to drive to Tennessee, stay overnight and return home the next day. Once we figured the cost, it was just slightly more money to hire a transport and have her brought to us.

Rosie arrived on the first Sunday in August. I was surprised at how tiny she was. She’s two years old
and had been surrendered by a breeder. We figured her surrender was due to her small size, which meant she wouldn’t produce many puppies. Whatever the reason, they are missing out on one of the smartest and sweetest pups we’ve ever known.

Rosie loves to be cuddled, loves our grandkids (they are ages 9-15) and while Winston had his construction job, Rosie builds nests.

We now have nests all over the house; blankets dragged here and there, shaped into a circle, and at any given time Rosie is in the center, snoozing away.

She has also filled the property that used to house Bonehenge with all of her stuffed animals, even the huge baby Yoda that sits proudly beside the dog bed in the living room. She will grab it by the ear and drag it until she is happy where it is. She often falls asleep on top of it.

Rosie has brightened every single hour of every one of our days since she arrived. While we will always miss Winston, we feel blessed with this little 16-pound pup.

I’m not sure who rescued who, but we are thankful she’s home with us.

Kathy Bohannon is a Christian humorist and inspirational speaker. She can be reached at [email protected].