Our life is full of Beans!

Our second pound puppy arrived a few years back. I had been thinking of getting a second dog to keep our Pomeranian, Zeke company.  We'd been making visits to the Humane Society but not necessarily to bring home another dog.  One such day I said to my daughters as we arrived at the local shelter "We're only bringing home another dog if we find a female black pomeranian."  We entered the small dog room and there was a male black pom mix.  He looked kind of dejected.  Not like the other very happy, overly excitable pom mix puppy.  This black pom was 3.5 years old and named Prince.  We decided, as he quietly watched us with his big dark eyes, that he was going to be the next member of our household.  We made the arrangements for the meet and greet between him and our other dog, for the next day.

I was a little worried as we arrived the following day because Zeke hadn't been around many other dogs and I didn't know how he'd react to this new guy.  To our amazement, they seemed to take to each other fairly well and so we went home with another little dog.  

After much thought, our daughters decided on the name Beans.  Don't ask me why, we just didn't think the name Prince fit him and Beans did.

It took a few days before Zeke and Beans seemed to bond.  Zeke is definitely my guy, so he gets a little jealous if anyone invades his space by me.  They wrestled a bit but seemed to get along pretty well.

Beans fit right in with our routine.  If someone is taking a nap or sleeping in, Beans is right there with them.  He loves car rides and seems to get along with most everyone.  They warned us that he didn't like cats and we do have cats, but he never seemed violent towards them.  More like he regards them as something to chase.  Especially if they are slinking past him.  There's something about a slinking cat that really gets his attention!

Beans is not a beggar, at least not like Zeke.  He'll lie patiently on the floor at dinnertime, waiting for any scrap that Dad might throw his way.

Beans is usually a little love but he can get snarly or snappy on certain occasions.  One of these occasions is when he's sleeping.  He's fine if you want to pet him, but if you try to move him you're going to get snapped at.  I know.  He likes to go to bed early with my husband and sleep on my side of the bed.  When I come to bed he doesn't want to move and lets me know.  Luckily my husband, whom Beans adores, can just pull him over to his side without any fuss as Beans gives me the evil eye.  He also doesn't like being poked and prodded at the vet.  He doesn't like us to cut any mats off of him, so we make sure we let the groomer deal with that.

Beans can spot a pill a mile away.  We try to hide it in food and he'll eat around it.  I have to cut it into several extremely small pieces and hide it in wet food, while I continue to give him more food at the same time.  He'll be so busy trying to finish his food, so he gets more that he'll eat those small pieces.

Beans also thinks he can take on any dog no matter what size.  He gets along great with Zeke but he wants to rip apart the big dogs across the street.

Another thing with Beans is he's not that smart.  He will sit on command and he's pretty good at catching treats when you toss him one but any other tricks just seem beyond his comprehension.  I really think he's probably smarter than all of us.  He knows that all he has to do is sit there while Zeke does every trick in the book and then if he raises his paw half an inch off the floor we'll give him a treat too.  After all we can't give Zeke a treat and not Beans.  Right?  He's also trained us that if we want a good nights rest we'd better have a bowl of water and food in our room, since they sleep in there with us.  If not, around midnight, he'll make an obnoxious growling noise that gets louder and more persistent until you can't ignore it.  All because he needs a midnight snack.  Yes, I know we should train them better but we're lazy.
Another thing that Beans has done is train my husband to walk them when he tells him to.  My hubby used to walk them at about 9:30 pm.  One day Beans decided they needed to start walking at 8:30.  He would bark and jump up until hubby gave in and took them out.  Before long the walk barking started at 8 and then 7:30, 7 and now sometimes even before 6 pm.  I say to my husband, why don't you wait until you're ready and he'll say "I'm sure Beans needs to poop, so I have to take him now."  You can tell who's trained who...

Ever since we brought him home he's done something that I think maybe he learned from his previous owner.  When someone comes home he runs as fast as he can to get a toy, preferably a soft material squeaky toy.  Then he'll come running with it in his mouth squeaking it nonstop.  He'll just run past you back and forth squeaking the toy.  It's so funny if  you look in the window as you're on the porch, unlocking the door you will see Beans dart off as fast as he can to find a toy.  If he can't find it in one direction he'll run past and look in the other.

He might be a grumpy little guy, but we love our Beans.  He makes us smile and he's been a wonderful addition to our family.  We can't imagine life without him.  Here's a few photos of our little guy.

This is shortly after he joined our family.  He's put on some weight, since then, due to too many treats and midnight snacks!

Beans and Zeke having fun in the snow.

Happy Brothers!

As you noticed, we don't have too many pictures of Beans on his own because Zeke always wants to be the star of the show.