Entry date: Late June - 2025 - Bentley and Frank

Dear Friends,

It's hard to imagine getting home from Maine and our dog, Bentley, not being there. I certainly didn't think the goodbye I said to him and the little pat on the head back on Memorial Day weekend was the last one. I was just kind of getting used to the idea of Frank not being there and now Benny, too.

One of the things I always looked forward to about getting home is how excited Benny and Frank would be to see me. It has been tempered, sure, in the past couple of years as they were both very old little dudes, but at least I was happy to see them. As several of you mentioned to me the past couple of days, this is the hardest part about sharing your life with animals. They age so much faster than we do.

We had to help both of them move onto the next realm of energy in the past five weeks and while I am relieved to know they are not having to deal with being blind and deaf and not really interested in much of anything anymore, there was that comfort in knowing they were there. I loved them both.

We got 15 years with Bentley and 14 with Frank. That's a really good run and I am thankful for them both. Rosie was the third member of the little dog troika, but she died back in 2022, I think.

I'll miss them all forever.

Bentley when we first got him in 2010.