Bean and friends

So Jayme and I where out of town this weekend and lucky we have some great co-workers who willingly offered to watch after Bean. Now, they already have three dogs: Tadou, Bouba, and Kitty... they also where dog sitting Prada... and they have a cat... and three monkeys. No, no monkeys but a house full of crazy dogs yes. We took Bean over to 'meet-and-greet' the weekend before so it wouldn't be too much of a shock to his (or their) system. He did great. When playing with Tadou (a 130 half Lab half Newfoundland) he would stand on his hind legs and fight with his paws and teeth. It was quite a funny site, Bean trying to act big, and Tadou trying to figure out what in the WORLD Bean was doing. Did I mention that Bouba is a Newfoundland puppy? That likes to grab onto tails and 'go for a ride'? They would gang up on one another happily gnawing away on each others necks only to pause when the treat jar opened. As if to say "We would like to listen to you, but while we are playing the only things that concern us are not losing this fight and food".

After a weekend away we came back to find Bean (and his watchers) in one solid piece, only to be told that "Man does that dog having a lot of energy". We coulda told you that. He did well, and we (Bean and I) are settling in quite nice at our new apartment with a REAL backyard... with a fence!

My Dog the Cat

So after about a week of adjusting to his new lifestyle at 316 1/2 Court St, Bean and I are traveling onward (or eastward) to a new apartment. Two bedrooms, a basement, full kitchen, full living room and even more important... a fenced in backyard. It was a steal of a price, only $100 more that my one bedroom half living room/half kitchen. While the cost maybe not come at the best time, Bean's timing could not have been better. I took him over there today, and he was a little tentative. He's probably nervous that I am going to just dump him or leave him at another Humane Society. How little does he realize that he is just going to have three times as much space to terrorize us in.

Tonight Jayme and I where sitting around, and Jayme was typing on the computer when all of the sudden... Bean starts crawling on TOP of the futon. Now... you think to yourself "Well that doesn't sound too strange", but take a closer look at the photo. He had all four of his legs up and on a six inch cushion. He actually sat up there for awhile while Jayme was on the computer. So I'm now determined to teach this dog to do some crazy things. If anyone knows how to teach a dog acrobatics, or a good book please send it my way and I promise to post photos of Bean back-flipping.

The Misadventures of Bean

With the addition of Bean into our lives I thought it would be good to catalog our events and show some photographs of his misdoings. I think the best place to start is why we even got him. The weekend before we adopted him we almost got a Newfoundland puppy. A co-worker of ours had gracefully given us the option to have him bring one back from Nebraska. We sat after work and after about an hour of talking we decided we wanted the puppy. Only.. we weren't sure that my landlord would agree with me adding a 180 pound to his complex was a good idea. We couldn't get a hold of him... and we had to turn down the offer of a puppy. We were both really disappointed... and both got on the internet to find a new puppy to adopt! I've always wanted a Bernese dog so I typed it in in petfinder and up came our Bean. Jayme wanted a smaller dog... but I convinced her that we needed to meet this dog.

We met him at the shelter in Jerseyville, IL about an hour north of where we live. After going up and meeting him... and more talking... and me prodding Jayme into thinking that he was going to be cute, cuddly, and well-behaved (we'll see if I pay up on that promise). So here are few photos that commerate that day and it's tiny journey!