Bea’s First Sleepover

Our friends went out of town for the holiday, and asked us to watch their dog, Leah. Leah (if you don’t recall – or even if you do), is Bea’s best friend (and on again off again lesbian lover). Leah is the only dog that gets Bea to play, which usually involves some chasing, some rolling around, and some mounting. “On again off again” also describes their typical afternoon together.




Oh baby! That's the stuff.


This weekend, Leah did two things for us. One, allowed our dog to act like a dog. Two, reminded us how lucky we are.

Leah is adorable – she always wants to play, and her “sit” is one of the cutest I’ve seen. She can be a handful; she’s almost 2, and clearly has the energy of a puppy (maybe several puppies?) Sara and I are pretty sedentary people, so having an excited dog would be difficult for us. But the thing about Leah that makes us really value Bea is Leah’s bowel control.

I have gotten annoyed by Bea’s finicky nature when it comes to where to poop and when. I am NOT looking forward to the long walks in cold weather while she decides on the perfect patch of grass. But Leah is the opposite. She will poop or pee anywhere. The middle of the street, on someone’s front steps – even in our bedroom (thank god for hardwood floors). And that’s something I just couldn’t deal with long term.

I understand that Leah is nervous to be away from her owners, and that doesn’t help. You can’t explain to a dog that its owners will return in a few days – each time the owners go away, there’s a part of the dog that assumes they’ll never be back.

But she also just pees and poops an awful lot, regardless of where her owners are, and that’s part of her personality. What Leah really showed us this weekend is that all dogs have their issues. Maybe your dog is food aggressive or barks each morning or is terrified of socks. Every person has their idiosyncrasies, and so do our dogs.

And while we’d love for Bea to be willing to chase a ball, friendlier when she meets other dogs, and not terrified of delivery men, all told she is a wonderful dog.

People often tell us that Bea is lucky we adopted her. So are we.




The girls playing together.