MY dog

Every year, I try to get a picture of Hopper and his dog Mr. Bean because they are pretty much the same age. We adopted Mr. Bean as a 6 week old pup just a few days before we went into the hospital to have Hop (see the dictionary entry for "questionable judgment"). Normally, I try to do this photo shoot right around their birthdays, but we went through a period where Hopper would  a)refuse to acknowledge Mr. Bean's presence and b) scream if made to be within five feet of the dog. Yes, I appreciate the irony that the firstborn son of a bonafide crazy dog lady regularly asks me if we can have a cat instead.

Recently, though, the tides have started to turn. It started I guess when we were fostering O'Malley and Fergus was still with us. The boys would assign everyone their own animal. Hudson is Daddy's, The Old One is Mama's, O'Malley is Rowan's and Mr. Bean is Hopper's.  Then O'Malley left for his new home and Fergus died which threw everything for a loop. When the new pup joined us Rowan made sure to claim Possum  as his own and not to be left out, Hopper makes sure that everyone knows, "Mr. Bean is MY DOG." This, as you might imagine, is a bit of a sea change for Bean who has spent the last five years trying to learn how to meow.

At any rate, a wee bit late, are this year's photos of Hop and Bean who might eventually be friends.

You can check out earlier pix here, and Here, and here's last years when we were full on in the "I want a CAAAAAT" mode. There's more, but you get the idea..