04/05/2025
We had to say an unexpected and hard goodbye to Ben, our foster pup.
I have regrets as a foster mom. Most of them can be brushed off with a "live and learn." Some are much harder lessons and will stick with me forever. One that I am struggling with the most right now is that I didn't share the joy that is Ben with you all earlier. Since I didn't know when he would be available for adoption, I was afraid to get perspective adopters excited. There was no doubt in my mind that our Little Toad Man would steal hearts. I was gatekeeping the adorable antics of this snorting bulldog, and that is my regret. From now on, I will make sure I share the smiles and the stories as they unfold. Ben deserved to have gotten to be loved by each and every one of you. I apologize for not allowing that to happen.
While he is not a familiar face to you, we have gotten to love him for over 2 months. After seeing his adorable face sitting on the rescue's Trello board as an available foster for nearly a month, my curiosity finally peeked, and I reached out to find out what the deal was. Normally, French Bulldogs are claimed by fosters before they arrive at the rescue. It turned out that not only was Bengel dealing with bronchitis/kennel cough, but he also had some undiagnosed potty issues, resulting in him sitting in a cage bank for most of the time he had been with SFC. He had gone out to foster for a couple of days but was returned because they couldn't deal with how many accidents he was having. I said, "Sounds like my kind of pup," and made arrangements to pick him up.
Without getting too detailed with Ben's medical history, because he was much more than that, we quickly realized he had a somewhat unique situation with his undercarriage that would need to be surgical assessed but was probably a cause for Ben's constant urine dribble. We needed to wait until he got over his nasty upper respiratory infection before he could make it out to the vet. In the meantime, it became even more apparent that even though Ben was estimated to be about 5 years old, he was not housebroken, which was something we could immediately get to work on. We just needed to give him a little more grace due to his physical issue. While we reinforced good behaviors, Ben rewards us by keeping us entertained. We were in for the long haul, and our mop got a lot of extra use.
Though Ben had some physical complications, he was never down about anything. He was playful, happy, and the life of the party (even if he was the only one partying). He loved everyone. Ben's favorite game was chasing toes, much to some of the resident animals' chagrin. No footsies were safe. Even when he was annoying, you really couldn't help but laugh with him. Ben just didn't let you have a bad day. Ben went through 2 surgeries while he was in our care and never skipped a bear.
Last week, we had a big trip down to Florida planned, and though I hate passing off my foster buddies, we truly could not fit everyone in the van. So, the day before we headed out, we passed Ben off to another loving foster family to watch him until our return. He was going to have so much more fun hanging with some more puppy pals over spending a large percentage of time back in a cagebank back if he was at HQ. During our time away, I received loving photo updates and it was obvious Ben was having a blast. Thank you, Ana, for making sure he got to enjoy his week with you. We didn't know it would be his last, but I know he had a good time to the very end.
Sadly, on the last day of our trip, I got a text message and a follow-up phone call that Ben was in distress. I quickly made arrangements through my friend Sabrina, with an assist from Amber, to get him back to HQ, where he would be assessed. (Thank you both for dropping what you were doing to prioritize Ben). I was hopeful that Ben had a seizure and with some supportive care would make a recovery. That obviously was not the route things went, and he soon passed after his arrival to HQ.
I hate that I wasn't able to hold him and comfort him at the end. I hate that I didn't give him a proper goodbye. I had no idea that we would not be seeing each other again. We miss him dearly. We miss his snorts and snores. We miss dodging the toe chomps. We miss every little inch of his foul little being. We were so lucky to get to love him and are proud to have gotten to provide him with his last home.
I dropped off Ben to be privately cremated this afternoon and will bring him home to rest.
