This page is a tribute to my dear sweet bean as a celebration of her life. Bean was a deeply spiritual dog and taught me much about love, life and death. She will forever be in my heart.

I first met the bean when she was about 9 months old. She was a country girl living in Texas, never had been inside a house

Now, anyone who knows dobermans knows this is just not the way it should be. So bean made her way to our home in the city. If she had stayed in the country likely she would have died many years ago from injuries (she had many prompting her first visit to the city) or the neighbors who were threatening to shoot her for chasing the cattle.

Bean quickly adjusted to city life and discovered her favorite thing inthe world - BED!

She loved her new daddy

And her new mommy. Oh we all look so young!

And soon there was a new addition to the family, Hildy! Sadly after about 2 years the girls began having terrible fights and had to be separate (bean upstairs with the BED, hildy down) for the rest of beans life.

Bean moved several times, finally to Rhode Island where she spent the last nine years of her life. She adjusted well to life as a Yankee. Bean was the ultimate good girl. Bean did about three bad things in her whole life. One was eating screens, one was chasing cattle, and the last was this terrible wanderlust i believe from her early freedom in the country

Bean knew she was not allowed to go out this door! no fence, and bean would be off and running

But in the yard, that was cool!

Nothing like a good roll in the grass, especially if stinky water is involved!

When Bean was eight we discovered she had dilated cardiomyopathy. Here she is the day of her Holter monitor. Bean was on medication for the next five years and was never sick a day in her life from her heart disease

When Bean was twelve we decided to do something to Honor the Bean and we went on an adventure to Vermont!

Bean got to sleep in a canopy bed in a motel - very cool

Bean getting measured for her statue

Stephen Huneck said Bean was the nicest model he ever had

The statue of Bean was done before she was gone but she was very ill, and it hurt too much to go see it. So Janie got to go on her own Vermont adventure to pick up the statue which is now in front of our fireplace, Bean liked to be warm

In September 1999 we discovered Beans cancer. It was too late to operate it was in her lungs and it was a very aggressive sarcoma so we decided not to treat but to keep Bean comfortable. That was not hard for Bean!

One of my big regrets is we did not feed Bean what she truly loved very often. When we found out she was sick we bought her big steaks but she only could eat them a few days, it became too hard for her to swallow anything but very soft food. Her appetite was not very good so we fed her with a spoon three times a day to keep up her weight

Sometimes she just did not want to eat

But mostly she enjoyed it and especially enjoyed the attention

Did we go too far? She was given 4 weeks to live but she lived for 10 weeks because of all the hospice care we gave her. Here she is in her last days, her body swollen with tumor but doing what she loves, visiting the creek. Bean was not ready to go and we were not ready to leave her, we loved each other too much. The day before she died she went on an hour walk with her daddy. Slow but she did it. When Beans day came we knew it was time. Her last chest xray before she died showed almost no lung tissue left. We were given 2 weeks at the most, and we had 6 weeks. She hung on with just that little bit of lung because she wanted to be with us. Her last night she was just out of lungs. She could not sleep even with Valium. It was time. Her end was very peaceful in her daddys arms. Rest in peace my sweet bean I will never forget you. My last request to Bean was to send me a girl i could love as much as her, so she sent me my Janie. Thank you Bean you were the kindest, most thoughtful dog in the world.