Ben was adopted from the pound in 1994. We went in and asked for a puppy. They said they only had one and he was in the last cage. We walked down the aisle to the last cage and couldn't see anything. It was a huge cage and black as night. We called and whistled and a little fat, black furbaby came waddling out. We took him home and at his first vet visit the doc said he was black lab and boarder collie and would probably be very bright. Within days Ben became very sick. He had parvo. He came through that but was very weak and sick for quite a while. He fully recovered and was never sick again except for a bout of what the doc said was 'doggie flu'. He did do a stint in jail though. At age 2 he disappeared. We looked for weeks and checked the pound daily. After 7 months we get a call from the local pound. They had picked him up, scanned him and because he had a micro chip, they were able to find us. He was smart, loving and very protective. One day our 3 year old granddaughter got out of the house. Our neighbor who knew us said Ben was right beside her. When she approached the baby to try and take her home, Ben got in front of the baby and growled and barked. He wouldn't let her near. By then we realized someone was missing and rescued the neighbor. He adored kids and accepted other animals in the house when we adopted them but didn't have a lot to do with them. He wasn't much of a fighter. He got beat up by the neighbor's weiner dog. I think that was the only fight he got into. He had 3 furbrothers Tokota, a Papillion, who has since passed on, and two poms, Buddy and Taz. He also tolerated a litter of abandoned kittens until they moved on. At the end he was partly deaf, partly blind and suffered with joint stiffness and pain. Doc thinks he had a series of strokes. I stayed up with him the night before we had to do the heartbreaking task of relieving his pain. We buried him in the back yard along with his favorite stuffed toy. We miss him very much.