What is a Crafty Hippo?

While I would love to tell you that I have always loved him, I cannot.  He was once my arch-nemesis. But, I'll tell you a little about this boy and how he became the Crafty Hippo.  

Do you know the bond between a boy and his dog?  What about a dog that is so cute that it's hardly legal?  Chris, my awesome fiance wanted a bulldog.  All of the bulldog owners out there know just how much these precious little wrinkles cost.  College kids just don't afford these expenses.  Just the name "Bulldog" is expensive, not to mention the on-going care, and attention.  

Bean and his boy.

Bean with his Aunt Lindsey

Bean was one of 2 puppies, in a first time litter.  He was in a shed with his mother and sibling, when the power went out, and his mother and sibling froze to death in the middle of winter.  Bean comes from a champion blood line with all the papers to prove it.  Was was sold very cheap because the vet told the breeder that he would have bad knees.  Chris didn't care.  He had a little friend to play with and keep him company.  Chris couldn't decide what to call him.  Was he a Sherman or a Bean?  Eventually Bean won out, but he still says that the next bulldog in our lives will be Sherman.  

Bean instantly stole the hearts of everyone he met.  He lived with his Aunt Lindsey until Chris got an apartment that allowed Dogs.

Baby Bean, looking adorable

As Bean got older he developed more and more quarks.  He has a real knack for staring at random inanimate objects.  He has more personality than he really should. He huffs, snorts, and turns his back when he is mad.  He dances when he is happy, or when you come home, or a child is near. He knows the command to sit, but rarely follows it, even under his own conditions. He is fiercely jealous, and very territorial.  He holds grudges worse than any human woman I have ever known.... but he learned to love me, with bribery.

Cocoa and Rylie, the Sisters

Bean eventually got a clean bill of health from a specialized Bulldog Vet.  They said his knees were loose, because he hadn't yet grown into them.  He grew up healthy, and then one day...

His Daddy met a girl.  They fell in love and moved in together.  This did not sit well with Bean.  She had things that smelled like her.  

His new evil step mommy had other children.  A fluffy little Papillon/Pomeranian mix and a Boxer, who came from a rescue and lacked all socialization and manners. His sister's were already very much a duo.  Rylie is too silly to understand Bean's delicate boundaries.   Bean was an only child, he did not have to play with other puppies, or share attention with them, much less an evil step mother taking his daddy's time!  

Bean fought hard against the changes.  He fought his mommy, chased his sisters, pee'd on everything that belonged to that evil mommy.  Mommy would clean one thing, and he would pee on the next. He could corner the little fluffy sister and wipe his drool on her.  He would eat the girl's food, and get mad at them if they tried to eat.  He was a jerk.  The first time that I met Bean, he scratched my leg and I was bleeding.

 One night when Chris was at work, I put Bean in his room.  It was the laundry room with a baby gate at the door, and his warm fluffy bed. I was laying in bed, watching some TV when I hear a sound.... It was a scratching and it sounded like something was in the wall... Was it Mice?!  But then I knew, Bean.... Chris had told me that Bean was mad about moving into the new house together and recently started an old habit - chewing dry wall. So, I thought that I was going to teach him a lesson.  I would put him in Rylie's metal crate. "Try chewing out of that." I thought.  So I went and got his bed and put it in the crate, then I went back and opened the gate and he RAN! I stepped and tried to grab his collar, but I slipped in a drool trap that he left for me.  I hit my head on the tile and my knee on the door jam.  I screamed his name.... and then he knew. He ran right into his crate, with his ears back and put his head down.  I locked the kennel, cleaned the drool off of myself and the floor and called his father.  "Your son...." is how I started, and recanted my story.  Chris just laughed because he knew Bean was capable of it all.

Chris and I bought a house, and we moved, I got a "Lady Cave," Its like a man cave, but its for ladies, and that's where I craft.  I also have my Scentsy there.  When I craft, I put some music on, relax, enjoy my Scentsy, and do a craft, or 10.  I like to think that Bean enjoys the ambiance and comes in a sleeps. He is in 1 of 2 places.  He is laying right over the vent in the summer, or on my feet in the winter.  We started to bond, at least I liked to think so.  I would give him treats, and brush him until he fell asleep. He started to listen to me a little, but only when he felt like it.  He follows me around, and sometimes even comes to me and asks for loves.

When he sleeps, he curls up his paws below him and looks like a little hippo, coming up from the water, with his fluffy little jowls just flapping while he snores.....  But things have gotten so much better.  He doesn't act out or bite at me anymore.  He just lays near me, and sleeps.  He is very much still a daddy's boy, but he is coming around.