It's
Bentley!
After eight months had passed from the untimely end of our Sable, who contracted bladder cancer, metastasized into bone cancer, from which she perished in the period of less than three months from diagnosis to her passing last fall, we finally felt ready to take on our third Long Haired German Shepherd. We went back to Westside German Shepherd Rescue's website, where we had first seen Ms. Sable, and were immediately drawn to the photo you see at right...of the dog we call Bentley.
One thing we were hoping to find was a dog that we'd be drawn to that was in middle age. After 45 years of marriage, we believed strongly that we should not adopt a dog that might be still alive when we passed away. We cannot do that to an intelligent and deeply bonded creature like a German Shepherd! Bentley seemed to be in the right age range where at least one of us would still be alive after he passed.
And so, after our interview and agreement with Westside in Los Angeles, we finalized the adoption papers and paid the fees, and at 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 16, his farewell photo you already saw on our home page was taken there, and he boarded an animal transport van for the trip up Interstate Five to Portland, where he arrived at 10 a.m. the next day.
He was a little disoriented at first; the friends he had known in his two years in rescue were gone, Southern California was gone, and he was introduced to Jane and Eric -- two people he had never met before. We are happy to report that before the first week was out he had started to develop an affectionate bond with both of us and was beginning to settle in to his forever home in Portland, Oregon.
First, photos of his arrival at a pre-arranged parking lot near Portland, via a business called "Wiggle Butt Transport", which evidently runs every week up and down the West Coast of the United States delivering animals of various sorts to those who are receiving them. The following photos were all taken by family friend Mike Sullivan; Jane and Eric were too involved in the event to get a photo of what was happening....
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| Bentley landed in Portland at 10 a.m. |
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| So this is Portland? Doesn't look too bad.... |
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And so the adventure began. Our thanks to Mike Sullivan for these excellent photos. Bentley looked more cheerful and open to this total change in his life after two years in rescue, that day, than he really felt! He started out edgy and nervous.
But he brightened his outlook and got more comfortable in his new surroundings more each day – and, by the end of the first week, he had learned his new name (at Westside German Shepherd Rescue he had been called Buster; nobody knows what his name before that might have been), and he was already in the process of bonding with Jane and Eric in his new forever home.
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BENTLEY'S FIRST TWO MONTHS IN PORTLAND
As we said, given how badly his life had apparently gone with whoever his previous owner was, he was extremely nervous around people he had not met before. His arrival in Portland was quite a shock -- he didn't know anyone he saw, and he had no idea where he was. He was very apprehensive in meeting new people initially, and would recoil if somebody reached out to him -- we think he had been slapped or hit in the past.
Every day after his first day was better; day by day he warmed up to meeting new people. He will now come up to people who want to meet him and sniff them, but -- even two months out -- he still is very nervous about people reaching out towards his face. But if they instead rub his neck, shoulders, or back, he will happily accept it.
Bentley has dined with us outdoors in front of several restaurants by this time, enjoying things to eat that he had never tasted before, and has attended a couple of meetings with Eric, and behaved very well in each one. Bentley is very strong and naturally cheerful; he can seem to prance when he is happy, and he will leap right over any obstacle that unexpectedly appears in his way.
If this dog is seven, he has very good genes!
When most other large dogs are starting to slow down, he is vigorous and powerful. His new vet in Portland has given him a clean bill of health; and even his teeth -- which had seemed to be in questionable condition -- turn out to be all intact and in excellent shape, once the tartar was removed from them. He is four feet long from the tip of his nose to the base of his tail (and his tail is over a foot and a half long extra).
Fortunately, he is basically a gentle and social soul, as he overcomes his apprehensions. (But he does alert to squirrels and cats on his walks -- as the majority of dogs do.)
More soon!
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| Bentley, in repose |
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Bentley's Got Talent!
Having been part of our family now for three months, Bentley continues to show improvements in his attitude and friendliness, and has just about reached "normal dog" levels in these attributes. When we first met him he tried to have a positive attitude, but he sharply backed off if anyone extended a hand to him, and occasionally quivered with nervousness in any setting in which people he didn't know were around.
This was understandable for a dog which apparently had had no happy home life as a puppy and as he grew up, eventually leading to his being abandoned in a Southern California desert near Hesperia, apparently left to die. He was rescued by a kill shelter there, and then was transferred to West Side German Shepherd Rescue (sheprescue.org) where he spent two years among friends along with a hundred other dogs...nice, but not exactly a Forever Home.But he has shown marked improvement in his behavior with other people every single week since then. He has gradually come to accept that he has a happy and stable home and two people who love him, and has slowly blossomed. He has finally just started acting toward new people as a dog normally would -- approaching with interest, without prompting, in a friendly fashion, and accepting contact!
Now, about his talent. Each of our three Long Haired German Shepherds has had a distinct personality, as you would expect from a very intelligent being, and each has been significantly different from the others. Bentley has startled us several times, once he became confident at home, with some singular behavior. If he could do it on command, we could put him on television -- we have never seen or heard of anything quite like this -- certainly not from a dog not trained in circus arts. And we have no photos to show of it, because it is very fast and over before you know it.
It only occurs when he is extremely happy and feeling rolicksome: He moves so fast it almost seems like he is in two places at once, and he does it with flourishes. (At Westside, he was described as "prancing" when he went out for walks -- and is the only dog we've seen on their website in all these years described with that word.)
He expresses happiness with these flourishes, which can indeed seem like prancing, and occasionally -- we have both seen this -- he propels himself in a backwards jump of some airborne length, landing perfectly in a seated position with a big grin on his face. He doesn't even look back first; it's instantaneous -- and it is a real backwards jump. If we had film of it, and played the film backwards, it would look like a normal energetic airborne leap forward. Have you ever heard of a dog jumping backwards like that? They're not really built to be able to propel themselves that way in reverse!
Jane has even seen him stand up on his rear legs -- he is as tall as we are when he does it -- and take a hop backwards.
Twice he has run loops around Eric when he was seated on the sofa, and twice more with him standing at the front door, so fast that Eric was unaware of what was going on until it was over. this German Shepherd is strong -- and fast!
So, that is Bentley...at three months after adoption!
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This entry in Bentley's story was written in the first week of December, 2025 -- and it looked like Bentley would have to wait for a while to experience snow -- sometimes we have no snow in Portland in winter, but we usually do have at least a day or two of it, but certainly not yet this year. This week we were experiencing a few days of "atmospheric river" conditions -- which means that the high temperatures were in the mid to upper 50's, with some gusty winds from the southwest, and mild but steady rain. In fact, the weather right now reminds Eric and Jane of winters in the Central California coastal area when they were growing up there! The climate has certainly warmed in the years we've lived in Portland, Oregon...when we first came, we had an ice storm every year, and in January of 1979, there was a full month below freezing. It looked like Alaska here by the end of that month! Ice storms here are now few and far between.
Around the first of December each year, Westside German Shepherd Rescue puts out its summary of its year, and when we received it this year, we were surprised and delighted to see that BENTLEY made the newsletter -- just one of their 619 adoptions this year! Below, we reproduce his entry in the newsletter, and if you'd like to read the whole newsletter -- we really do suggest you do! -- just click on Bentley's entry, and there it will be. (There is a financial appeal from Westside embedded in it each year, and every year we have contributed, including this year -- this is possibly the very best canine rescue organization in the whole United States, and they are financed mostly by individual donations.)
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| Here's Bentley's appearance in Westside German Shepherd Rescue's annual newsletter for 2025. We hope you will read the whole newsletter -- which you can do by clicking on Bentley's entry above! |
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| Bentley eagerly waiting to share some of Eric's Chili Laredo with cheese. |
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Two major changes in Bentley's attitude in his new home
As we've mentioned repeatedly, Bentley was extremely wary of anyone he had not met when he first arrived in Portland -- we think this is probably the "dog skill" that the folks at the rescue felt that he lacked. Certainly, one does not want to adopt a dog that seems afraid of one! And with his background, as much as we know of it, he sure had cause to be wary of people.
But the rescue knew he had a good heart, and he was a funny and friendly boy with the people there -- yet a rescue is not a home; it has a staff and a hundred dogs. And it's clear he never had a real home of his own before.
As he has been meeting many people in Oregon, all of whom are friendly to him and are delighted to meet him, he has slowly lost his wariness and is now happy to meet anyone! That's change number one, and a BIG one.
The other change concerns food. When he first arrived, he would eat his Kirkland brand dog food -- he recognized it, from his two years in rescue -- but he would accept nothing else from us at first. Not dog treats, not bits of our own food, not chewy toys -- nothing. That is, until we offered him a piece of Tillamook medium cheddar cheese. He found that irresistable, and still does.
But now that he also has grown to trust people in general, he will sniff and eat almost anything we or anyone else offers him. Dog treats...people food items...even food with fruit in it, which our previous two LHGSDs turned their noses up at. He likes apple pie! He seems to like pretty much everything, now.
Bentley has transformed in very positive ways in the past five months.
In the photo above, he was waiting for bites from Eric's plate of Chili Laredo with (Tillamook medium cheddar) cheese!
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Keep checking back...as Bentley's story in Portland continues!
Meantime, you might want to review how this journey began -- by meeting our first German Shepherd, Ms. Drew, and ourselves; and then our second German Shepherd, Sable. For all that, click HERE!
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