I always remember the day I first saw Beany in May 1997, he was so small I could hold him in one hand, his eyes were closed and from that day on I knew he was the love of my life. Beany was a Boston Terrier and after having Boxers for years I wanted a small dog with the boxer look. I named him long before he arrived and so to me the name Beany is very special.

Beany was the funniest little dog with such a massive personality, you could talk to him and he just understood. As the years went on he gradually calmed into a wonderful companion and with his best friend Buster they lived a happy and a spoilt life. I won’t go into great detail about how Beany was diagnosed but it was thanks to a tennis ball he was playing with that alerted me to his mouth, I looked inside and was horrified to see a huge growth, I rushed him to the vet and a biopsy was done and I was told it was Acanthomatous Epulis a common non cancerous tumour, as the days went on he got more uncomfortable and I returned him, this time the mass was removed in total and a larger biopsy was sent to the lab which came back as an aggressive form of mouth cancer. I was heartbroken, I was told that another operation called Mandiblectomy which was the one that left him with his tongue sticking out would hopefully save his life and once this was done and a few weeks in hospital Beany came home with his new naughty tongue. He never stopped eating, he became the Beany I knew and loved, but still I knew we were battling a potentially fatal disease.

He received Radiotherapy at the Cancer Therapy Unit at Cambridge University every week. I used to carry him out afterwards and put him in the blankets to keep him safe and warm and drive the few hours home. We received the all clear in May 2007. Unfortunately 5 months after the first diagnosis but within days of the all clear beany had a massive fit and I was told it might be the spread of the disease, a few months down the line he went for tests and the prognosis was very poor. Beany only had two weeks to live. I watched him day and night I cuddled him all night and was assured by the vet that he wasn’t suffering and when he got worse they told me I would know, exactly two weeks to the day on July 18th 2007 beany was put to sleep in the garden of the vets with Richard, Mum and myself all cuddled around him. My world and that of Busters came crashing down. We took him in the car to Dignity Pet Crematorium and they looked after him with such love and care as if he was their own.

Beany’s love of fleece, fur and his little baby (toy dog) helped me in creating The Beany Dog Company and everytime I create a blanket I think of how happy he used to be when I brought him one home. I have such happy memories and I hope other people have such memories from my blankets and the products I carefully select to sell. You only get one chance and animal’s lives are so short that they deserve only the best.

Thank you for reading my story.