All Dogs Go To Heaven: A Tribute to Nina "Bean"

The world has lost one of the loveliest doggie souls today, my grand dog, Nina “Bean.” Nina had a real “dog’s life” until my daughter and son-in-law adopted her about a year and a half ago. She spent the first four years of her life as a “bait dog.” Baiting or dog baiting most commonly refers to the act of setting game dogs against a chained or confined animal for sport. It’s a cruel and vicious blood sport.


Nina was “rescued” and spent the next five years in a no-kill kennel. The only reason she wasn’t snatched up was because she was a pit bull. Without getting into the debate about the dangers of pit bulls, I will just say that it’s my belief when dogs are raised to fight and kill, that is what they will do.

Nina was just waiting for the right family to come along and that’s when she was rescued by my “kids,” Amber and John. When she was adopted, Nina was already nine years old, stiff legged, gray whiskered and scarred with dog bites, her jaw slightly askew having been broken, no doubt during the baiting.



Nina smiling in her sleep while basking in the sun

You’d think she would have been mean, distrustful, scared of people and other dogs, especially male dogs. But she wasn’t. You’ve heard the saying that the eyes are the window to the soul. You had only to look in Nina’s big brown eyes, straight to her soul, to see how lovely and kind she was.

Nina loved steak, cookies, her pink Princess collar, playing with her new brothers (Chance and Delgado, both 80 pound rescue dogs), belly-rubs, kisses and basking in the sun. She loved the freedom of using the doggie door and roaming the house and the big fenced yard. She loved her family.

Despite the hardships that Nina endured, her life was successful. How do I know? Because she was loved. Because people cried and grieved at her death.

It is too sad to look back at her past, so we will remember the joy she had with her new family and remember the coming joy because everybody knows that all dogs go to heaven.

RIP precious Nina “Bean.” You are loved and will be sorely missed.