Bently is a member of Melissa Nixon’s family.
And as a member of a family with children, he has certain responsibilities.
One of those responsibilities is putting the kids on the school bus in the morning and safely escorting them off the bus at the end of the school day.
But it took Nixon a while to find the perfect dog that would fit into her family of five children.
In fact, it took her three years.
But when she found Bailey, a golden retriever puppy, she knew he was the one!
The family got Bentley in September when the family’s children were both attending school in-person and taking instruction online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He quickly became attached to the kids and made sure to serve as their guardian.
On days when the family’s two youngest girls would get on the school bus, Bentley would always walk them down the driveway and make sure they got on the bus safe.
He was a little wary of that school bus at first.
“We got him when they were in hybrid learning, so they were going to school half the time,” Nixon told The Dodo. “I think at first he wasn’t sure where this giant yellow object was taking his children, so he would just sit out there confused.”
Nixon wanted to help Bentley learn to trust that the school bus would safely take the children to a place of learning
So, the Nixon girls told the bus driver about his suspicion of her.
Now the bus driver always makes sure to say hi to Bentley when she stops at his house.
“They do the loudspeaker every morning and [Bentley’s] very energetic,” Nixon said. “But as soon as he hears the loudspeaker say, ‘Hi, Bentley!’ he sits still and stern like, ‘Don’t mess with my children.’”
Bentley doesn’t take his job as a guardian lightly.
“The funny thing is that with him being energetic and playful, he takes his job of walking the kids to the bus very seriously!” Nixon told The Daily Star.
But once the job is done and his task is fulfilled “he turns back into his goofy self.”
Nixon found Bentley’s devotion to the children to be simply heartwarming.
So, she posted a video of him at work on Facebook where it ended up going viral.
Bentley’s bus escorting duties have actually been postponed since the girls went back to virtual learning.
He loves having the kids home with him all the time but his family thinks that he wants to go back to work.
“Every time I play the video and he hears the bus, he has to count his children,” Nixon said. “He finds each one of them and then goes to the door and wants to be let out because he wants that bus to come … I think he misses it.”
In the meantime, he just has to adjust to the fact that the kids can’t play with him all the time, even though they are at home.
He didn’t realize that they had to spend some of the day learning from home.
And sometimes he tries to mix class time with playtime.
“He’s confused that they can’t play at certain times and he tests out the boundaries to see how much of the schooling he can get into,” Nixon said. “He tries to jump at the screen and play with them, but now that we’ve been doing it for quite a while, he’s adjusted pretty well. He loves having everyone home. I don’t think he could ask for a better situation.”
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