Goodbye Old Friend
We got some bad news from my Mother-in-Law today. Apparently my dog Brandy had to be put to sleep. Its just news that makes me really sad. A little back story about Brandy and why she was living with my Mother-in-Law. Originally, Brandy was my in-laws dog but when Terri and I first got married, they also had another dog, Belle. Belle needed to have a little operation and it was my in-laws decision that Brandy would spend the 2 weeks Belle needed to heal, locked up downstairs away from Belle. Now Brandy and Terri always had a special relationship and this decision didn’t sit well with Terri and she volunteered to let Brandy come live with us for the time Belle needed to heal. 2 weeks turned into 1 month with turned into a month and a half. We finally brought Brandy back home and she wasn’t happy being “home”. So unhappy that Terri’s mom called us to come take her back. Before we knew it, we had a dog. Brandy was 4 at this time. She lived with us for a long time, we treated her very well, loved her with all our hearts and called her our own. Sure, she did things to anger us but in the end we stilll loved her. She was our puppy…
Then Dylan came along and we did everything in our powers to keep her. We took a class on how to introduce a baby to a dog and things went well. Last October my wife was having a really tough time and ended up being diagnosed with Post-Partum Depression. It hit her extremely hard and at a time where we didn’t know what was wrong with Terri, we decided that Brandy needed to go spend some time at Grandma’s. A baby, a wife battling depression and a dog, who like any other dog needed her “pay attention to me” time, was just too much for me to handle on my own. The night she left here, I didn’t want it to be permanent but in my head I knew it probably was but I was ok with that.
Time went on and Brandy was extremely happy at Grandma’s, who by the way has 3 other dogs (2 Goldens and 1 German Sheppard) so Brandy had tons of playmates. Dylan who had been battling something that may end up being asthma later on, was doing much better with Brandy out of the house. To be fair, it could have had something to do with the medicine he was on but you never know. I didn’t want to bring Brandy back in case in made Dylan worse and I didn’t want to take Brandy away from having other dogs around if she truly enjoyed it. Life was good for her and that is how I wanted it.
So the news came today that Brandy had been acting really lethargic on Monday and Tuesday. A trip to the vet and a trip to a specialist, a bunch of test, x-rays and an ultrasound found that she had lesions on her liver and her spleen. In fact due to these lesions, she basically bled out internally into her stomach cavity, her lungs, around her lungs and a sac around her heart. There is no fix for this and basically this form of cancer shows no signs until the very end, which was true in Brandy’s case. My Mother-in-Law had no choice to put her to sleep. She you choose to not put her to sleep, Brandy would basically drown in a very short time. Not the way you wish for any animal to die.
Brandy was an awesome dog and I am told she was wagging her tail until the end, very Brandy like. I did get to see her back in January/February and she seemed very happy. She was my first dog and she was the best dog. Thank you Brandy for being my dog and I am sorry you couldn’t stay with us until the very end but I think getting to play with other dogs everyday for 9 months made you extremely happy and for that I get a big smile on my face. 12 1/2 years is a long time for a large dog to live and I think you enjoyed every one of the 12 1/2 years. I will forever remember our time together and I will forever love my puppy…. Rest in peace old friend…
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Take care brandy. I used to love before I got my dog, going to walk you when your parents were away. I only did it a few times, but everytime i went to your house you were always so happy. Hopefully you are playing with all the dogs that I have known that have passed before you.