It's been a long, sad day in our house today. The past couple of days Brandi took a turn for the worse, so we took her to the vet today and had her put to sleep. She was 13 1/2 years old and her body was simply failing from old age.
Brandi was our first "baby." As soon as Aaron and I got back from our honeymoon, we headed to the animal shelter and adopted Brandi. (OK, we also adopted psycho-cat Hailey, but that's another story!) Brandi was always an odd little dog. At the animal shelter, she kept walking sideways. The workers at the shelter told us there was nothing physically wrong with her, she just walked like that! As a puppy, Brandi would sleep behind the toilet. She would often wake up soaking wet, so for a while we thought the toilet was leaking. We finally realized she was just peeing in her sleep! Brandi had knee surgery when she was one year old. As a result, she was never an active dog. We're not convinced she would have been active even with good knees, though! She was just an "old soul." Brandi smiled! She would lift up her lips, show us her teeth, and smile! We would often find her plastered against the wall, tail thumping, with a "smile" on her face! (I'll have to look for a photo to post.) A definite weakness for Brandi was guarding things. Every time we traveled, we had to put our luggage (especialy her dog bag) up high so she wouldn't "guard" it. Brandi's favorite thing in the entire world was being outdoors. She would have stayed outside all day, every day, if we let her. We would have let her, had she not had a thing for barking at people walking by or leaves falling to the ground! She also loved to swim. We couldn't visit Aaron's parents' house without her swimming (she loved to fetch sticks in the water). Summer or winter, it didn't matter, she went swimming!
Brandi was such a unique dog. She helped us welcome home all four of our kids and we're so glad she was part of our family! We miss her.