Brandy and Me

When my black lab mix Brandy was younger, she used to love going for walks or running in the backyard.
Brandy's favorite backyard toy was a Homer Simpson doll.
Grabbing it by the head she'd smack it around , throw it up in the air and generally abuse it for hour after happy hour .
She would run with that doll in her mouth all around the yard.
After a while I made kids laugh when I did Marge Simpson's voice. "Now Homer, you stop playing with that dog and come inside for supper".
You had to be there, I know..sorry.


We went for our walks in the pine barrens along the sparkling clear sandy bottomed creeks that lace through. Her ears would prick up at each sound and her nose was sniffing all over the ground and up in the air when a breeze would blow.
Walking by the bay she would take a quick swim, or paddle out to try and retrieve the giant swans that would congregate just offshore.
I don't think she had a clue as to how huge those swans really were , she just wanted to bring one home.

One day, I was just too busy to take her for her walk. She was quite unhappy about it.
She just sat dejectedly by the sofa looking around. "Now what will I do?" she seemed to be saying.
"Wait a few Brandy. When I am done we'll go , don't worry"I said.
She trotted off to get her leash and sat with it for another half hour as I got a few phone calls inbetween.
Finally, she had enough of waiting. Quietly she picked up the leash with her mouth and walked over to the cat and placed it down in front of the cat. But the cat didn't respond either. She just looked at Brandy with a bored "You have to be kidding" look on her face.
Not to be deterred, Brandy nudged the leash closer to her to give her a hint.
I think Brandy had faith that one day she could train her cat to be more sociable to her.
The cat sat there .... yawning. With a doggy frown on her face, Brandy walked over to the door looking back over her shoulder at the cat saying, "Well come on, you're not busy!"
Well, if Brandy was that desperate, I thought, we had to go now! I hung up quickly and out we went for an extra long walk.

The last time Brandy ran around happily in the yard was after her cancer surgery stitches came out.
I don't know if that was hard for her. She had that doggy smile on her face as she ran all over the yard, ears flying behind her in the wind.
She never ran again.
The cancer took a lot out of her and Lyme disease did the rest destroying her ability to run and, after a while, to even walk alone.
She lived another several years after the surgery but got Lyme disease and passed away this past October.

(photo taken a few months before she passed away at age 15)