Goodbye Brodie Bear

I am going to use this blog as therapy today to eulogize our beloved dog. On Thursday we lost Brodie, a big part of the family. He was the sweetest , most gentle, easy going dog I have ever been around and I have had my share of good puppy dogs through my days. Brodie was Rebecca's dog from her TCU days that she adopted at 6 months from an neighbor in an apartment . Being the dog person that Rebecca is she took him in and gave him all the love he could handle for the better part of 9 years. Seven and I came along back in '03 and the four of us could not have gotten along any better. In fact we always had to get onto Seven because he would always want to show Brodie how much they got along and Brodie was never the wiling recipient of Seven's affectionate ways , if you get my drift. I could dive off into a thousand different stories of our dogs and how much they are a part of our day to day lives, but the remarkable part of Brodie was his disposition. The best example I could give is how he was around Hurricane Jacob. Jake is all over the place moving 600 miles a minute and when he approaches Seven he either completely leaves the room or gives a snarl before his exit. Not Brodie though. Brodie would let Jake climb all over him, hug him , kiss him, let Jake pull his ears all while just looking up at Rebecca or I as if to say "No big deal guys but this does deserve an extra scoop of Dog Food or perhaps a Rawhide would not be out of the question!". Brodie's disposition was cool , calm, and collected. The only thing that would get him out of his nonchalant ways would be the occasional thunderstorm. He was the most low maintenance dog you could ask for in that way. What Brodie did have was Canine Epilepsy. For the past four years we have dealt with seizures with Brodie that were unsettling no matter how many times before you had gone through it. We were able manage most of his seizures with medication from the vet but the seizures never went away. In fact Brodie was my alarm clock 7 days a week at 6am as he would sit next to my side of the bed and grunt until I got up to give him & 7 their morning cheese with his medication. He would have a seizure about once every 3-4 months it would seem like. The seizures themselves were about 1 minute long in length but nonetheless a traumatic event to the guys health and to witness. This Thursday he happened to have a seizure while we were at work and he could not quite snap out of on his own. I actually came home early that day out of the blue at 4:30 since I had a client appt that ended in the afternoon and decided to come back to the house. I found the grumpy bear in the mist of his last seizure and felt absolutely helpless as I held him and said goodbye before he drifted into a peaceful sleep. The house feels so eerily different and lonely without him. Seven deeply misses his brother as do Rebecca , Jacob and I. We love you Brodie, we miss you so much!