The Journey of a Good Dog

Brandon came to us one night in 2002 in a parking lot in Gainesville. The family who had him couldn't take care of him because the single mom worked and the children were in daycare, so he lived in a small cage. They wanted a family who had a yard and stayed home to give him to. So, at eleven months old, he came to us... he ate our garage, he wanted to jump on the girls shoulders, he ran every where! Within days Ray had him trained to stay in our yard and not to jump up on us, and he eventually quit eating bicycle seats and trash cans. Each of the girls thought he belonged to them, but secretly, I knew he was my dog:) There were many days of dog shows where the girls would jump him over obstacles or lay on him under the shade trees. When we sat on the front porch he would lay his head on our feet, but if we sat down on the ground, he wanted to put a paw on our shoulder. The past few months, the postal carriers had gotten a little jumpy around him, and he wasn't very happy about them coming into his drive way. He was getting very serious about protecting his yard from the bad guys. I had gotten a little worried about this, I thought Golden Retrievers were supposed to be docile and kind no matter what.

Early this week, he growled at Lydia. We just thought it was because she was wearing a giant blanket as a cape and carrying a knapsack full of doll clothes. (This isn't really that unusual, it was just a different kind of cape.) Then a couple of days later he was acting funny and pacing around in front of the doors. Ray spent some time with him, bathing him and trying to figure out what was wrong. He perked up and seemed okay. Later, he was listless and couldn't lift himself at all. Ray took him to the vet and after a very sad morning, he died. There has been much crying and reminiscing.

This morning I took a short walk - there was no one at the end of the driveway wagging his tail to make sure I got home safely. There was tipping of toenails to greet me on the sidewalk when I went to water the plants. There was no one for Lydia to pretend adventures in the yard with. (Brandon was always Aslan in Narnia.) It seems that even our cats are very quiet and reserved these days and don't know what to do with themselves. They would sprawl out on the driveway while he was out there with them and rub on him. And who is going to pick up the fallen apples when the apple trees start dropping? Brandon will be missed. God is good to give us great furry compaions to love.