Brandy Alexander

"She is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are her life, her love, her leader. She will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of her heart. You owe it to her to be worthy of such devotion."--Author Unknown

My earliest memory is getting Brandy. It was June 1972 and I was three years old. My mom and I answered an ad in the paper and went to see her. The woman who had her named her Shirley and locked her in a closet and beat her with a fly swatter. I guess you could say she was my first rescue dog. She chewed everything from my dad's wallet with all his credit cards to my Dressy Betsy doll. She also loved to run and was terrified of thunder storms. My dad used to call her a Polish Setter and for the longest time, that's the breed I thought she was! People used to ask my mom what a Polish Setter was.

When Alex, my sister, was born, Brandy was very protective and gentle with her. She fell asleep once using Brandy as a pillow and Brandy stayed right there until Alex woke up, she never moved. She put up with a lot from us as kids. Once, I was blowing a New Year's Eve toy, the kind that unravels as you blow, in her face and she snapped at it, getting my chin. I got in trouble for teasing her, instead of her getting in trouble for bitting me. However, she put up with us dressing her up, playing games, teasing her and many other childhood things. She was a great dogs with us kids!

Brandy was very protective of her home. I have a porch off of my bedroom at my parent's house that a burgler broke into one night when no one was home. It was during the 4th of July so Brandy was hiding under my bed because of the fireworks. When we got home that night, Brandy was out in the backyard. No one could figure out why until the next morning when my dad noticed that the screen door to my porch was cut. We later realized that someone had climbed up the side of the porch and cut the screen to unlock the door. Brandy must have heard this and jumped thru the screen after the person and chased him right off the second story porch! She was 12 years old at the time and you could see where the guy landed and where she landed in the yard and then chased him right out of the yard!

When Brandy was 11, we brought home VanDyke. Brandy hated her! She would sleep in the doorway of the room where we gathered at night to watch TV and wouldn't let VanDyke into the room. Poor VanDyke would stand in the hallway and bark until one of us went to get her and bring her in with us. Brandy finally accepted VanDyke, but continued to use every opportunity to put her in her place!

Every night, after everyone went to bed, Brandy would come up the stairs and one by one, stand in the door way of each of our bedrooms until she knew everything was ok. She would then go into my parents room, circle for what seemed like forever, then lay down to go to sleep. As she got older, this ritual took longer and longer until eventually, my dad would have to get back up and go help her (and later, carry her) up the stairs. What is strange, is for months after she died, I still heard her go thru this nightly routine.

Brandy had seizures her whole life. On December 26, 1985, as we put down her dinner, she had what we though was a bad seizure. We later found out it was a stroke. We took her to the vet and for three days, all she wanted was to come home with us. By December 29th, she stopped eating and I spent my days curled up in her cage at the vet's office trying to hand feed her. On January 1, her 15th birthday, we make her a cake and tried to get her to eat that. We spent a lot of time with her that day but she wouldn't eat or acknowledge us. The very next day, we sent her to Rainbow Bridge. She left with her whole family around her, holding her and petting her. At the last moment, she raised her head and looked at us as if to say "Thank You" A few days later, we brought her home and buried her under the elderberry tree in the backyard. It was her favorite place to lay down and lick all the berries off the ground. She was my first dog, my first sister and my first best friend.