In February 2002, Dad decided that we had to have a Sheltie. He had seen a show on TV that interviewed a Sheltie breeder, and afterwards he said, "That's the dog for us!" Mom resisted at first. She said they were too barky and too hairy. But 5 minutes after meeting Brody we were in love, including Mom. He had come running out of the room he was in to meet us and his tongue was hanging off to the side, making him look pretty goofy, but it was very sweet too. He climbed into mom's lap on the drive home and trembled because he was so scared, and that was it for Mom, she was in love! We quickly found out we could make him do anything for cheese. It was his all time favourite treat. He got home and we let him in... the first thing he did was pee on the carpet but that was OK, he was scared and it was all new to him. Soon we had him out for lots of walks. He had a really funny "prance" to his walk. Everybody was always happy to see him coming because of his peppy step! He got the hang of not peeing in the house quickly. In fact he learned everything pretty quickly. Shelties are a smart breed. One thing he trained US to do was to make sure he slept in Mom and Dad's room every night. If he wasn't on the mat at the end of their bed he would bark until we let him in the room. He always used to come in for story time when his human brother was little. He would go and lie on the floor and listen until it was time for bed. And if anyone in his family was upset or sad, Brody always knew. He would get upset himself and start panting and jump up on Mom! One time we had a lot of people over at our old house and he tried to herd all the kids when they were playing together. We had a doghouse for him that we painted and made all nice for him and he refused to go in it!! He always wanted to be lying by the gate of the fence to watch for people or dogs walking by so he could run back and forth and bark at them through the fence! He made lots of friends that way! We got him a friend, Sadie, when he was seven and he grudgingly put up with her, but she loved him very much and acted as his guide dog when he went deaf... she would bark a high pitched bark so he could know when people were walking by the fence, and then the two of them would run back and forth together!
The last few days were very hard. The vet has told us he probably had an underlying kidney disease for the last while. We had noticed he was drinking a lot more but we thought it was because it was summer and he was hot. He had lost weight but we thought it was because of his arthritis. But he got sick really fast this last week. His kidneys had stopped working and we had to let him go. It was so so sad but it was peaceful, he went to sleep and mom was with him till the end so he wasn't alone. The vet was crying too and gave him a kiss, as we all did. We will always remember him and he will be in our hearts forever. He will meet us at the Rainbow Bridge and we will do our best to help Sadie through this sad time.
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