Gabriel and Brody

Brody, our German shepherd mix, turns 12 in October.  When Brody was younger, we talked about how he needed a "boy".  Then Gabriel was born in 2004 and we introduced our first boy Brody to our first human boy, Gabriel. 

Gabriel had loved Brody ever since.  The feeling mutual. 

When Gabriel was a baby, if Andrew and I got into a disagreement, Brody would stand between the two of us while I held Gabriel.  Brody wasn't about to let something happen to Gabriel. (Or me)

Brody is in his elderly years.  He is mostly deaf and still the sweetest dog ever.  Honestly, he is one of those dogs anyone would want to clone. Every day, we worry about the end of Brody's days yet we are so happy to give Brody a good life with us. 

Gabriel asked if Brody is going to die tonight.  I told him that it won't be tonight as far as I can tell but I suggested that Gabriel enjoy every day with his Brody because we never know when the last day when come. 

Gabriel showed Brody his minion game. It will be a terribly sad day when we Brody passes but I'm so grateful for the 12 years we have been given so far.  

A boy and his dog

We moved to Florida with two dogs, three kids, and a fish. Our poor beta fish died a couple months ago but he made it through the move and lived with us for a few years. We still have Brody and Eddie. Brody is our 10 year old shepherd mix. Eddie is our 9 year old husky mix. We realize our sweet puppies are now elderly dogs and are enjoying their retirement. We no longer have a yard and need to walk them a few times a day. They are in the best shape they have been in since before we had children. The kids love our dogs. They love to talk about them to anyone who will listen. Even Lane will tell anyone who will listen about her two dogs. Gabriel was allowed to walk Brody to the ice cream store in Celebration tonight. At first he wanted to ask everyone we met on the sidewalk if they wanted to pet Brody. The first elderly couple didn't crack a smile. We were off to a bad start but I was able to explain to Gabriel that he didn't need to ask anyone to pet Brody but they would come up to him and ask. The second person we passed on the sidewalk stopped and thrilled Gabriel by asking to pet Brody. Thank you to the artist who was cleaning up her booth and took the time to make a 7 year old happy!! Brody scared us last summer. We thought the time has come to say good bye to him. The night we moved into our new home, we saw something disgusting on Brody's chest. It turned out to be a tumor he had eaten through and left exposed. It took a long and expensive surgery to fix it. He needed two more surgeries after that because he was able to reopen it. The vet likened the surgery to sewing wet paper together. We had to keep Brody seperate from Eddie and couldn't allow him to play at all. I covered his chest with old tshirts and changed it daily. It was quite a chore but we got through it and we are so grateful Brody is still here with us.