Brandon the Dog

Last week when Mountain Man and I were back in Indiana for our Christmas we were able to spend time with my dog Brandon. Okay, Brandon is really my sister's dog. But he feels like mine.

When I was pregnant with my twins back in the summer of 2003, to make a long story short, DR was in Delaware and I ended up living with my sister and her husband for 4 months. In those 4 months I walked Brandon every day, sometimes twice a day. He was a wonderful companion when I was lonely and missing my husband. We watched tv together and napped together. We ate together and generally just hung out.

My sister and brother in law took in Brandon 7 years ago this Christmas from another family who couldn't care for him anymore. No one is quite sure how old Brandon is; the vet's best guess is somewhere between 14 and 19 years old. He's arthritic now and spends a lot of time laying down. Except during Christmas dinner, then he spent time under the table licking the carpet for crumbs and hoping the kids would ignore my sister's warnings and feed him from their plates anyway.

Brandon is always tolerant of our big loud family and doesn't seem to mind all the little kids hanging around.

Brandon isn't going to be around forever though. And even though I don't see him much, I always get a tug in my heart when I think of the Christmas when he won't be with us anymore. I love you Brandon, thanks for being my dog.