Cross, done.

Don't be sad Campfire. Brandy lived a truly great life. She spent her time hunting the unoccupied square miles surrounding my house and never knew a fence or confinement.
When she was about 8 or 9 months old I decided to leash train her so trips to the vet would be easier. She absolutely loved the leash and walking together. For months afterward she would walk beside me in the mornings while checking the garden, right down the rows by my side following every move just like she was on a leash.
In the spring she would tag along beside me picking blackberries. She would go down the fence row ahead of me nosing the ripe ones until she found one she wanted and then she would stand there eating it before searching for another. She had a sweet tooth and I'm sure she got the best ones.
Most of the time in the early years it was just she and I. I talked to her a lot because she would tune in and try to process every word, never nonsensical stuff but words and phrases that had meaning. She aquired a pretty good vocabulary and would answer a question with her nose. Pointing toward me was affirmative and turning her nose away meant no.
Her first toy was an old shoe and she developed a shoe fetish for a while. I had a lady friend that would fly in from CA every couple months. Once on a visit Brandy disassembled the lady's $170 sandals. On the ladies next and last visit, she brought some cheap faux rabbit fur house slippers which met the same fate. I chided Brandy knowing she understood perfectly and would molest them no further.
The lady asked me if I wasn't going to whip Brandy and it became a bone of contention between us.

My house sits in a little valley, a natural choke point for wildlife bounded by a creek on one side and hills on another. Even the snakes migrate through the yard come late Jun/early Jul when the creek begins to dry.
Brandy loved rodents of all types but especially moles or voles and mice and rats. She also had a below average nose for a dog.
When she was about 6 months old I went outside to bring her in one night because she was running late. I found her in the front yard eating a mole. The backyard was overrun with them. It was a moonlit night and she had finally unlocked the secret to hunting them. She stayed out there nearly all night catching them in the back and bringing them to the front to eat them. She also killed a lot of rabbits. She didn't chase them much but had a way of walking up on them and just grabbing them. Later on Brandy took to killing fawns in late May and bringing them home and eating on them. After a couple seasons of this I chided one day when she brought one home. As far as I know, she never killed another. It was one of the few times I discouraged her from being a dog.
As Brandy grew up I just got into the habit of cooking for both of us. One of her favorite breakfasts was 3 homemade biscuits with bacon egg and pepper jack cheese. She and Emmy Roo ate lots chicken quarters and pork steak along with green beans and other veggies. In the evenings sometimes I would fire up the grill and as soon as the meat went on she would go hide until I called her for dinner. I would buy a lot of marked down/quick sale meats and sometimes we would get her favorite meal, porterhouse steaks or t-bone with a little baked potato/sour cream, greenbeans cooked with bacon and a slice of texas toast. That meal was always a morale booster for she and Emmy both, afterwards they would spend the evening playing in the yard in some kind of canine celebration.
Brandy also guarded my free range chickens. The wilds start only 60' from my front door. The biggest threat is coyotes. It had been nearly a year since I had lost a chicken until Brandy became ill and the coyotes took one of my hens. Coyotes were Brandy's obsession. Every evening after we put up the chickens, if coyotes were near she would get into position and wait for the yotes. The yotes would do what I call drive bys testing Brandy and she would sometimes give chase. Twice they split her tail wide open in a skirmish. Sometimes they would stalk her and Emmy in the daylight and I would kill it and the yotes would get scarce for a while. Brandy would then spend moonlit nights mousing into the wee hours. She would sometimes come across snakes and would give her distinctive snake bark. Once she was bitten by a baby copperhead and only got a little sick. Afew months later she was bitten again and swelled up pretty good. I gave her benadryl and she was fine in a couple days. after that she avoided copperheads and would bark like crazy when she found one.
She was a great companion but a selfish fishing buddy. Usually I would fish and she would hunt rabbits and stuff.
Some days she didn't want to hunt or had finished and so she would pester me to go home, especially if the fish weren't biting. About 45 minutes of no fish and she would start vocalizing her wish to go. Sometimes I didn't care and we would pack up or I would tell her we were staying. If we were staying she would usually walk off a few paces and take a sullen nap or decide to go back to hunting.
Sometimes in the fall we would go on a squirrel hunt. Brandy loved squirrels and hunting them but she didn't have the greatest nose and she rarely caught them so I would take her on a hunt where squirrels were plentiful and shoot them out for her. Just one or two and she was happy. I'd let her carry one back to the truck and she would wool it around all the way home up until I took it and skinned it out for the frying pan.
Well if you made it this far I suppose the things about Brandy missing in this narrative are that she was an extremely cautious dog in nearly everything she did and was the most polite dog I have ever known. She would never invade anyone's personal space, I don't know why she was just that way, always observing from a distance although she was not shy or nervous, just quietly strong.

I will always remember Brandy for the life we shared and not the pitiful way it ended and I hope the Campfire can also enjoy the abundantly good side of her story.





$$$ TRUMP AT THE PUMP 2024 $$$