We had to say goodbye to Brickie today. Even though we knew this day was coming, it was still so hard.
Memories of our dog - our puppy - our buddy:
Brickie was born on Oct 15th 1993. He had a good long life, 15 years is a long time for a lhasa apso to live.
Wayne and I had lost two of our pets, fairly close together, my cat Kecia and his dog Muffin. We still had little Fred left, but we were pretty devasted. We called our good friend Mary Ann, who played volleyball with us for years, and is an amazing veterinarian. She referred us to a breeder. As with many of the things in our life, Brickie was "as is", we used to joke. He was born to be a show dog but had a physical defect that prohibited him from being shown. His breeder had kept him for six months hoping that it would correct itself but it didn't so she had to sell him "on sale" :) Actually, I always thought God had him waiting for us to be ready for him. The breeder told us that we had to immediately establish that we were "the boss" with a lhasa or he would rule our lives. LOL You know how that ended up :)
His name was Jelly Bean, but we changed it to "Brickie". Wayne's high school mascot is a "Brickie", they chant, "All my life I wanted to be a Brickie, etc". That's where the name came from.
It was love at first sight for us. When we first got Brickie, Wayne carried him everywhere! I thought Brickie might forget how to walk.
I would tell my Mom that we were making this accomodation or that, for Brickie and she would say "You are the master, he is the dog." Well, eventually she came to understand, years later when Brickie became her dog. He was pretty pursuasive.
Brickie loved to go camping. We took him on all our camping trips and he was a great camping buddy. He would go for early morning walks with me to see the deer at dawn. He would sit around the campfire with Wayne. Just a good dog, our Brickie.
When Maya came home, we had a dilemma. He was a bit grumpy and we didn't want him around the baby. I remember he would be very jealous when we had company, especially children. Grandma and Grandpa agreed to come to our rescue! They took Brickie to live with them.
Brickie and Grandma bonded immediately. She gave him toast in the morning. Shared her banana. She gave him his beloved "chewies". Took him for SO many walks. He followed her everywhere and loved her dearly. We were afraid at first that he would be sad to leave Wayne and I but nope, he knew what paradise was like at grandma's house.
Goodbye, Brickie, we hope you are healthy and running in heaven with all the treats and chewies you can eat - we will see you again one day.
