Maine Pets

Brewster

has lymphoma. I found out today when his owner called me from Massachusetts to see if Brew could come and stay with me for a while when they go away.

His vet gave him 2-6 months to live and he is at the 6 month mark. They didn't feel right about having him stay any where else. My house has been his second home since he was about 1 1/2 years old.
How could I say no? Brew and I have a huge history together.
Images of me being the one who may inevitably have to bring him on his last trip to the vets raced through my head, neck and neck with the scene of my crushed kids balling their eyes out.

I was telling an infamous Brewster story just the other day to some of the staff at the facility where "Rose" (not her real name-she is owned by a local hospital) will one day work as a therapy dog with kids. "Rose" now a full blown adolescent is trying just about everyone's patience these days and they revealed in my "bad Brew" stories.

Brewster is owned by a family who own multiple nursing homes and he was purchased to be the resident therapy dog. Only trouble was Brew had other ideas and most of them involved breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and of course party time.
The day I was called to be his trainer, an ambulance had come to transport a resident to the hospital. The EMT's stopped in the office to check in where then 9 month old Brew hung out most of the time. Brew jumped up, grabbed the blanket off the gurney and tore off through the double doors (where he was not allowed on his own). The staff said it was like something out of a Disney movie, with people falling, and food flying. No one could catch him as he careened out of control. Up and down stairways, down hallways, in and out of rooms, knocking over most everything in his way, while shredding the blanket and having one hell of a game of tug of war with any and all who tried to get it from him.

The EMT's had to return to their facility to get another set of blankets that were sterilized by their own company, and word spread about the bad dog to area nursing homes and Ambulance companies alike.

I did a 6 week program at the facility to start and returned many times over the years for tune ups. Brew was a big time opportunist (insert thief) , as any dog with ample opportunity learns to be.

He started to come to our apartment for in home training shortly after Charlee arrived. My two young kids were taught to stay on the couch so as not to get knocked over by the young dogs wild play.

He is coming the day after Thanksgiving and I have prepared my kids as best I can for the inevitable. All of us are grateful that we will be able to say goodbye. His owners traveled quite a bit over the years and I have spent more holidays with Brewster than I have spent with some of my own family. He continued to come stay with us most of every winter, even after we moved to Maine. He is like my own dog,and he is part of my family.
It sure doesn't seem fair that at only 7 years old when he is finally fulfilling his role as resident therapy dog, his life is cut short.

I will never forget the first day he earned his keep. A woman with Alzheimer's had just been admitted and she had been removed from her home by her family because she could no longer care for herself. I was called upstairs with Brew to try to help to settle her down. She was distraught, disoriented, getting more and more agitated and she had convinced herself that she left the stove on and had to go home right away. The woman looked like my own Mom, (which was totally freaking me out) and her daughters were
overwhelmed with stress and grief. Brew sat down next to her, and she started to stroke him and then like magic, she totally relaxed. For a moment we all glimpsed her former self. Brew and I walked her to new room and helped to settle her into bed.
She fell asleep petting him. It was amazing. Really amazing.
Her daughters bought Brew a huge supply of doggie treats.

I could go and on, ( and on and on!) but I will stop here and write more about Brewster soon.

E-mail this entry to a friend