Welcome Brodie!

A couple of months ago I wrote about my experience with dogs and mentioned that after the heartbreak of losing 2 dogs within 3 months in 2007,  I

thought we might be ready for another dog to join our family. Well, I’m happy to report that we do indeed have a new addition to the clan: Brodie.

How did we find Brodie (or more appropriately, how did he find us?). It was actually kind of a random process. Last week I started poking around Petfinder.com and found a few cute beagles that were available for adoption – and sent the profile to Renee to see if I could soften her up and get her buy-in into a new dog for the family. It worked. On Saturday she said she was ready for a dog to join us but I should probably work fast – just in case she changed her mind (no – she *never* changes her mind!!).

I started searching all of the local animal shelters and pet-finding services online – primarily looking for a beagle puppy again (since we love beagles so much). I found a beagle mix that was amazingly adorable – and shot a note to the local animal rescue group, Saving Great Animals, asking if she was still available. I heard back from one of the volunteers – who happens to be another local PR/marketing professional – who told me that “Cherry” was already adopted but there were a number of other cute puppies available. She smartly included some of the photos in the email and they included two black fur balls – who were also super cute.

After checking out a few other options, we decided we wanted to adopt one of the black puppies. We had no idea what kind of breed it was but Perrin assured us that it was a mix and wouldn’t be any larger than a “medium” size dog. We then found out through our series of emails that “Chopin” was arriving Sunday night on a flight from Taiwan! All of these puppies were actually rescues from the streets of Taiwan – Saving Great Animals partners with an animal rescue group in Taiwan to find families in Seattle for these puppies and dogs.

Because each dog/puppy needed a foster home (at least) immediately, Perrin asked if we could pick up Chopin from Seatac airport Sunday night. Renee arrived around 6 pm, went through a debriefing with local volunteers at the airport and waited to meet our new addition. He arrived safely with numerous other puppies – each had a family waiting for him/her. Renee struck up a conversation with another woman adopting a dog (Chopin’s brother) and they agreed to stay in touch so the “brothers” could have play dates.

They arrived home around 8:30 pm Sunday night and just like that, we had a dog in our lives again. And we couldn’t be happier.

Our first order of business (next to making sure we had food and toys for the new puppy) was deciding on a name. Chopin just wouldn’t work. We wanted to come up with a name that was somehow tied to football or beer (our major passions) and Renee actually found a website that provided suggested dog names related to football! I quickly scrolled down the list and found the perfect name: Brodie. Why is it perfect? 1) It’s a cool name and 2) it pays homage to my first favorite San Francisco 49er quarterback, John Brodie (who was a former Stanford star and All-Pro playing for the 49ers in the 1960s and 70s). So Brodie it is.

He has adapted to his new surroundings remarkably well – thankfully. He’s a very mellow puppy and hasn’t seemed stressed at all. On Monday he calmly came into the office and spent most of the day asleep at my feet under the desk. I now have a new office mate again! The twins are getting used to having a puppy in the house as well and have been really good with Brodie so far too. Ty is starting to play with him more – he loves it when Brodie chases him and nips at his socks and pant legs. And Stone smiles whenever he sees Brodie.

It’ll be a really fun Christmas with Brodie – not to mention Renee’s parents (who arrived today and will spend a week with us).