Animal Advocates of B.C.
A COOPERATIVE OF ANIMAL-LOVERS AND ACTION-TAKERS

"They come into our lives with their love and light and then they go, 
and we have been profoundly blessed and shown how to be better beings. 
~Judith Stone

In Memory of "Brodie"
Remembered by Kim Belcher and Wayne Adare

In Memory of Brodie  1995 - 2012

In 1999 Animal Advocates Society got one of the calls it got so frequently and dreaded so much.  A woman told us that her neighbours had been keeping their dog in a shed for years.  The SPCA, saying that the dog had food, water, and shelter, left him alone in there.  She begged the abusers to be given the dog, but like most abusers, her pleas only angered them, and since the SPCA didn't do anything, they continued their cruelty with arrogant impunity. The sadness of hearing his unending cries and moans was just about killing this kind-hearted woman, when she saw one of the "chained dog" advertisements AAS ran in papers all over BC for many years, asking anyone knowing of an abused dog to contact us. 
 
We took all the details and then went to see for ourselves.  It was all true, as it always is. (In fact, in over 20 years of abused dog advocacy, we have often seen that conditions are worse than described, and never not true.) We could hear him moving inside the shed and when the woman called to him, we heard his frantic barks and yelps.   His cries haunted us down the street as we drove away.
 
The next day the woman did what all decent, socially responsible people do: she removed him from his broiling, stuffy, dark, miserable prison and drove him away to freedom, taking him to half-way house where he started his new life of light and love, and fun, and comfort, and joy.
 
We had just rented a very small suite so that we could keep our dog Jake that we had recently found sick and homeless.  Not long after moving in, we received a call from someone needing us to foster a dog temporarily until something else came up.  We offered to do so for as long as we could and so long as we were not kicked out for having two in our little rented suit.  We walked up to Princess Park and in the field some distance away was Brodie.   Needless to say the moment we saw him we knew we had a dog for life.  Yes we were asked to leave our suite within a day or two so we had one month to do what we had to do to make a life for our boys... we bought a house. It was the summer of 1999.  With lots of love from his new family Brodie embraced his new life and became the kind of dog that we could have only dreamt of, but,...this dream came true.

Our Brodie was known by other names depending on who was talking to him and of course what he was doing for example,  King Kong and The King and Mr B.  As you can tell, each one tells not only the presence he had, but the role he played in our lives.

Brodie had his favourite things in life: Holding your arm with his mouth (that was Brodie's way shaking hands by the way), running beside a mountain bike in his early years, swimming, ball chasing, searching for sunken balls in the ocean, cheese scones and a walk with Jan, snowshoeing with friends, good old fashioned camping with Greg and family, and Fridays with grandma and the gang.  At the top of the list were his friends.  He knew each and every one of your names and never failed to show you his love and appreciation for having you in his life. 

The emptiness we feel goes as deep as the love that he gave.  We will fill it with memories and the knowledge that he touched each and every one of you and will be remembered and greatly missed by so many.  

He sure had a good run. Diagnosed Christmas day with cancer, got sick right away and went on meds, a few good days at Cypress Mtn and Ambleside and then he woke up yesterday and he was almost gone on his own. What a way to go!

Miss him like crazy as you well know.

Thank you all for sharing your time here with our boy.

Kim and Wayne

 


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