Wow, what a nice story, Rapunzel.
Our first Brandy was a special boy and we had him for 15 years. I can still see him sitting up in the front seat of our van as we drove out here in 1994 - he was our first "baby" and the greatest traveler ever, we could stop and tell him go pee and he would and then jump back in his seat and off we'd go.. snuck that dog into more hotel rooms than you can imagine, he would be so impatient in the morning waiting for me to get dressed so we could go and take him somewhere to relieve himself....
Then one day we were at the mall to go to the movie on my birthday - killing time we wandered into a pet store (I know!!!) and in a cage was this little blond puppy with a freckle nose, she looked so sweet and innocent...... George said NO!!! we already have a dog. I could usually get anything I really wanted from him, but also knew when no meant no so all weekend I thought about this puppy, but didn't say anything. Monday I stayed home from work and it was raining and George was really late getting home (very unusual for him)...... finally the phone rang and he asked how I was feeling and if I was dressed? better and no -- well get dressed, I'll be home in a couple of minutes... when he got home we headed back out and he didn't tell me where we were going (very mysterious) when we pulled into the mall parking lot I started to figure it out...
He had stopped on the way home from work to see this puppy in one of their little play rooms and she just stole his heart - seems he thought about her all weekend as well - ....... from the day she came home she drug Brandy around by the ears and she was a character... we nick-named her Houdini dog because she was always in trouble.. one day we came home from work and she had shredded everything she could find (paper sacks, toilet paper, newspapers, photographs, etc....) we had to use a rake and trash can to clean up the family room. One day the neighbor asked if we knew she was escaping and walking our wall out to the street and back (she was actually propelling herself onto the top of a 6 foot wall to do this) so George put bird netting over the RV section to keep her in and we would find teeth marks where she jumped up and twirled by her teeth...... one day came home and no sign of her - she had tried to go through the wrought iron gate and was stuck in the gate..... one day we were in the garage potting a fern and had the van backed part way out of the garage ... we heard horns honking in the street and looked out - it was the day after Halloween and someone had smashed a pumpkin in the street - she had snuck past us and was laying in the middle of the street eating pumpkin... this is the only time she ever received a swat with a newspaper..
She LOVED swiming and boating and the lake, she actually mildewed when we went to Lake Powell for a week because she was wet the whole week. We used to have to wash her with Woolite before heading home. Even after she was totally blind and deaf she swam.. she would touch the side of the boat with her nose to get her bearings and then swim in circles.. but she loved to fish - she would hang on the back of the boat watching for Blue Gill (attracted to her ears) and the dive in after them, swim to the front of the boat and run back to the step in the back to repeat it all over again.... so George made her a step where she could swim back onto the back of the boat and not have to run through the entire boat getting everything wet in her path. She wasn't the prettiest cocker we've ever had, but she was certainly the biggest personality of any dog we were blessed to share our lives with....