Brody

WIN volunteer, Rob Horgan, in Cherry Hill, NJ saw an internet listing for a Wheaten in an Idaho shelter. He contacted me to see if I could find out anything about this 3 year old male in Montpelier, Idaho. “Brando” was a 3 year old, unaltered purebred male, Wheaten. He had been surrendered by a woman who brought in a total of three purebred dogs to the shelter. I was told he was a very friendly, happy boy who got along well with other dogs. The shelter agreed to let WIN adopt Brando, so on June 21, 2005, my 16-year-old daughter and I drove 5½ hours to go and get him. We spent the night in Montpelier (population 2700) and the shelter director brought Brando to us the next morning.

He greeted us with great enthusiasm. His tail wagged so fast, the only thing I can liken it to is hummingbird wings! To date, Brando had spent his entire life outside. The director warned me that his coat was very matted and he was very smelly. And, she was right! He was so smelly, in fact, that we had to drive with the windows open! His entire underside and lower legs were matted with feces and mud. I had pre-arranged to stop in Pocatello on the way home to have him bathed and groomed at Petco, but he was so bad, that I was afraid the groomers there would turn us away. But, they were so eager to help this rescue boy. They spent about two hours bathing and grooming him and removing all the mats.

Since Brando didn’t respond to his name, I decided to change it and I researched Irish boy names. I found “Brody”, a boy name, meaning “from the muddy place.” I felt like this was a perfect name for our new foster guy, since he had spent his life outside and he was matted with mud when we rescued him. Once we got Brody home, we had him neutered, and we began our search for his new “forever” home. After a couple of phone conversations with Tim, Brody’s prospective adopter, it was very clear that this was the perfect home for Brody. Since Tim lives in Spokane, WA, we made plans to meet in Pendleton, OR, which is about the half-way point for both of us to drive.

It was with mixed emotions that we loaded Brody into the car on June, 30th to take him to Tim. After just 10 days we had become very attached to him. He was a very gentle soul who loved and trusted us even after such a short while. We felt badly passing him on to yet another person. Our trepidation was relieved, however, when we met Tim in person. He was also a very gentle soul and it seemed like a perfect match. Brody was hesitant, but Tim assured him that all would be well. It took about an hour to go over the paperwork before we finally loaded Brody into Tim’s car. It was with sadness and joy that we watched them drive away. We would miss Brody and would always think about him, but we were joyful he had found such a wonderful home with Tim. We were honored to have been involved in a successful WIN rescue.