English Bulldog, 1974 – Spring 1984
Brownie was named after my mother, Ruth Lucille Brown (Hunt) because my mother’s nickname was Brownie. Fred’s mother, Gladys, who was 6 years younger than my mother, and who my mother practically raised, was also nicknamed “Brownie.”
I got Brownie on Friday, April 6, 1974. The tornadoes were Wednesday, April 3 (or 4). Bill and I drove out to Brown county to look at bulldog puppies for sale 8 weeks old. When I went in the puppies were jumping up to get my attention “pick me pick me”, Brownie went back to the far right corner and sat down and took her front paw and pawed the air looking at me. Any dog that was smart enough to do that, I knew immediately that that was my dog. So I picked her, she was brindle.
We brought her home that night and the following Sunday we drove out to camp and saw the tornado damage all the way out to camp and went on a hike, up a little creek, where we had to go back and forth across this tiny creek, with an 8 week old puppy. I helped her get across the stepping stones, which she jumped from one to the other and finally fell in. She shook herself off and every crossing after that, she made sure to fall in the water! Her whole life, she loved to swim!
This just evolved…I didn’t train her to do this. She had 3 rubber balls, about the size of baseballs, one was red, one was green, and one was blue. She would play with them and they would end up all over different places in the house. A couple of times a week I would say, “okay, Brownie, let’s clean house. Go bring me the red ball.” And she would. She’d bring me the red ball. And then I’d say “Go bring me the green ball” and she would bring me the green ball. And finally, “go bring me the blue ball”. It didn’t matter where the ball was in the house. She would find the right color and bring it to my feet. Isn’t that amazing?
In 1977, Brownie was in the play that I directed, He to Hecuba. She came on stage with one of the characters into an English Tavern, which was the full first act. She would just sit with the person who brought her in and lay down quietly while the whole act was going on including a sword fight. She just laid there, and maybe stand up and look at what was going on around her and then lay back down. She added color to the setting.
I think of so many things when I think of Brownie. She would run full steam toward someone at camp and then leap like a ballerina over them.
Getting ready for school, I would put her out in the back yard, no fence and she would do her thing and wait for me on the back porch. One day I came home from school and there was Brownie on the back porch. . . I had gone off to school and forgot to put her in the house. She sat there on the back porch all day, waiting for me to let her in the house. I was so sad I had forgotten to let her in. Poor dog.
Brownie was my favorite dog. She was so loving, well-behaved, playful, and smart. She was definitely the smartest dog I ever had.
Brownie died in Spring of 1984, under the kitchen table while I was eating dinner.