Home Zookeeper

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had all last week off and really tried to tune out and do things around the house. So not much posting here or my other blogs. We had a wonderful week, took the dogs on a couple of walks, spent time together as a family.

I got to see my brother’s dog, Echo. I swear he is the sweetest and friendliest dog ever.

My brother suffers from extreme anxiety and depression. A year or so ago (has it been that long already?) my mom and I decided that he needed a dog. Partly for therapy and partly for companionship. Plus we were hoping a dog and the responsibilities of having a pet would get him out of bed on days when anxiety kept him asleep for 18+ hours.

Anxiety can prevent people from doing even the most basic of tasks. Something as simple as filling up the gas tank of his car can create such panic that he will throw up. So you can imagine the fear of choosing a dog to bring home from the pound.

That is where pushy, bossy, big sister comes in. Whether he will agree with me or not, I generally know what is best for him. Even when we were younger I knew when to push him and when to back off. This was a push moment. He knew we were coming but the dog we’d originally planned to adopt had gotten adopted.

If we had told him this he would have backed out so we just headed down without telling him. When we got there and told him the other dog was adopted the look of sheer panic on his face would have been funny if it weren’t so sad. We didn’t give him enough time to stress over it … just pushed him into the car and started to drive to the Humane Society.

That place was huge. I was impressed. We met one dog but it was just so jumpy and fearful. It would come to me but not to brother.

The next dog was Echo. We figure he was part Rottweiler (although he’s very small…maybe 40 pounds) due to his coloring and eyes but mostly some sort of collie. In other words, a mutt.

I actually tried to ignore him because I wanted brother to get the attention. At one point I told my brother “You know, we don’t choose the dog. The dog chooses you.” And at that EXACT moment Echo put his paw on my brother’s leg as if to say “I choose you” and that was it.

My mom and I paid the rescue fee and Echo was on his way to a new home (after getting neutered of course).

This sweet boy sleeps with my brother and listens to his every word. Brother said that he just has to whisper “Echo” softly and the dog comes right to him. I think that his companionship has increased the quality of my brother’s life…without question.

It was a blessing to see him again last week. I hope brother brings him to our Christmas gathering too. I want Echo to play with our pack.