A new member of the Bassett Family

Everyone who knows my dad Matt, knew of his dog Buddy. Buddy was half Border Collie half Austrailan Shepherd. He was an AMAZING cow dog. Buddy was a great protector of the family and of our house. If anyone pulled into the yard, Buddy would let everyone know by barking and walking towards the car with the hair on his back standing straight up. Everyone was deathly afraid of Buddy. He never would have hurt anyone, but you wouldn't have trusted that when approaching our front door. If we were wrestling around in the yard with some friends or family, he would think we were getting hurt and he would join in by barking and scaring off the "enemy." Buddy listened very well and such a loyal dog. We lost Buddy two years ago. He was 12 years old when he died. The dog was truly amazing. Each one of our family members fell in love with this AMAZING dog and thought of him as part of the family (even Mom, who is NOT a dog-lover). When Buddy died, I decided to make a scrapbook about him mostly for my dad.

You might be wondering, why after two years I would be posting this about Buddy. Well, just recently my dad got brave and decided to get another dog. He was hesitant about this for quite some time because loosing Buddy was so hard for all us. If truth be told, I think we were afraid of getting a new dog because the new dog would not compare to Buddy. Here is dad's new dog: Meet Brownie.

Brownie is 7 months old now. Dad got him when he was 6 months old. He is an English Shepherd. He looks somewhat like Buddy, but has no white. Brownie is actually holding up pretty well to the high standard that Buddy set. I don't know if dad would have said that the first night he brought him home. Brownie was put inside the horse trailer so that he wouldn't take off wondering into the night. He did NOT like this at all and kept the house VERY aware of that all night by barking and whining. To make a long story short, dad ended up staying the rest of the night in the horse trailer. :) Brownie is getting better about staying home and not running off when he gets the chance. He listens pretty well and is gaining a little more personality all the time. It has been fun to have a dog around the house again and I'm sure that dad has enjoyed the company of a full-time irrigation partner. We'll see if he becomes a REAL member of the family in our hearts. ;)