In Memorial - Brio

We unexpectedly lost our 9 year old Border Collie, Brio, Oct. 18. A loyal, if neurotic, part of our animal family, Brio was happy with the way things were, especially if someone would play fetch with him. You could always find my husband by looking to see where Brio was. He generally would be on the step of the shop or house or barn - whichever.
He only wavered when there was company staying in our guesthouse, then he could be counted on to be sleeping on the step there.

Crazy fast and, perhaps, just a bit crazy, he would run in the direction he thought you would throw the ball or stick. Often this would be the opposite direction, but he would seek for 1/2 hour if needed to find that object so he could bring it back to play again. As have all our dogs (all dogs?), he loved snow.

Now he and our old Australian Shepard, Rosie, are both gone. She died at 17 in 2008. It was rather expected, she had slowed considerably her last few years.
But with Brio it was entirely unexpected.

He missed his canine companion, but when we got a new puppy 6 months later they became the best of friends. They played furious games of tag and follow the leader, particularly every morning and at twilight. He was busy teaching her all his (bad) habits.

And then one day last spring Brio was running and began to limp. The limp continued and became more serious over the next few days. It turned out he had ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It appears that in most dogs with the problem, the ACL slowly degenerates and becomes weaker until it ruptures, without any sudden injury.
We decided to have it fixed as the chance was high that his other hind leg would go, too, if we didn't. After the surgery we had a Border Collie in a crate for almost 2 months. He was a very unhappy dog.
After that he was never the same. He recovered well, and lost the extra weight from being sedentary all that time. Was playing with the puppy some, but not as much. Would fetch, but not as enthusiastically. Then, this past month, he started having days where he was just - well - depressed, as far as we could tell. He would not come out from under the truck to say 'hi' or play or eat. The next day - fine!

The day he died he seemed slow but OK in the morning. Followed us around and had a dog biscuit treat in the afternoon. But when our family came over in the evening they found him in his usual place, under the truck, dead. No visible sign of distress.
We miss him. Now we just have our one 11 month old Aussie pup, Kumalie.
She misses him, too.