Brewster Facts

(Originally posted on Facebook on Wed., Dec. 30, 2009.)

I've had several questions about Brewster, so here is all the Brewster information I possess in one place. Clearly this will be a popular site, so please be patient if your browser is slow. It is undoubtedly due to increased traffic resulting from phenomenal Brewster interest. ;-)

Brewster was adopted from PALS Animal Rescue. His foster mom, Kris, found Brewster on her front porch during a thunderstorm this last August. Normally, PALS rescues dogs from the Animal Shelter that are adoptable but that have been there too long and are about to be put to sleep. Brewster was lucky to wind up on a PALS volunteer's porch because the Animal Shelter would never have considered him "adoptable" and PALS would never have even known about him.

Kris named Brewster "Wally," a very nice name. But I thought he deserved something that sounded a little more dignified. Plus my dad has already made several annoying jokes about the Beaver's older brother, so it had to go. Brewster's name comes from one of my favorite movies, Arsenic and Old Lace.

Brewster is a "mystery mix." He definitely is part terrier and others have also suggested pomeranian and chihuahua. I think chi is more likely than pom. Ultimately, it's silly to try to classify him. He's just himself, an original in every way. He weighs just shy of 6 pounds and has a wiry black topcoat, a soft undercoat, and very soft, floppy ears; he also has a white mohawk. He is probably somewhere between 3 and 5 years old.

We have no information on Brewster's life before he showed up on Kris's porch. He had either been very neglected or had been a stray for a very long time. The fur on the top half of his body was long and matted, and he had no fur at all on his lower body, probably because of a severe flea allergy. He weighed less than 5 pounds, and had internal parasites. Once Kris got the parasites taken care of and got him eating good food, he became the healthy, handsome gentleman you see in the pictures and has no apparent health problems.

Brewster is EXTREMELY shy. He does not have a good reaction to people coming over to the house, so right now we're working on confidence and feeling secure. Every time the doorbell rings, we have to go through a ritual in which he gets in his crate, I let the person in, the person sits on the couch, and then I let Brewster out on leash to slowly approach the person. This procedure seems to work. He's been anxious to become friends with everyone who's come by since we started doing this. If you stop by, be prepared for some Brewster-related delays. I've just signed us up for obedience training, so that should also help him feel more confident and secure, and will hopefully streamline the process.

Brewster and the cats have not exactly bonded, but at this point they can all sit in the same room, which is a huge victory. In fact right now Kudra is sitting on the desk watching the birds through the window while Brew snoozes in his bed beside the desk. She came in, they looked at each other, and they decided to ignore each other. That's a lot better than some families, right?