Brutus

Brutus Buckeye "Air Brut" Big Paws
rest in peace 11/1997-11/2007

As our customers know, Downieville is a dog town. Brutus, our 10 year old yellow labrador retreiver lived his whole life here in dog paradise and finally succumbed to natural causes. Our customers remember Brutus as they had to step over him or carry their bikes over him to get into the shop. Everyone remarked on his big paws. So many people said it that we know if he had an Indian name it would have been Cheif Big Paws. His paws were webbed and he was 100% waterdog.

Every chance he got he ran off to the river behind the shop to enlist a stranger in a game of fetch. If they did not throw the stick he'd give the stick a couple of nudges with his nose, but if after a minute they didn't throw it he'd simply pick up the stick and drop it in front of someone else. Sometimes we would see him from the Courthouse Bridge and call out his name. He'd look up from the river, grab his stick, and come running up to us. He loved sticks and would chew them to shreds, his teeth wore down as a result. The Vet told us not to let him chew sticks, so we did our best to use balls whenever possible, but eventually Brutus would end up with a stick.

We called him Air Brut because his other favorite pasttime was to catch air off a rock into the river. One time a group of Girl Scout's saw him and started laughing and snapping pictures of him as he leaped off the biggest rock into Love's Falls in Sierra City. Sierra City and Downieville were both so small that everyone knew Brutus. He got along with most of the dogs except he got scared of Felix the chiuhuahua and sometimes had a scrap with Scoopy the town bully.

Toward the end of one summer I was closing the shop when a group of children came into the shop. They said they were here for a week and wanted to say goodbye to Brutus. Apparently, Brutus had sneaked away from the shop and spent a good part of the week with the kids at the beach behind the shop. I took a picture of them hugging him and weeping as they said goodbye.

Brutus was a real wiggler. I remember people who said they were not dog people saying how they loved Brutus' wiggle. Brutus definitely touched many lives with his boundless enthusiasm for life. It seemed like he had an eternal puppyhood and lived his life to the fullest. He was eager to please and was never aggressive to any person or animal. He was buried in our backyard with his big paws tucked under his chest in "jumping off the rock" pose. Brutus Buckeye (Ohio Buckeyes) will be dearly missed and tenderly remembered forever as Big Paws.

Greg Long and Daniel Long
Downieville Outfitters