Delilah-Dog Brady, born August 4, 2011, departed this earth on June 6, 2022, at the age of 10. She is survived by her human family, the Brady Bunch and will be missed.
How do you spell “love”? D-O-G, or so her humans thought when their father announced the Havanese puppy’s impending arrival in October, 2011. Delilah was named after the woman in the Bible who betrayed her lover and gouged out his eyes, which perfectly expressed her human father’s feelings about having a dog. The popular song, “Hey There, Delilah,” made the name stick, and besides, this name suited the men of the house better than the name proffered by the then seven-year-old girl: “Wishes.”
Delilah, (aka Lilah, The Lie Dog, The Doo Dawg, and Deliler) left her mark on this world and every carpet of the house. Many UPS drivers will miss Delilah’s incessant barking from behind her humans’ legs as she feigned to protect.
She will be remembered for her intense and relentless FEAR. She could often be found on the third step from the bottom of the staircase in the house, unexplainably terrified to go down the last three steps, despite her humans’ enticements. (Video below.) Her sporadic and mysterious fear of her own food caused much weight loss and angst, as her human family endured her hungry whining, while she was just two feet from her filled food bowl. (Video below.) If one thought her injured legs were the reason for the fear, they would think again, knowing that she could not be contained, getting out of any fence or gate she was put into – including using her tail to balance like a squirrel on top of the baby gate for twenty seconds before finishing her escape. (Video below.) She was a natural weaver, and when on a leash inside a fence (to prevent the impending escape), she would drag her leash in and out of the fence posts in a natural weave pattern, shortening the leash as she went and making a weaver’s pattern that would impress any in the textile industry. (Video below.)
Delilah created her own obstacle course to train the humans around her. Any time food preparation began on kitchen counters, or if her life involved a tether, Delilah was sure to make every attempt to break human ankles, perfecting the angle of trip.
Delilah was fast! She once downed 3/4 lb of raw ground beef out of the grocery bags when her human set them down to bring in another load from the car. (This was in 2020, when stores didn’t allow purchasing more than one pound at a time – even though we had multiple generations in our home.) She was immediately fitted with a “free dog” sign, but none of the neighbors took up the offer, and she remained a Brady after her humans forgave.
The average cost of a small dog over the 15-year life-expectancy is $17,000, but Delilah was always above average, surpassing those numbers in just sixty percent of the time on earth. Requiring a back-leg hip surgery at just four-months-old gave her a special limp, reminding all she was truly “extra valuable.” X-rays to figure out where the magnets she ate had gone, ACL surgery on the “good” knee, and a glucose meter and bi-daily insulin injections to bring back her health were only part of her run. Her $60 groomings every 6 weeks, were tough on the pocket, but tougher on Delilah’s mental health as she skied backwards against the leash -in pure defiance- each time we went.
| Food: | $1,300 |
| Grooming: | $5,200 |
| Beds: | $150 |
| Leashes (because she ate them): | $300 |
| Well-dog doctor appointments: | $750 |
| Flea/tick/heartworm protection: | $3,100 |
| Spaying: | $1,700 |
| Hip surgery: | $2,800 |
| X-rays to find the magnets she ate: | $400 |
| Boarding for business travel | $4,800 |
| Dental cleaning and extraction: | $980 (OK, we may have skipped this one.) |
| ACL surgery: | $2,300 |
| Glucose meter and Insulin injections: | $400 . |
| Total | $24,006 |
| Her extremely enthusiastic, excited greeting while wetting the floor when we returned from a five-minute errand: |
One time, Delilah played hero for her human family. She simply kept randomly whining and even sometimes pawing at a plain-looking wall of the hallway in the basement of the lake house for several days. Her frequent neurosis (See “intense fear” above.) didn’t make anyone question her behavior, until an extremely foul stench arrived the following week. The humans were overwhelmed by the horrific smell of a dead animal inside the house. They pondered and blamed, then suddenly thought maybe Delilah’s strange actions were related and deserved investigation. The baseboard to the wall where Delilah had been whining was removed and revealed a mice colony that had gotten into the house only to meet their demise within that wall. Delilah’s super snoot saved us much wasted time; she was vindicated of her strange behavior (that time), and the expired critters and the smell that went with them were eradicated.
Like her humans, she had a strong love of music. Her favorite place to rest was under whatever instrument was being played, often “singing” along, though it was never certain if she sang in approval or complaint. If she was missing somewhere in the house, playing the piano always brought her out of hiding and straight to the feet of the player.
Delilah’s love for humans is featured in her human dad’s latest book, The Bitcoin Bride, – even posing for a picture on its cover (as drawn by Christine Brady). In the book, “Crescendo” (Delilah’s fictional name) tries to win over the dog-hating main character, a side- plot to the explanation of Bitcoin in a novel way.
Delilah was relentless in her pursuit of the humans’ touch. Dog-lovers and dog-haters alike were blessed with Delilah’s arrival on their laps, licking any skin that dared to be exposed. Reading a book will never be the same without her trying to lie on top of its pages. Obedience was not her strong-suit, and if she was not coming to her humans’ summoning by her name, they could simply open the front door and pretend to be talking to someone, and Delilah would come running, barking during the journey, ready to get into the conversation, because she loved PEOPLE. Loneliness was not an option for any human when Delilah was around.
Delilah will come to mind each time a melted ice cube is found on the floor. Apart from being our source for humor, and on a serious note: she helped our family grow up. Through grandparents’ deaths, a pandemic, the good, bad, and ugly days, she was there. She taught us many lessons about unconditional love, how to make someone feel special when they didn’t, and that sometimes it’s just right to force your seat between two people on the couch. Her grand appreciation of the simplest things in life (like pepperoni) should be emulated.
A memorial service will not be held, since her memory lives in our hearts and speeches. In lieu of flowers and condolences, feel free to have a spoon of peanut butter (her favorite) in Delilah’s memory.
Delilah Videos
- Singing with the Saxophone
- Fear of her food, part 1
- Fear of food, part 2 (The Overcoming)
- Fear of drinking water
- Fear of the last three steps on the staircase. (She could often be found sleeping on that step, because it was easier than finishing the task at hand.)
- Delilah the (fence) weaver.
- Overcoming all obstacles. (And balancing like a squirrel.)
In love and gratitude for a decade of memories,
Terri
James 1:17: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
notice our work? Do they care about their exhausted, frizzy-haired “taxi-driver” yelling at them from the front seat on the way to the endless tournaments and practices? Will their stiff hugs ever soften to enjoyment for longer than 0.25 milliseconds? Do my sideline cheering and encouraging words ever make it through their ears or make a difference? Do they know how much I love them? I think 
you tell others how much you love them. (But beware: I am guessing the opposite is true too – our kids feel unloved if they overhear us telling others complaints about them!) I got to experience this “indirect LOVE” first hand from my four kids when they sang to a crowd about their love for me! Not only did my oldest son write a song for me (WHAT?!!! And I am happy he has written many for his wife too!), but then he was sweet enough to invite his siblings to share the spotlight when they sang about their “first love” in front of a group of my friends at my 50th.
Now that young composer is married to a mom who will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day this week. If there were any line of the song with which I disagree (and it makes me cry every time), it is “patience ‘cause we took so long.” In retrospect, one thing is sure about this young man and his siblings’ childhood: it was a flash of time: a beautiful, God-painted, gloriously-colored, unpredictable, flash of time, and I thank God for allowing me to live it with them.
peanut butter cookies. (I was always such the perfect sister and the innocent victim in every story…because I am the one writing it today; ha! It didn’t hurt that peanut butter cookies were my favorite, too.) I prepared the dough and put the cookies into the oven, and per normal went to kill the 8-minutes of cooking time playing the piano. The piano must have been louder than the kitchen timer, because the cookies ended up burning. I had put too many in the oven, too, so most of the batch was instantly ruined. Of course my brothers came into the kitchen at that exact moment, while the stench of the burn choked any house occupants. I was embarrassed. They laughed, asking if I was using the smoke detector as my timer again. One grabbed a cookie and headed outside, saying he was going to play hockey with it – “anyone want to join me?” he yelled back.
hot boating days, our family would often stop there for ice cream or a soda. There was a sign in the parking lot that said, “Reserved for Bob.” I didn’t know who “Bob” was, or if it was a joke, but he seemed pretty important to have his own professionally-made sign.
stocked their live-wells with the baitfish, while their clients loaded. Groups of men and even a few couples came, found their assigned captains and loaded their chartered boats for their day at sea.
Letters to Lindsey 