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Brecca was my second Flat-Coat. She had various nicknames: the Brat, Breakfast, and Broccoli. She taught Rocky a number of bad habits, including how to counter-cruise.
Brecca has the dubious honor of being the dog of ours that has racked up the most veterinary bills.
She was beautiful flat-coat with a lovely topline, pretty movement, very dark eyes and great expression. In her show career she made top 20 one year and she won the 7 to 9 year old Veteran's class at the Colorado National Specialty over some amazingly beautiful flat-coats. The next day she went into the ring with Velvet and Wishful, and the three of them represented the best Veterans of that year's specialty.
I also remember one day we were competing in Open Obedience. We entered the ring with a good heel off-lead. We were ready. The judge said, "Forward" then, "Halt". Brecca was right at my side until the word "Halt". When I stopped she made sure I was still and then took the opportunity to bounce over to a patch of grass about 8 feet away. It must have looked particularly interesting, because she gave it a good sniff, and then trotted right back to my side and dropped right back into a perfect heel. I looked at her, she looked at me, and I just laughed. After all, I was just waiting for her; she hadn't missed anything important.
Brecca was born April 16, 1994 and she passed away in her sleep in the early morning hours of November 13, 2005. In her last weeks we knew something was wrong but were not ever able to diagnose her trouble. All the tests we conducted revealed nothing. Only afterwards did we discover that it was cancer: Hemangiosarcoma.
She was very much loved. We miss her terribly.