This is Brilla's Story

Brilla's story begins in California where she was born into the Canine Companion Family where she was meant to be raised as a potential companion dog. All puppies need to be raised by a 'normal' family called puppy raisers. Their job is to socialize and train the puppy before they advance into more training . If they pass advanced training, they will then be placed with a person with special needs.

Brilla was born on May 16, 2004 in sunny California to a Black Lab mom and a Golden Retriever dad. Her owner, Tina, is a Canine Companion puppy breeder. Tina's job is to make sure that Palanie, (Brilla's mom), gets the best care while she is getting ready to have her puppies. Tina also gets another special job, that is to name all the puppies. Canine Companion puppies are named like hurricanes. Each litter of pups gets a letter. Can you guess the letter of Brilla's litter? Yes, she is from the 'B' litter. It's not always easy coming up with clever names that all start with the same letter so Tina thought it would be neat to give each of these 'B' puppies a Spanish word that begins with the letter 'B'. Brilla's real name is Brillar, which means, "To shine". Tina thought Brilla would make someone's life shine with happiness. It's hard to call Brilla, Brillar. I mean, you try calling it out over and over....go ahead, give it a try...it ends up sounding like "Blah, Blah, Blah..." and that's not very good is it? That's why we shortened her name to Brilla. The puppy raisers are not allowed to rename the puppy so Brilla is it.

Brilla lived in California for eight weeks, then boarded a plane with her sister, Buena, and headed here to Virginia. I guess you could say her life was just getting started when she met the Phillips family. We met the pups at Dullas Airport. They were traveling together in a single kennel. We saw Buena first. She was a very fat, black puppy. Brilla came out next.  She was a little precious, golden ball of soft goodness. Have you heard the expression, "Different as night and day."? Well, that was Buena and Brilla. We said our goodbyes and it was time to show Brilla her new home. The trip home wasn't too exciting. Brilla sat on my lap and barked at herself in the rearview mirror.

When we arrived home, Brilla met Indy, our German Shehperd. Indy, (Indiana Jones) wasn't sure what to make of Brilla, but soon they were best friends. Brilla enjoyed meeting the other pets too. There was Chipper, Iggy and Lil' Pig.. As you can see, Brilla really likes Lil' Pig. I think it's because they are the same color and both have wavy hair. Maybe Brilla thinks Lil' Pig is her puppy. They all get along like one big happy family! Over this past year and a half, Brilla has seen and done a lot of neat stuff that most dogs don't get to.