Welcome Liberty to the Bark & Brass Crew

If you’ve been following Bark & Brass, you know our crew is never short on personality. We’ve had Willie the Golden Retriever (laid-back, picky eater, part-time philosopher), Lola the Australian Silky Terrier (queen of food and cuddles, now barking at angels), and Amelia the cat (equal parts aloof, judgmental, and plotting our downfall).

Well, the team just added a new recruit: Liberty — “Libby” for short. She rolled into our lives on Sunday, August 17, 2025, and immediately declared martial law on the living room.

Meet Liberty (a.k.a. Hurricane Libby)

Nine weeks old. Golden Retriever. Battery life: unlimited. Charging station: car rides.

This little ball of fur is packed with enough energy to power a trolling motor. She’s fast, she’s fearless, and she’s already perfected the art of the sneak attack. One minute she’s chewing her toy, the next she’s launching herself at Willie like a caffeinated squirrel.

She loves:

Car rides (window down = ears flapping = pure joy).
Adventures (which is code for: “I will drag you wherever I want to go”).
Pouncing on her big brother.
Stealing treats that clearly don’t belong to her.

Willie’s Dilemma: Big Brother Blues

Poor Willie. For years he’s been the golden child — the good boy, the porch napper, the backyard philosopher. Now he’s stuck in what I can only describe as the “I like you but please stop” stage of siblinghood.

On one hand, he wanted someone to play with. On the other? He didn’t realize “play” meant having a 20-pound missile bouncing off his ribs every five minutes. He tolerates her zoomies, but you can tell from his side-eye that he’s not totally sold on this new arrangement.

He’s basically that older kid whose little sister keeps barging into his Xbox session yelling, “Can I play too??”

Amelia the Cat: Hard Pass

Now, Amelia. If dogs are chaos in fur, cats are the order of the universe — or so they believe.

When Liberty arrived, Amelia took one look, hissed, and stormed off like she was canceling her subscription to our household. She hasn’t filed her formal protest yet, but I expect it will involve shredded toilet paper, a hairball in someone’s shoe, and a paw swipe or two for good measure.

For now, she’s maintaining a tactical distance and perfecting her “You’ve ruined everything” glare.

Life with Liberty (So Far)

It’s loud. It’s messy. It’s hilarious.

She’s turned our quiet routines into obstacle courses. Our shoes? Toys. Our carpet? A race track. Our patience? Tested daily. But then she tilts her head, flops onto your lap, and looks at you with those “I own you now” eyes, and all is forgiven.

She’s chaos, but she’s our chaos.

Welcome to the Crew

So here’s to Liberty, our newest four-legged mascot. She’s already rewritten the Bark & Brass handbook on “controlled chaos,” and something tells me she’s just getting started.

Willie may grumble, Amelia may protest, but at the end of the day… we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Welcome home, Libby. You’re officially one of us.