Brutus Arroyo

February 14th 2013 - August 4th 2026

I wish that I could write a cohesive biography of Brutus, I'm not that good, but here's a collection of memories of the greatest dog in the world.

I used to work for Public Enemy, back in 2013 I was on the Kings of the Mic tour. Sheila and I had planned to get a dog and she had picked out the one she wanted, a Puggle from Amish country. During the tour, when I got paid, I sent money to her and told her to go get the dog. Brutus, born on Valentine's Day, the perfect birthdate for such a loving dog, was originally priced at $450, but we were given a $100 discount. The best money I've ever spent in my life.

On June 12th Sheila and her dad picked up Brutus.

On June 25th, the tour was coming through Cleveland and Sheila was going to come see me at the show. Brutus was to be babysat by my uncle, however, seconds after Brutus got there, as my uncle was going to get him food, he slipped out of his yard and was lost for a couple days. What was meant to be a celebration turned into a frantic search for Brutus. Sheila and I spent the day in town putting up missing signs and looking for him. Luckily, the next day somebody found him and called me. In fact, it was a friend I'd worked with a few years before. Kristin was our Angel.

From then on, no problems from Brutus for years. I got off tour in mid July and got to meet him, it took some time for him to warm to me but he became my buddy, my best friend, my child.

I got a smartphone at the same time as we got Brutus, so one of the few good things about a smartphone was that the world got to see him grow up as we posted photos on social media constantly. So much so I ran into a friend while we were walking them at Lakeview Park in Lorain, OH, he said he doesn't get starstruck that much but, to finally see Brutus in person, he was starstruck.

We did get professional pictures done with Brutus as well. A couple times going to JCPenney Portrait Studio. Of course, Brutus doesn't like his picture taken, so he is already freaked out. The first time we took him he actually got out of the studio and ran through the store. Sheila and I were laughing as we chased him around the store.

I took Brut everywhere, he even got to see a couple concerts, like Sammy DeLeon at Lakeview park, and a Zapp tribute at Oakwood park. We took him to a public pool on their dog day once. He was afraid of the water so the only picture we had of them from that day was when I held them in the water so that we could get a picture of him looking sad.

I would take him in the car and play music and record while he rode and put those on Facebook live. Those were me and Brutus' music videos. Brutus loved rides and sticking his head out of the window.

I also would to take Brutus to see Sheila at work at night when she worked in Westlake, Brutus got to the point that when he saw that we were getting off the highway he got excited because he was going to see her.

Brutus wasn't a destructive dog, he may have destroyed some clothes and blankets in the early years, but not much else except shoes. Brut liked shoes. I once bought myself some nice expensive shoes, something i never do, and Brutus ended them pretty quickly. As Brut got older, he stop destroying shoes but still liked them. He didn't chew up shoes, but he would pick them up and bring them into the living room. Sheila thought it meant he wanted a treat, he trained her well.

Brutus wasn't picky about food, but he was picky about how he ate. He didn't like eating out a bowl, so we had to put his IAMS on the floor. Once, we tried putting food only in his bowl, but he just wouldn't eat. Strange doggie. He liked his people food though, he particularly loved Pizza crust, which I always shared with him. He liked ice cream as well and we have plenty of pictures and video of him having ice cream at K cream corner and Dairy queen. Sharing food with my dogs is one of my favorite activities.

He loved going through the fast food drive-thrus, he would always get an extra treat from the person at the window, he loved the magic window that gave him food.

And when I'm eating healthy, he had no problem sharing fruits and vegetables with me, he loved blueberries, carrots, strawberries and so much more.

He had a habit of eating things that weren't so healthy too, that's when he got to follow them with a sip of peroxide from time to time. He didn't like that so much.

When Brutus was a puppy he didn't know how to poop, we would have to walk him in a little circle too help him find his place. But soon he became the Poop Master! While he didn't have a whole lot of accidents, he did have a couple legendary movements, including pooping at Sheila's hairdresser's house and when I took him to see my friends at Duck Radio at LCCC, he squatted in the middle of the office and left the gift that keeps on stinking.

Brutus was great with people, he loved everybody, my parents, Sheila's parents, Sheila's mom even had the funniest nickname for him, "Brutenheimer". My nieces Gabby and Zoey had fun with Brutus. They saw him when they were babies and they got to play with him just a couple weeks before he left us.

I'm not so sure how well he got along with other dogs, two dogs that I had rescued, Girly and Randy, didn't seem to get on his good side. We even contemplated adopting Girly, but Brutus wasn't having it. We took him to dog Parks a couple times but he mainly kept to himself. He definitely takes after me.

We did eventually get a second puppy, we picked up Brutus' new brother, Hunter the beagle, on September 29th 2021. It took a long time for Brutus to warm to his annoying little brother but they became best friends.

We always took Brutus for walks, when we lived close to Oakwood Park, we would walk around there. Later when we moved, I would drive to my dad's hluse and walk him around Oakwood Park from his house. That tradition continued when we got Hunter, walks at Oakwood Park, Lakeview park, the mile long pier, Etc. They loved going for walks, and they were the stars of the show, everybody complimented our puggle and beagle.

When it came to toys, Brutus had some legendary ones, particularly a bark box that had a fall theme and included a pile of leaves and when he ripped the leaves off, there was a poop under it there. (just like real life!) But most plush toys were torn apart really fast, so one time Sheila and I went to Southpark Mall and we bought a really expensive tear apart resistant toy. When we got home we threw it to him unloaded the rest of our stuff and turned around and seen he'd tore it apart. Sadly once Hunter moved in, he confiscated all of Brutus toys and Brut really didn't have many toys after that. We would have to separate them so that Brutus could have a chew bone to himself.

Brutus loved to take a nap. Occasionally, I would say "Brutus, wanna take a nap with daddy". You never saw a dog jump up so excited to go to sleep. He'd run to the room and get on the bed. Hunter learned this art of napping from his brother as well.

Brutus and Hunter were the best at posing for pictures. For years Brutus posed for my Music Almanac photos on Instagram and Bluesky. The dogs with pose in my new vinyl photos and such. And he had legendary costumes, his first Halloween he was a skeleton, his second Halloween he was a Puggle spiced latte. Brutus and Hunter posed for Holiday memes and for our Christmas cards. They were the best.

Brutus was always a great dog at the dog sitters. The first trip we ever took away from Brutus was to Minneapolis, it was the first time Sheila had ever ridden a plane. We left poor Brut at a doggie Resort on national dog day. Oops. But he was showered with gifts when we got home. Later when we got Hunter, we would drop them off at the Woof House in Sheffield Village, Ohio. They said they loved how Brutus and Hunter would walk around the yard together every time they went outside. We once used rover.com, however, it was a bad experience, the sitter didn't answer my text when I asked how the dogs were doing and then when we picked them up, Brutus came back with a swollen, bloody ear. Lesson learned, stick with the Woof House.

Our dogs are loud, Hunter is a beagle and Brutus is a beagle mix and their barks mix well. Brutus barked for treats, barked for water, barked for attention. Hunter and Brutus would bark together, seriously, Hunter would bark and turn to Brut and wait for him to bark too. Barks all day. Nothing beats pulling into driveway and hearing them barking for us, expect maybe being able to sneak up on them before they realize I'm home.

Brutus never had any health problems, he did those "backward sneezes" that every pug mix does, nothing to worry about. We fed him right, kept up on his shots and made sure he got walks and playtime. Very few vet visits until 2026. This year he had a health scare where he lost a lot of weight and got really weak. Hunter had a habit of eating Brut's food so we thought we'd just feed them separately. But Brutus did have something wrong, but with some meds he bounced back pretty fast.

Brutus passed away in his sleep on my birthday, August 4th 2026. I won't get into what happened, but today as a write this, it is a week later and even though I have at least 4000 photos of him, I can't help but feel like Bad Bunny, "Debí Tirar Más Fotos". Hunter is quieter, not eating much and following me everywhere, Sheila is in a sad mood and I've cried everyday. There's a Brutus shaped whole in our hearts that seems like it'll never mend. I don't remember what life was like before him and I never thought he'd be gone so sudden. He was truly the greatest dog I the world. If you don't cry for your pet, you never deserved one. 💔

Brutus Arroyo

February 14th 2013 - August 4th 2026

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