Video Story
Watch Video"Marley" lives in Monument, Colorado
Story By: Susan Davies
Source: KOAA
Published Thu Jan 08, 2009, 04:49 PM MST
Updated Fri Jan 09, 2009, 05:10 PM MST
You could jog by "Brodie" on the Santa Fe trail and not look twice. He's a handsome, male, yellow Labrador retriever; but there's nothing very special about him - except that he spent almost eight months with a top animal trainer and starred with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in the current box office hit - "Marley and Me."
Brodie was one of eight adult dogs who played "Marley." Brodie and another dog starred in scenes where Marley is between the ages of 8 and 12 in Florida and Pennsylvania.
Brodie had humble beginnings. The couple who owned him divorced and gave him up for adoption. Safe Harbor Lab Rescue www.safeharborlabrescue.org matched Brodie with the Middleton family in Monument. Kristy Middleton eventually became the organization's president.
When the film's animal trainer started searching for "Marley," he sought out rescued dogs. After seeing Brodie's picture, he flew to Denver, drove to Monument and signed the dog on. The family "sold" Brodie for $1,500 to the trainer and "bought" him back after the picture was made for $1.
He returned last Memorial Day thinner and better trained. He even had some white muzzle make-up on - remnants of the shoot.
The family has seen the movie twice and still isn't sure which scenes contain Brodie and which scenes feature the other older "Marley." They are happy he wasn't the Marley that was taught "tricks" like ripping up the couch and tearing up linoleum. There's always the fear that a dog might not completely forget those "learned behaviors." Kristy says Brodie's better about staying off the bed, but he still gets into the trash and eats "stuff" in the yard he shouldn't.
