Good bye old friend…

We had to say good bye to an old friend today, Gunner. He hadn’t been doing so well for the past 9 months and in the last 2 days took a severe turn for the worse. Looks like he had Leukemia and had also suffered a stroke in the past day or so.
He was a great dog. The things I rememebr most about him:

• He was the only short haired dog in his litter when we picked him up at the KentonCOunty animal shelter. DeAnna thought he would shed less because he was shirt haired…boy was she wrong!
• He loved his Baloo bear…he loved it so much, he chewed it’s eye off and passed it through.
• He spent the first few months of his life in our basement as we trained him. I thought he would never get house broken, but almost over night he seemed to “get it”.
• He loved to run and “herd”. He was part border collie and part hound. The border collie came out any time there were children around…he always had to keep them together. The hound came out whenever someone came int he house…he would “sing” to greet them.
• He loved my Mom and my Father-in-law.
• He loved liked beer. Michelob was his favorite.
• He did love coffee…we used to give him the last of our cups (before we had kids), until we found out it was bad for dogs.
• I could have killed him one time when we left him home all day and for no particular reason he chewed a whole in the carpet of our brand new house.
• He thought ice cubes were a great treat.
• He was afraid of fire works. Every fourth of July was spent in the basement cowering.
• The cats loved him. Especially Snickers.
• He was tolerant. Both kids would pull on his lips and eyes and ears and he never seemed to mind.
• He would chase his tail when anyone would “sing” the circus “big top” song.
• I loved playing Frisbee catch with him. He was no agility champion, but in his day he could catch with the best of them.
• He was very sensitive. When my wife got pregnant, he almost never left her side. He “knew”.
• He was a great defender of the realm. We we brought our daughter home from the hospital for the first time, we had a home visit from a nurse. The nurse gave Kendall a little prick for a blood test which of course made her cry and Gunner almost came through the screen and ate up the nurse.
• He was a big wussy. Although he could howl and bark with the best of them, he would wag his tail and roll over when you walked up to him to pet him.
• He loved to roam. He would “sneak away” now and then to see what was up in our old neighborhood. This didn’t happen so much when he was older…he liked to stay close to home. I could leave him out front when I was working in the yard and he would just sun himself.
• He loved car trips. Didn’t matter if it was to the vet or to the park, he always loved getting in the car. Perhaps my only regret is that I never took him on a trip.
• He was loyal. When I had my motorcycle accident and was stuck in a chair for almost a month, he rarely left me. He was a great companion.
• He always had to be in the middle. When we was a puppy he would always find a way to get in the middle of my wife and I. When he was older and I was staying up late at night working on my MBA in the basement and DeAnna was in bed, he would sit on the top of the steps on the first floor…that was the middle.
• He dreamed…often at night he would make little wimper sounds and move his legs ever so slightly. Chasing rabbits or sheep I guess.

That’s what I remember. Good bye old friend. You will be missed, but not forgotten.
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