It's A Haigood Life!: Farewell To Our Little Gus...

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Farewell To Our Little Gus...

Our dear little dog Gus, passed away this morning...very peacefully in his sleep. He would have been 17 years old in March. Over the past year, his eyesight deteriorated, he couldn't hear, and he really just liked to sleep in peace and quiet. The past few months he could barely walk down the street. We knew it was just a matter of time before he went to Doggie Heaven.

Still, here I am, a blubbering mess the past 24 hours. He was a precious little buddy...my very first pet as an adult and he was with me for almost half of my life. I didn't plan on getting a dog 16 years ago, and in fact, I was buying a puppy for my sister on her birthday when I met Gus. It was the summer before my senior year in college and my sister, Chris, and I decided to walk through a pet store. We saw this ADORABLE pomeranian/maltese mix puppy. He was cute as can be! I convinced her that I was getting her that sweet puppy as a birthday present. She decided to talk it over with her husband that night and we would come back the next morning if it worked out. Well...the next morning we showed up to see Chris's new little puppy and to our surprise there were TWO puppies in the cage!! Apparently, someone brought this puppy back because they decided they did not want a dog. That little puppy was the runt of the litter...tiny as can be (maybe a total of one pound). The puppy that we saw the day before was from the same litter. How in the world do we choose from these two adorable puppies?!?!?!? The store owner saw our terrible predicament, and kindly offered a special discount if we bought BOTH puppies. How could we say no?!?! They were brothers after all...how could we separate them?:) So- I called my college roommate to double check, and she was gracious enough to say it was OK (Thanks Cindy!). So- the little puppy I would have missed had we not come back that day...that was my Gus. I named him Gus after the cute pudgy mouse in the movie Cinderella. The name just seemed to fit him. Over the next year, Gus changed from a tiny black 1 pound puppy fur ball into a golden brown 5 pound fur ball! He was such a smart, peppy little dog, and he often got lots of attention from other people. He was just so cute:)

During my senior year in college, I would often walk Gus out on the lawn by our apartment complex. During one of my walks, I met a neighbor, named Kristin, who also had a dog. Her dog was a female shih-tzu named Avery. We became good friends, and we would often dog-sit for each other. Gus and Avery played really well together...we joked around that they were married! Kristin was getting married that summer, and she kept telling me that I needed to meet the best man in her wedding. Not too long after that, I found myself on a blind date with this man...my future husband, Alan. We like to say that Gus was our matchmaker:)

Gus with his favorite ball. This picture was taken in 2002.

Gus loved to play fetch. He had a favorite ball the size of a ping pong ball, that was yellow and green (pictured above). We would throw it and he would run and catch it, and bring it back...over and over and over. He would bark and dance until we would throw it again. This would go on for hours if we let him. Sometimes Alan would find Gus' ball in his shoe. I guess that was his way of giving a hint..throw the ball!!:) As tired as our arms got throwing his ball, we sure were sad the day he was just too old to chase the ball anymore.

I am so grateful for the blessing of little Gus in my life. He was a dear, sweet dog with lots of personality. Although I miss him so much already, I like to think he is running around Doggie Heaven with his brother Stewie, chasing a yellow and green ball over and over and over again...