In memory of Gus

Last Friday my famiy's dog, Gus, passed away. He was almost 13 years old, and he had aged really quickly in the last two years. Even though we all knew the time would come soon, its still so sad when it happens. He was definitely part of the family. Gus was a great dog, and he will be missed, but my family and I feel confident that a dog couldn't have asked for a better life that what he had.

We got him when he was just about 3 months old. His mom was a springer spaniel and his dad was apparently a black lab, but the people that had the female dog had planned on breeding her with another springer...so they were in for a surprise when 7 little black puppies came out. We picked out Gus because he was the rolly-poley-est of them all and he was so sweet. He was so cute and chubby that we decided to name him Gus after he fat mouse on Disney's Cinderella.

As he was growing, he was so funny because he got the really be feet that labs get, but he never grew as tall as most labs, so he was always kinda short and stalky. He had huge floppy feet and ears when he was a puppy. People would stop to pet him when we were walking, and they almost always commented his feet and ears. Poor guy ;)

He got to go to work with my dad everyday since he was a puppy. That helped him get used to people and for most of his life he was a nice, happy-go-lucky dog that loved everyone, especially if you scratched his rump :) In the last few years he started to go blind, so he couldn't see people very well and he would bark if someone he didn't know got too close to the house, but as soon as he could he your voice, he would just start wagging his tail and he would trot right over.

One of his trademarks was that he was the "self-walking dog". He LOVED going for walks. So all we had to do was put on tennis shoes and he knew that we were going for a walk. He would get all excited and go looking for his leash. Our little ritual was that we would fold the leash up until it was about 12 inches long and then he would take it in his mouth and off we would go. He would keep the leash in his mouth until we reached a certain destination depending on where we walked and then he would just drop it in our path and keep going. we never had to worry about him running away or anything. He almost always came when you called his name, even if he was chasing a deer or squirrel.

Our neighbors all loved Gus. He was truly a part of the community. He had lots of other "dog-friends" at the fish hatchery and in Camp Sherman. I know they will all miss him too.

We love you Gus :)