Our Newest Family Member
It’s been a long, hard goodbye to Gunnar, not only for us, but for his big brother, Chaser. Since Gunnar’s passing, Chaser had been wondering the house in search of his now departed friend. But just recently, in a effort to pamper Chaser a bit, Vikki ran into the Heart of Texas Greyhound Rescue folks at the local Petsmart. These are the same people that helped us find Chaser.
To make a long story short, they recommended another companion for Chaser, preferably a female (so there’s no dominance issues). We talked about it, and a day or so later, our house was filled with about 8 greyhounds in search of homes. The hard part, was simply finding a compatible companion for Chaser.
All the dogs were wonderful, some were shy, others full of energy, some ignored us and one just kept coming back. So, without further adieu, we’d like to introduce you to our newest family member, Sarasota.
Like Chaser, Sarasota is a retired racing greyhound, and while Chaser is extremely fast, his “doofus” factor is too high for him to have won any races. Sarasota on the other hand, is more gentle, sleek and prissy. She won 8 races before she realized that she was too good for racing and needed to settle down.
As there is no way to replace Gunnar, we did find it necessary to fill, at least a part of, that void since his passing. We’re proud to have her as part of our family and look forward to many years of having the bragging rights to “the fastest dogs in the neighborhood”.
If you are interested in the racing history of both dogs you can view their pedigree and racing stats at the links below:
To see more photos of Sarasota and our other family members, press the big “PhotoBlog” thingy on the right hand side of this site.
Saying Goodbye
How do you say goodbye to someone who meant so much and was such a huge part of your daily life? As many of you already know, we lost Gunnar this past Wednesday morning (January 31, 2007), from heart failure. I want to thank all of those who sent the kind emails and phone calls, as we found great comfort in your words.
To us, Gunnar was more than just a dog or a pet, he was an indelible member of our family. His head always held high, he possessed the proud swagger and confidence of a rock star bowing to his adoring fans with spirit of a Doberman, trapped in an 8 inch high wiener dog body, and made darn sure everyone knew he was in the room. He was our friend, our brother, our confidant, our companion, our child, our baby, our alarm clock and our protector. No movement unnoticed, no foe too large, no squeaky toy safe. No, Gunnar wasn’t just a miniature dachshund , he was a miniature superhero.
Unfortunately, something inherent in all superheroes is that there greatest attribute is all too often their greatest weakness as well, and Gunnar’s was his heart. He had been diagnosed earlier last year with liver problems and later a heart murmur discovered, and while we gave him his daily medication, it recently became apparent that his little body was simply shutting down on him. On or about New Year’s, he had what we now realize was a seizure, where he went limp in my arms for a few seconds. With his goat-like tendencies to eat just about anything he found on the ground or floor, we figured he probably had gotten into something he wasn’t supposed to. He seemed fine, bounced back and was back to his old self for a few weeks, but seemed to become a bit more “boney” than before. Then last Sunday, I witnessed a full-on seizure where he just fell over and spasmed for a few seconds, over the next day or so the seizures became more frequent and we had come to the conclusion that his time with us was nearing conclusion. All we could do was comfort him and pray that when the Lord would take him, He took him without pain.
Wednesday morning, I woke up at my usual 5:30 am and attempted the same ritual we’d had for 11 years of taking Gunnar out for his usual “business”. He simply would not go outside…I knew something was wrong. I grabbed my coffee, laid Gunnar in his bed next to me and then I heard it…the gurgled breathing that indicated fluid in the lungs, my heart sank, he put his head on my shoulder like always, we cried a good cry and said our private goodbyes. We made our preparations with the kids, making sure they understood that Gunnar may not be with us when they returned from school. With the kids off to school, we gathered up Gunnar, placed him in the car and off to the vet we went, however, about 10 minutes into the car ride, at 8:29 am, Gunnar took a few deep breaths, stretched out and passed away. It was quiet, gentle and with his Mom and Dad at his side.
We are so grateful that he died peacefully and that we were with him. It doesn’t make it any easier, but it’s certainly comforting knowing that we didn’t have to make a life or death decision or that he didn’t die alone. That would have been guilt I could not have bore.
We loved Gunnar and he loved us, the pain of his passing is countered with years of happy memories, a million laughs and plenty of stories of his heroics, antics and general mischief. He was a prince among dogs and we cherish the memories and the opportunity of having him…beyond what words can describe.
It’s hard to say goodbye and even harder to let go, but always will there be a Gunnar shaped hole in our hearts. We miss you, old friend, we’ll see you again.