And Then There Were Four...

One of my favorite photos of Gunni

I arrived at the vet this morning with our little Gunni wrapped in a blanket.

I left with only the blanket.

At the distinguished age of 16-and-a-half, Gunni has left us for the Rainbow Bridge.

She had a horrible, terrifying seizure this morning and I rushed her to the vet.  I was so fortunate that my mom was able to meet me there to love Gunni and support me as we faced the end of our time together.  I wish C could have been there with us, but it would have taken him about an hour or so to get to the vet and we simply couldn’t wait that long because Gunni was suffering.  I borrowed from one of my favorite books, The Bookshop Dog by Cynthia Rylant...I "stroked her smooth head and kissed her warm white face and told her what an angel dog she was."

As I have previously stated, we have always considered Gunni our “bonus” dog.  What joy and love she brought to our lives!  She was by far the sweetest and gentlest of our dogs, and the only one I would trust unsupervised with our godchildren, who called her “Guppy” when they were much younger.

Dr. T. was there with us every step of the way – she cried and hugged us and loved on Gunni, helping to make the most heart-wrenching of decisions a little easier.  We have suspected for some time that Gunni had a brain tumor, and we counted every day with her to be a gift.  We have had a very rough time of it for about the past six weeks as she deteriorated in front of our eyes…mentally much more so than physically.  C and I took turns spending countless nights sitting up with her in our arms because she had difficulty settling down and sleeping, while my mom spent her days at our house watching over her while I was at school and C was at work.  I will never be able to repay my mom for her kindness or thank Dr. T. properly for her compassion and care. 

Sitting here now, the house feels so empty without Gunni in it.  And heartbroken is the only word I can come up with to describe what I am feeling.  But I know she is at peace now and no dog was more loved.  Other than the fact that she was going to be put to sleep at the shelter before DRNA rescued her, we don’t really know her history from before she became ours.  But we like to believe that her life really began that day in 2009 when we brought her home with us.

My favorite Gunni story comes from 2011 when my mom and I were visiting family in Canada; I had taken Gunni and Maddy with me on the trip up north.  We were at my aunt and uncle’s house, along with another aunt and uncle.  The six of us were sitting outside enjoying a warm summer night around a fire.  Gunni loved following frogs – she never caught them or tried to eat them – she just followed them whenever she spotted them hopping around, and she was wandering around the yard doing just that on this particular night.  All of a sudden we heard a splash in the swimming pool and knew immediately that Gunni had fallen in – she’d been tracking a frog, and followed it right into the pool!  We all jumped up and rushed to the pool, with my one aunt pulling off her watch and shoes, ready to dive in to save Gunni.  We quickly realized that she didn’t need saving, however…she had her little head above the water and was paddling her way over to us.  We didn’t even know she could swim!

As you may have noticed in my previous post, there were a lot of photos of Gunni sleeping beside or on top of the other dogs – one of her favorite things was to put her head and neck on something warm.  Here is a recent photo from a night when she was having a tough time settling down – she was making whimpering sounds and moving from spot to spot on our bed.  C gathered her up in his arms and snuggled her and she put her neck across his neck and the two of them fell asleep like this:

It is astounding to me how one photo can capture so much love

Sweet dreams, our beloved little Gunni.

Happy Tails to you...