Saying Goodbye to Gus

Gus was born the day Wes and I took our engagement pictures sometime in August of 2004, I don't remember the exact date. We couldn't keep him at Jack's house where Wes was living, so Thelma kept him for the first year of his life. She took great care of him, even taking him to an obedience class at the college. Once we moved to the Matlock house, we had Gus come live with us, and he was with us ever since. 

Letting him eat people food for his last meal...something he never got to do (except for the millions of crumbs the kids have dropped over the years)

 Towards the middle of October the girls were giving him a bath and noticed his eye was crusted shut. We had some antibiotic eye drops on hand so we tried to give him those. After about a week with no improvement I scheduled an appointment and they couldn't get him in right away. We ended up taking him in as an emergency appointment.

The vet said he would need to go under to treat the eye, most likely needing to remove the eye. Gus's health over the last few years has really deteriorated...loss of hearing, increase in accidents in the house, rotting teeth, arthritis, etc. After hearing he needed surgery, we had them run a blood test and that showed he was in the beginning stages of renal failure. With all of that info, we made the hard decision to put him down.

Morgan really wanted to sleep in Gus' bed with him his last night, we tried to compromise by him sleeping in her room, but he wasn't having that either.

 We brought Gus back home for one more night, so the kids could say goodbye and have some closure, and then I took him back to the vet the next morning. In the afternoon we picked his body up and he is now buried in the big rocks by the old septic tank. I've cursed this dog for years as he has gotten older and crankier, but it was much harder than I expected to hand him over at the vets office.

Gus's "spot"

 As a puppy Gus had so much energy and actually knew lots of tricks and commands. The kids really loved and played with him when they were younger. But he has just gotten so old and cranky the last few years. The thing that was so sad for me to think about was that he has always been here...in the background of our family life...the whole time.

 The kids have handled it really well. They were sad to say goodbye, but as time goes on they are doing better and better. Having a cat they like has helped too.

last goodbyes before school