Spotlight on Gunner

 Since we last spoke our household has encountered a couple of issues.

I came down with a case of the stomach flu to outlast all stomach flus.  It was a doozy for sure.  Christmas prep disappeared, but my yoga training helped me to take it in stride.  Why get kerfluffled if the tree didn't go up on the normal schedule.

The bigger issue concerns our senior dog Gunner.  He's 13 years old, give or take, and symptoms of distress reappeared after several months of keeping them under control with CBD.  We've had several conversations with our vet to figure out the best course of action and have recently introduced a pain med in addition to the CBD.  So far so good, knock on wood.

So today you get a better look at Gunner, our ever happy go lucky tail-wagging little boy.

About 10 years ago we were thinking about a companion for Dudley, our super smart lab mix.  I happened to see a dog featured through a rescue group, Heavenly Paws, with the name of Gunner.  The name alone drew me in.  About 30 years ago we rescued a pointer mix by the name of Gunnar and she was such a very good girl.  I thought, holy cow, another Gunnar!   

Gunner had been picked up on the streets of St. Clair (or maybe St. Clair Shores) and was on the verge of being euthanized when Nancy S. of Heavenly Paws swooped in and scooped the little boy up.

They thought he was a rottweiler mixed with Bernese Mountain dog.  He had heartworm, an inverted eyelid and had not been neutered.  (our guess is when the owner discovered he had heartworm, out he went)  So we said sure!

Compared to super duper smarty Dudley, Gunner's brain power paled, but that little stub of a tail (yes it had been docked) would wiggle over just about anything.  It still does.  

At the time, Gunner weighed about 60 lbs, Dudley weighed in at about 80 lbs so Gunner was known as Peewee.  If truth be told, Gunner has put on more than a couple of pounds since then.

Gunner always looked to Dudley for guidance in new situations.  For instance when the two went to the dog sitter's together for the first time, Dudley was so exuberant about arriving, Gunner knew it was OK and felt comfortable joining in the canine fun.

After Duds died in 2017 and we adopted Faith in 2018, it was Gunner's turn to be the leader.

  So now, we don't know how much time we have with the little boy.  But he will be loved every minute.