Death of my best Friend.

[ScottD]

It's been two very depressing weeks and I feel that I can finally talk about my best friend, Gunther, without turning into a blubbering fool.

I first met him when he was 4 weeks old and I held him in the palm of my hand as we rubbed our noses together.

For the last 14 1/2 years Gunther has been my constant companion and hunting partner. Most would say that he wasn't the staunches dog on point, but there wasn't a bird that was lost in the field if I did my part in putting it down.

We hunted ducks, grouse, woodcock, small game and geese. He really loved goose hunting. He has just vicious when it to small game. He just became a different dog when around small game. He was death on raccoons and squirrels, but then around possums he would pick them up gently and retrieve them alive. But coons and squirrels he would just shake to death.

He was a garbage digger and always found the most rotten stuff to roll in at the most inconveint times. He showered with me on a regular basis and loved to stick his nose underneath the covers and gradually advance until his whole body was under the covers every morning.

He was the first dog I ever had that when you put a bowl of food out in the morning he would gradually eat throughout the day and still had some in the bowl the next day. He loved ice cream and apples. And if you went to get a banana, you better have gotten two, because he pestered you so much for his share.

He only did his business in one part of the yard, making clean up effortless.

He never chewed anything and never was agressive towards any human. Even while I was stitching him up after a minor hunting accident he never nipped at me.

He was a Drathaar at birth, but of a smooth coat, which constantly got him mistaken as a Shorthair, though he never minded.

And as with most great athletes his body just wore out though his mind was very attentive up to the end. And it was because of this that made it so difficult to put him down with him so coherent.

It will be a very, very longtime before I will forget him. Goodbye Buddy!

[PAPA G]

i understand your grief, but let your post memoralize a true, great friend.

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello, sir. I fully understand your feelings having been in the same position over the years. Believe it or not, time will help much and mostly just the good times will remain.

Sincerest respect and sympathy from my house to yours.

Best.

Originally posted by PAPA G
i understand your grief, but let your post memoralize a true, great friend.

Amen

[jerry]

Sorry man, some !!!!ed humans aren't worth as much.

[Dale]

Scott, sorry to hear you've lost such a great companion, partner and friend.

Like Jerry said often our dogs are better humans than humans themselves.

As I read your list of Gunther's qualities it's apparent he was one heck of a dog and I read many things that reminded me of the dogs I've had and lost in the past.

I've got two great dogs right now but I also lost the best friend and dog I ever had in 1994.

At least you had the opportunity to know one of God's greatest blessings...unconditional love and friendship from an animal that expectedvery little in return.

I hope you continue to have these kinds of friends. I realize it'll take a while for the hurt to ease but it will.....some. Let your next dog be a shadow of Gunther and cherish the memories of him.

[ScottD]

Thanks to everybody for their kind words and thoughts.

As I stated it was tough putting Gunther down and I expect that sight to remain with me the rest of my life.

I knew this was coming for many years and I made preparations 4 years ago by aquiring Zeb. Zeb is a descendant of Gunther's line.

I have attached a jpeg of his first hunt when he was 3 1/2 months old.

[billy]

when i die i want to go wherever my dog went, i got a little chocked up reading about your loss. sorry man.....

[jerry]

Originally Posted by billy

when i die i want to go wherever my dog went, i got a little chocked up reading about your loss. sorry man.....

Billy, your a good man

[billy]

i wish i was half the man my dog thought i was.

[Apollyon67]

Billy, we should all be so lucky to be half the man (or woman) our dog thinks we are.

[troy2000]

Partly in tears, and partly in smiles, as I remembered my dogs.

As a friend of mine once said, "of COURSE they're people. But don't go insulting them by calling them almost human..."

[wirehunt]

Sorry to hear that Scott, not much you can say about it either, maybe 'I know how you feel.......'


Stephen

[billy]

ive been thinking of adopting a old dog ,you know an old guy no one else wants .and just takin him home and lettin him have the good life .there are tons of em at any pound because everyone wants a puppy.he can sleep on the couch i dont give a !!!!...just some thoughts.

[jerry]

Wirehunt,
Where ya been? did ya check out the duck pics on the wingshooting portion? Storm of the year comming tonight. I'd best be in the duck blind tomorrow

[Deersniper]

Here's to Gunther. He'll be there with you in spirit, guiding you on those future hunts. They say domesticated animals are living souls, and that's proved every day. It keeps us in touch with our mortality to lose such a honorable, devoted friend. Happy trails.

[Calvin]

I'm so very sorry to hear you lost your friend. Dogs just seem to grow on/with you, and I've lost a couple of good ones myself. Gunther sure was a good looking one, too. I hope the good times you had somehow make it a little more bearable.
Like Troy, this thread brought tears and smiles. I can't believe I got as teary-eyed as I did, but I guess it's a good thing. Dealing with the bad side of humanity as much as I do, it's nice to look back on a couple of lives that made mine more fun and enjoyable. I'd love to get another dog but dread having something like this happen again to me.
A wise older man once told me that if you can look in an old dogs' eye and know he likes you because you like him, you've made a difference in this world.
May Gunther rest in peace.....

[wirehunt]

When I haven't been working I've been hunting Jerry, silly season for the deer at the moment. Scored a 180 odd lb pig a month ago, an hour after getting a good fallow stag, not sure how many animals for the four weeks I was off maybe 8 or 10

[billy]

spam

[Dookiebutt]

That post got me teary-eyed.

I just lost Grady in November. I had him since he fit in the palm of my hand. He was just shy of sixteen. He was suffering from lymphoma. He was in pretty great shape for his age up until the last few days, the disease really hadn't kicked in hard. The last few days were bad. He spent his last night on this planet just they way he spent thousands of others - on the bed between my wife and I. I carried him into the kitchen while I made coffee and fed the boys. He tried to get up and his legs were like cooked spaghetti. I put my hand on his back and he looked at me like the fight was over. He died at my wife's feet a few minutes later. I'll miss that old man. I'll see him again. I know it.