Gordon A Gentle Giant

Gordon was a Boxer/Lab mix who was beginning to gray in his face. He was young at heart. I'll never forget the day he entered our life. I had a load of clean linens in the van and when Gordon boarded, he made himself comfortable. He arranged and rearranged the blankets. He would lay down for a minute and then something outside the window would catch his attention momentarily and then he would arrange and rearrange the blankets again and repeat the entire process. At one point I heard a strange riping noise and I thought, there is nothing back there that would make that sound - just then I caught a glimpse of Gordon pulling out a white insulated material in the rear view mirror - then it hit me. Gordon was shredding up Billy's new work jacket. It must have hit Billy at the same time, lol. We got Gordon home and settled in. He never kept a blanket in his house - it was always drug around his yard. His neighbor and best friend was AJ a six month old catahoula. I use to watch Gordon and AJ run up and down the fence line and Gordon would match AJ turn for turn. Gordon was always a friendly fellow with both dogs and people. One day Gordon started throwing up water. I called our vet and he told me to bring him in the next morning. I kissed Gordon on his head and told him I loved him. I didn't realized that would be the last time I would see him alive. His blood test revealed he was suffering from kidney failure but his values were not nearly as high as Mo's had been. They were around 80 and Dr. Bradshaw got them down to 40 and had him stabilized. On the morning he was to be released, he suffered a stroke. He could still see and hear and we were hopeful he would recover. On July 8th 2009, Gordon suffered a second stroke and passed away. We lost him the same day we lost Grace - what a rotten day that was. Dr. Bradshaw called me that morning to tell me the news and to check on Grace. He said, "I'm sorry, I have bad news about Gordon, he passed away last night." I said, "he must be in good company because Grace crossed the bridge last night too." I knew Grace was going to die that morning, her breathing had changed and she had that far away look in her eyes, I knew there was nothing else to be done for her. I was holding her paw and I decided she might as well cross the bridge here with me as opposed to dying in the clinic. Grace passed with me at her side while Gordon crossed alone. Gordon had never seen Dr Bradshaw before his illness and I often wonder if he felt like I had abandonned him at a shelter. I hope he didn't fight for his life for 13 days and then give up on me - thinking I wasn't coming back for him. Gordon loved life and he lived every day to it's fullest. I can picture him sometimes - ripping up St Peter's robe making himself comfortable at the rainbow bridge. Until we meet again - my sweet gentle eyed giant.