September

I need to start this post with a huge thank you to all of you who commented on my last post. I have been so sad over the loss of Gus and I read each of your comments. I just couldn't comment back. Even new people left the sweetest thoughts. Our pups mean so much to us and I know many of you could feel my sadness. One thing I have done over the past few days was to print some pictures of Gus to have around to pick up and physically look at and hold. Everything is digital these days, but I found with the loss of my previous 2 dogs that holding their photo helped. 

Awhile back I had placed pictures of our family pets in gold frames in the dining room. I didn't have Gus there because he was with me. I added a new gold frame with his picture to our wall of fame so to speak for the love that each one of those dogs have given us.

You may notice the leaves. I am trying so hard to let fall in. I love summer and other than losing Gus, summer has been good to me. Much needed rest and good times with the grandchildren and Gus were the makings of a summer I hadn't had in several years. 

It is not that I don't like fall. I really do, but I don't exactly live in the area of the country where one thinks of a traditional fall. It comes... in December when everyone has moved on to red and green and Christmas trees. Fall does come in different ways and an astute eye will catch the change of season, however temperature and colorful trees are a long way off just yet.

I have found that a slow adding of things over the month of September serves me well with fall. So the leaves above, kitchen towels, and some beeswax candles are all that are happening here yet. The light is fading sooner so I am going to try and add candlelight and lamps to my evenings. 

I ordered some beeswax candles for votives and some sticks too, so here are a few that I set out last night in the living room.

Jeff and I celebrated 42 years of marriage on the 1st. We were married on a Labor Day weekend. I have found that to be a lot more common than one would think. I had just taken a new teaching job, so we waited until the next June to have a honeymoon. We went to Nashville. I remember all the places we visited and the fun we had together. We went to the Grand Ole Opry. Life was much different back then - no online tickets. It just so happened that Hank Locklin lived in Brewton and went to my home church. He got us tickets and we picked them up in Nashville. That was so very kind of him. He was a very good man and the deed was not lost on us. 

I decided to share that tidbit this year rather than another picture of us in our very 1984 wedding gown and tux.

Here is Hank singing one of my all time favorite songs from him. A real oldie but goldie from my birth year, 1960.

I have added the link to YouTube below in case the video I have inserted doesn't work. 

https://youtu.be/DndK5hZBgu0?si=gpLXvp4nZOToW7bs

It has been a quiet week this week and I must admit I was lazy as all get out. I took naps when Valerie did and just more behaved like a sloth. I feel better for having done it so that is good I suppose.

I have been stitching and reading as time allowed or I felt like it. I will share my reading in another post. I told you I was switching back and forth with a sampler and an osprey stitch. Both are sort of large but not gigantic. I pretty much stuck to my schedule of a week each until yesterday. A squirrel caught my attention. In the stitching world, that is another pattern.

Here is where I left off with my osprey on the week I stitched that.

Then here is my progress on the sampler.

Here is the squirrel that got me off track. 

This pattern was gifted to me by someone special and I kept thinking I would pull it out ---well it happened yesterday. I was walking around in the foyer/formal hallway and I have a beachy stitch that stays out all year except for December. I love that stitch so much and I have the hardest time putting it away. As I was looking at it today I thought about this pattern and I knew it would be the perfect thing to go in the same place for the fall months. I will let you know which one I chose in the next post. 

I keep saying I am going to get back to regular blogging. I have been in a reflective mood this past week with my resting time. I really do want to, but life keeps throwing things at me to keep me distracted or unmotivated to write. I am working on it. I have so many things I would like to write about to keep a record of for the children. My blog changed somewhere along the way to a journal of good things about our family and I accepted that, but there is some stuff I would really like to add. Like I said, I am trying to get back at it. 

Motivation is lacking or it is it laziness? I am thinking lazy is the answer.

I am going to close this post with something that happened last weekend. Jeff came at me fast and furious with we needed another dog. I will admit- it made me sadder. I told him I couldn't' even entertain the idea as my heart was so broken. He let me shut him down for a few days and then he hit me with what I thought was a horrible statement and still think that, 

but....

He said he needed another dog. His emphasis was on needed. He said he wasn't going to live long and that we had never gone more than a few months without a dog and he needed it and that I would need it too. 

I turned him off, but he proceeded to find a litter born on August 15 in Milton (an hour drive away). They had one boy left and he can come home on October 10. I reluctantly drove with him to visit the lady and see the kennel. 

Well, y'all know when I held him I cried and loved on him and he nuzzled me and I was hooked. I am still walking around crying at the most random times but yes, we are getting another Springer next month. I will wait to tell you more then.

That drive over to Milton and other places was our quiet celebration of 42 years of a blessed life together since we would be keeping Valerie on the actual anniversary. I consider keeping those grandchildren a blessing too. We visited a plant nursery, a flea market and held a puppy. Aren't we just wild? 

- no, but we are enjoying all of our days together despite Parkinson's trying to take a bite out of it. One thing that has happened with age is I say yes more often to things I once would have said no to. Everyday is a gift.

Coming up soon... which flowers have survived a very HOT August and start of September. Not really expecting that heat to leave just yet. Birthdays. Trip to Auburn. Football season. 

For now - off to watch college football and cross stitch one of those fall beach stitches.

Sandy

Tribute to Gus

 Where does one begin to write a tribute when the heart is so broken? 

Gus, the eternal puppy.

I have struggled with the loss as anyone who is a pet lover would understand. Gus went down so quickly that it was a shock to us.

He was running and playing all summer with the grandchildren. Then about 2 weeks ago, he slowed down. He seemed to be panting, not because of being hot but, a general feeling of he is not ok.

I took him to the vet last week on a Tuesday where I was asked had anyone ever told me he had a heart murmur? From that moment I felt like Charlie Brown where I couldn't focus on anything else. They did tests and fortunately Jeff answered the phone with the results. We put him on a heart medicine on Friday and still he wasn't ok. All weekend, he wasn't exactly sick but he was not himself. We called first thing Monday morning to get him back in. Jeff took ,him and they took an x-ray and at our suggestion put him on an antibiotic because we thought maybe he had gotten sick from the bayou water.

Tuesday everything changed and very quickly. I was laying on the floor with him while Jeff called the vet. We made the decisions to take him to the emergency vet. A scan showed 2 tumors on his spleen and liver and that his spleen had burst and he was bleeding internally. Pure shock. 

The only consolation is that I spent most of that day petting him and holding him. I got to say goodbye - a hard one, but a goodbye.

I was unable to stop sobbing for 24 hours.

He was my gift for 9 years. Only 9 years was all I could think about, but somewhere in that awfulness God began to show me that my 9 years with him had been such a gift. I was at home all day with him, something I had not been with my other 4 dogs. Gus had been my sidekick all day everyday. We had only been away from him for a couple of weekends in his life. He has been our constant companion of joy and light for all of those 9 years.

This past Sunday, I typed 2 lines on my phone from the message. Our pastor has been preaching on the 23rd Psalm for some time now. 

On Sunday, he said...

"Don't waste the green pastures."

and 

"What we learn on the mountaintop is how we will live in the valley."

Gus was absolutely green pastures. He walked with me in green pastures and did all he could to bring joy to our family's lives. 

I have to be grateful for that and the 9 years (the mountaintop) of being blessed with his joy and energy for life. He walked with me through some tough things.

He loved everyone so much. He met 4 grandchildren and shared his parents with them. He loved them and always wanted to be where the action was. He entertained freely. No amount of rough play was too much. He was the ultimate chid's dog. If they were here playing, he was joining them.

He was the best traveler. He rode in the front seat in town looking out the window like he was making sure all was well. Stoic and completely out of character for a Springer to sit that still. When you got on the road to leave town, he would jump in the back seat and sleep until you stopped.

Everywhere we went people noticed him. Gus was as handsome a Springer Spaniel as you would find. The best physique, the best coloring and combination of liver and white on his saddle. He had little freckles on his nose that made anyone stop to look. 

He loved walking with me. It didn't matter if it was the same old path here at home or in Auburn, he was always up for the stroll and smelling the same spots each day. On those walks, I would often pray and release my worries and he was right there with me.

He was energetic and well behaved. He would slip off from the house to go down the street if you were out in the yard, but all I had to do was blow the crow call and he would come running back home.

He loved swimming as all our dogs did so a towel by the door was always needed. 

Jeff has always been an early riser and would go get coffee in the mornings and drive around town. He calls it his prayer drive. Drive around and pray ---Gus was always with him for that. He would come back home and jump on the bed to see if I was awake yet. If not, he would just lay there, but I shouldn't open my eyes because that meant go time. The day is waiting, Mom.

He went every morning since Tucker was born to pick up each grandchild to bring them back to our house. He understood we were headed to pick up the child and his role was to come along.

Gus has been such a joy to me. His presence has helped me through some tough stuff these past few years. I am completely undone, but so very GRATEFUL for the time I had with him.

He was the healthiest dog we could think of until just a couple of weeks ago. Optimal weight, boundless energy, love was the name of the game. That made what happened so hard, but I am doing my best to land on the good times that I was gifted with him.

May we all love life as Gus did and fill it with zest and joy.