The tale of Gunther

You ask of my companions.  Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself that my father bought me.  They are better than human beings, because they know but do not tell.  ~Emily Dickinson

Well one of my first posts in this blog was about the sad passing of my beloved dog Godfrey earlier this year. He is still very much missed and loved but I am happy to say we were able to provide a place for another dog in dire need of a home. 

We had been looking for some months at online postings from animal shelters and rescue groups and had visited several shelters in our area with no success. The only real plus was that it seemed my family was a good luck charm for the animals. Nearly every dog we inquired about ended up getting adopted.

On a whim when my mother and I were running errands in town I decided to go visit our local animal shelter again. When we went inside we saw several cute dogs we thought might be possibles so we called my father to have him come look at the dogs. While waiting for him to arrive, we discovered one of the three dogs we were considering  had the bark of a screech owl (it was horrible), and no matter how we pleaded it would not cease. We knew for sure that my father would not want that dog, but we were still hopeful for the other two dogs. While waiting, I continued to look in the runs at the other dogs.

My parents initial plan was to get a smaller dog. No more then 30 lbs (15.876 kg) because their backs are not what they used to be. Looking through the runs I found myself stopping repeatedly to look at the dog the shelter had named Bubba. He was a very large dog with beautiful chestnut fur and white feet and collar. His most striking features were his yellow brown eyes and liver nose. I just kept coming back to his run, but I knew there was no way we could have him. He was just far to large.

Finally my father arrived, and he quickly decided against the two smaller dogs we had considered. Since he had made the long journey, he continued to look at the other dogs available only to stop at Bubba. After a short talk with the staff it was arranged for us to take Bubba outside to a play pen. I was excited and amazed but knew better than to get my hopes up. Unfortunately, it was the worst possible situation for any dog. In the fenced off play pen right next to the one Bubba had been taken to, there was a goat. Someone had abandoned a goat at the shelter and when a strange animal like a goat is running around it excites a dog quite a bit. I just knew Bubba's chances were doomed. 

I was expecting us to turn around right then and return inside, but we lingered much longer than I expected. Finally, we took him back inside, where he calmed down, and dad decided we would go home and consider our options. I was nervous of course. I had fallen hard for Bubba and knew from looking at his card that his time at the shelter was coming to an end. Over dinner that night we talked more and suddenly my dad said, " You know what that dogs name is; it is Gunther." I knew then that we would be going back for Bubba. Father had told us he would know the dog when he saw it, and he had been right about all the dogs we had owned in the past. My father just couldn't bare to think that such a beautiful and sweet dog would get killed. He was just too large a dog for most people to want to adopt. We knew we would have to get him trained, but it felt right saving his life over investing money in a purebred dog, According to my father, Bubba was the dog for us.

We went back to the shelther the next day and adopted Bubba. We arranged an allowance of time for an examination by our vet and for insuring that Bubba and our cats could cohabit.When we first got Gunther he was weary; his tail and head always hung low. It has been several months since and he is now a  happy dog with curly tail held up proudly. He has even gone to a few classes of doggy school and is a wonderful student. 

The shelter we adopted him from identified him as a Irish Wolfhound. Actually, Gunther is a German Wire-haired Pointer who escaped having his tail docked. It was very hard to find images of GWP's without docked tails but some of the ones I did find had tails with slight curves to them like his. 

Gunther is still a puppy if you can believe it looking at the pictures. At the time of this post he will probably be around 10 months old according to the vet and in the 70lb range (31.751 kg). Puppy or not, he is quickly becoming a beloved member of our family.