Sunday, May 28th — what an awful day it turned out to be.
September of 2002, my then wife called me to tell of a farm that had Beagles for $100 each. She had always wanted a Beagle as that is the kind of dog her grandparents had always had. I loaded up the car with with our two year old son, and headed off to a farm in rural Dane County, Wisconsin.
I had picked out a female beagle to take home, but this one little guy kept jumping up on my son. In his exuberance he knocked Everett over, and was then licking his face. Gus picked out his boy, and my wife would not have a beagle, our son, Everett, would.
Gus slept in bed with Everett every night from that day forward, for the next fifteen years.
Gus, was more like a cat than a dog when it came to affection. He would come to you when he wanted it, and if he didn’t, well, he just sat on the other side of the couch from you. He was very particular in the way he received scratches. His favorite place to be scratched was just above his tail. If you were not scratching fast enough, he would do this little dance with his rear end to scratch himself with your hand. This evolved into him standing under your legs if you had them up, and petting himself with your legs.
Gus saw me through some pretty rough days — he was there for me during my divorce. He was there for me when the woman who I thought was the love of my life walked out on me with no explanation. Some days it felt like he was the only friend I had.
When my son was smaller, they would play tug, or more like drag. Everett would hold onto an old sock, and Gus would drag him through the house.
As he grew older, he became less playful, and more like an old curmudgeon. He had his “spot” on the couch, and no one could sit there. If you did, you would have a Beagle staring you down, and then jumping on you and moving you to the side. He also became more territorial, or as territorial as a beagle could be. When I would let him out in the morning, he would head out into the backyard, the hair on his back would stand up, and he would let out a howl to let everyone know this was his yard. He would then do his business, and come back in the house.
Things started to change for us in mid-April. My family had just come back from a cruise. A lump on his neck that was not there when we left had appeared. He began to vomit with regularity. I took him to the vet, they found a mass in his anal glands during the exam. An appointment to the oncologist was made. April 26th, 2017, my 50th birthday, the oncologist at the University of Wisconsin Vet School confirmed our fears. He had anal gland cancer, and the lump on his neck was a carcinoma. Over the next month I would find more lumps. One of them would get infected. I took him to the vet last Thursday, got some antibiotics for the infection, my vet estimated he had 4-6 months.
Over the next week I saw a decline in his motor skills. A week ago he could jump up on the couch, by Wednesday I had to pick him up to put him on the couch. He still had a strong appetite, not for dog food, I had put him on a diet of chicken, turkey, fruit, vegetables, and ground beef under the recommendation of our vet, so I thought he was doing well. Saturday morning, I could tell something was not right, I called my ex-wife and had her come over so we could start making plans — I knew the time was coming, but was not sure when. We decided that our son would have the final say. As he was working Saturday, they would come over Sunday morning and we would discuss our plans. Saturday, Gus had a voracious appetite, he ate a cup of chicken, and two cans of sliced peaches.
Sunday morning, and Gus ate two cups of ground beef and turkey. He was doing fine. As a family we decided to hold off on any decisions for a week, to see how he was doing. We then turned to setting up some college visits for Everett.
Everett noticed it first, Gus started twitching. Then, he went into a full blown seizure. I held him and tried to comfort him. The seizure stopped, and then another one started. After that, we all knew it was time. Gus never really came out of it. He just started to walk in circles, he had made the decision that we did not want to make for us. I called a vet that specialized in in-home euthanasia, and told her what had happened, she said it sounded like the cancer had gone into his brain, she could be there by three o’clock. We started to say our good-byes.
As Gus was walking in a circle in the living room, his right rear leg stiffened up and he collapsed on the floor. His leg would not relax. He was scared, and confused. We all circled him, trying our best to comfort him. About five minutes later the vet arrived. She did an exam and agreed that it was time.
She gave him a sedative, his leg relaxed, and he began to snore. She then put him to sleep while my son, ex-wife, girlfriend, and other beagle, Buzz, were around him saying goodbye. Buzz will be lost without Gus. We rescued Buzz five years ago, he had been abused. The only way we could get Buzz to calm down, to get him so that he would not defecate and urinate in his crate was to put him and Gus into a larger crate together. Buzz bonded to Gus, Gus tolerated Buzz.
RIP Gus...You will be missed.