RIP...

This has really been a week of deaths. It sounds bad, but I hadn't really thought about it until just this afternoon.

Last weekend a good friend of mine from my church in Philadelphia lost her battle with cancer. she was a wonderful woman who touched alot of lives and she is sorely missed. Then on Sunday we realized that Erica, our Alpine milk goat, had died. This we attribute to the fact that Penny (our brute of a goat) had head-butted her once too often and much too hard.

Monday Brindle runs off with the stray beagles and doesn't return (we are assuming he has meet a fatal end). Then in the news we learn about Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays throughout the week.


Today we lost Gideon. This is hard for me to even write. When I came home from church he couldn't get up. We assumed that Kaiser was playing rough again and hurt him. He tried to stand and walk but couldn't. So I went in to get Eric so we could get him in the shade and get him some water. By the time I got back outside (about 90 seconds) he wouldn't even respond to us, so Eric picked him up and took him in the house. We thought maybe dehydration, but not even 5 minutes ago he was his normal happy self, he just couldn't get up. Within 5 minutes of being in the house he was gone, he had a seizure and stopped breathing.

We had alot of crying going on at our house today. Gideon was a great friend. He might not have always been the best puppy and there were lots of times when he tore up the trash and made us mad, but he was always there to give us love. He loved us so much he wanted all the attention he could get.

When he was a puppy and I was working on the phone and computer alot selling Herbalife, he would push the keyboard tray in while I was typing so I could pet him. And he was insistent that I pet him, because if I didn't he would just keep pushing in the keyboard and laying his head on my lap (so I couldn't pull it back out) until I spent time with him.

He had his share of flaws (trying to kiss all the women that came by for a visit, barking at any man that stepped foot in the house...unless they were sitting, tearing up the trash) but he was always there to lay his head on my lap when I was sad, or tired or needed a pick-me-up. He will be sorely missed.

Here are some pictures that I pulled together of our time with Gideon.

Gideon and brothers

Gideon and Darius (Darius and Isis drove him nuts when they would run up and down the stairs, but he always played nice with them)

Gideon loved to supervise the gardeningBaseball is now a tackle sport

Gideon loved when we moved to TN, he finally had enough space that he didn't want to roam anymore.

Gideon Kaiser and Nellie all snuggled up together

Soccer was a favorite sport after we moved. Gideon didn't often win, but this was one of those times he did.