Rest in Peace, Wunny

The last picture I took of Wunny, as Turner used to call him - about 2 weeks ago

Sad news. Last night - about 24 hours ago exactly, our sweet Gordon died.

Heath was cutting the grass yesterday afternoon and knocked on the door. He told me he thought Gordie was dying. I looked over, and he looked pretty pathetic in the grass. He couldn't even hold his head up!

So Heath rushed him to our vet, not very far away. They told us that his temperature was 109, and that they worried about brain damage at 108. My friend Sallie happened to be at the vet, and called me with a play by play. She told me it didn't look good - the doctor said he was an extremely sick puppy. They gave him an IV and tried to get his temperature down.

It finally got to 104 and sent Heath with Gordon to an overnight pet hospital. They had him stabilized. The hospital said they were just going to observe him overnight.

But then they called and said they weren't ready to give up, but he had brain damage. He was going blind and his kidneys were failing. We told them to keep us posted.

About 30 minutes later, the doctor called back. She was distraught and told us that he died of a blood clot. She determined that he had a seizure sometime yesterday afternoon that disabled him and he wasn't able to get any water. Therefore, he had a heat stroke. That is when we found him - they said 15 minutes later he would have been dead. Once they got him stable, they placed him in an oxygen chamber to regulate his breathing and they were checking for blood clots. They said when they came back, he was dead.

This was at the end of April. This day our friend Brooks (in the yellow shirt) saw Gordon, turned and ran to me and said "Miss Kelly, what is that?" He was serious - he had never seen something so beautiful.

Ironically, after 2 years of Heath suggesting, I had just agreed to give him away. Heath was out of town this week, and I felt like Gordon was one more thing to take care of as we tried to get out of the house and he was too much for us with 2 young children. He sheds, and he panics during thunderstorms, and we were looking around for somewhere and someone to give him a better home.

He really was our first child - he endured a lot to make me laugh. And he used to sleep in the bed with us!! Wow - he had definitely moved to the back burner these last couple of years. Bless him.

Well, more specifically, I had a real moment of frustration about a week and a half ago. I got a phone call from our precious (not really) neighbor at 6:20. She told me Gordon was "in her yard". Ugh. I realized Heath was already gone to Bible Study, and I quickly got dressed. I must have taken too long, because when I walked behind our house, she had turned on all the sprinklers (by the way - her yard is fenced in. He was barking BY her yard, not in it. I am not bitter) to chase him away. So I got soaked running through the yard and to the street behind us trying to grab that little weasel. I might have been nicer if I had known it was his last week of life. That made the decision, though - our time with him was running short.

Now I feel bad for thinking that, but I have a peace that it was his time to go! The sweet doctor was crying so hard (I am sure we will be too when we get the vet bill), but we are at peace with his crazy self being gone. (I think. I go back and forth as I write this! It is very weird to look outside and not see him after 6 and a half years! And I just realized it was exactly 6 and a half years we had him, we got him on Dec. 24, and he died June 24. Weird.)

For those of you who used to receive our Christmas cards, this was one of my favorites - waiting for Turner in his crib before he was born

Tonight it was pouring down rain, and Heath looked at me and reminded me how Gordon acted in rainstorms. Which was HYSTERICAL! We used to have to turn the dryer on just to get him to drown out the storms. This happened several times in the last week, and looking back, he woke up one morning screaming at 3 or so, without a storm outside. He hadn't been eating like normal either, so I am thinking he was already being affected by the blood clots.

We will miss you, little guy. Thank you for being our first little boy and enduring all of our abuse plus the abuse of two crazy toddlers!! We love you! (And I promise we won't replace you ANYTIME soon, no other dog could handle us!)

Gordon MacNeill Henderson

November 13, 2004 - June 24, 2011

Already winning beauty contests in heaven

I wrote THIS POST about him a few years ago! Now I am really glad I did!

Bump

Let's just start this by saying that I have a pretty weird array of photos lined up for this blog. Hmmm, I need to take some more cutesy/normal pictures for the future. These first 2 are from VBS last week, when John Burke was playing with a bearded dragon. He was ALL about the reptiles. And I was ALL about the hand sanitizer. When we went to pet the snake, he grabbed it by the face and twisted his fingers around its tongue and laughed. What?? Meanwhile, the guy from Ed's Pet World knew Turner by name and let me know he wanted nothing to do with any of the animals. That little stinker.

Oh, and please notice Burke Burke's smooth forehead in the last picture. Because this is what it looks like today.

Yep. John Burke had his first trip to Children's ER today. He was walking down the hall with me at church (I would stay he has been a pretty steady walker for a month now), and he toppled on to his bottom. Then, his head bent over and hit the tile floor. I was right there and it didn't look like a big deal, but this was what he looked like immediately when he popped up. And that freaked me out. I couldn't look at it - it wasn't our typical goose eggs (my kids have big heads, so lots of room for these). It was like a bubble!! And a few weeks ago at the Splash Pad, I saw a little girl have a similar bump like this and it freaked me out the whole rest of the day. Sooo, I called Heath and we headed up to Children's Hospital.

I was definitely slapping his feet and singing to him to keep him awake in the car, because some of my precious nursery friends kept letting me know I did not need to "let him die" if he fell asleep. No pressure - they were dramatic, but I was pretty grossed out. The sweet nurses in the ER let him take his much needed nap. That was really what I was worried about - just wanted to get him cleared before his long afternoon nap in case something had happened. But, if you notice this little joker fell, cried a few seconds, and then was totally normal. He was smiling in the picture a few minutes after (that I took to send to my nurse sister and doctor bro-in-law).

The doctor made me feel better about coming, but she and another doctor both looked at him and agreed he should be fine. Which is what I was thinking deep down, but can't really mess with head injuries. :) I had to show them the original pic so they could see the freakish bubble. Just a minute ago, Turner said to Heath "Burke Burke has a ball on his head. It purple." That's about right. (Thank you to Jami who took Turner with her to her house to nap - I am grateful we avoided the running commentary at the ER).

First hospital bracelet (well, since birth)

Praise the Lord for a good report - looks fine to me here (after his little nap)

On to other topics, Heath and I were able to escape this weekend for a no-kids beach trip with our buddies Wes and Evan. It was FABULOUS!! We had a precious girl named Stephanie keep the boys at our house, and the boys were in love with her. My sister has known her for several years, and referred her to us. She was a dream - she was awesome with the kids and even did my laundry, restocked my groceries and cleaned out my car (deep cleaned). Easily a better mom than I was this weekend, but I'll take it! It was worth it to have a long weekend in the sun and out to eat with friends without high chairs!!

Evan and I didn't get any pictures - in fact, this was the only one of me from the weekend. It was at an italian restaurant and that is an albino frog dangling its fat little legs down. A.maz.ing. I heart albinos.

Here is a better shot. It's not about the frog as much as the albino. I love albino anythings.

A more normal picture. Heath and Wes were able to go deep sea fishing and catch some red snapper. They had a limit of 2 each, and I think they had a ball trading up to meet the limit!

One thing I love about my husband - he is pretty well-rounded. He hasn't been deep-sea fishing in years, yet was able to fillet these red snapper like a champ! I stood and watched in disgust/amazement. And Wes was an excellent fisher host - awesome boat and reels and a day of fun for the boys (and for us, who laid on the beach and read!) Thank you Wes and Evan for a fabulous weekend!!

We have been doing a lot of this lately, and I only hope they didn't give Stephanie the pleasure of experiencing this while we were away. They like to be naked and they are LOVING baseball. Turner is all about watching the Braves on t.v. with Daddy, and John Burke is all about stealing the baseball and bat and tee from Turner any chance he gets!

I feel compelled to put a somewhat normal picture in here, without any animals (since almost every other one in this blog is bizarre). Lauren took Easter pictures for us, and she got some really cute ones! Sadly, Turner was sick on Easter Sunday, so I had to miss church that day, so it was a weird Easter around here. But we have some sweet pictures to pretend with!

Finally - I need to record some of the things Turner has been doing so I don't forget. He is talking in full sentences usually, and it continually catches me off guard. He likes to tell me in the car to "Watch out, Mommy" and "Don't go fast!!" (or "Go fast!" - it just depends on his mood) and today he said, "The music is too loud, Mommy." Oh, excuse me. He is constantly speaking up for John Burke, and likes to direct me on what he himself would like, directly followed by how I can meet Burke Burke's needs. "I want red sucker, Burke Burke have orange one." His little advocate.

He is almost exact on his colors when asked to identify (sometimes he defaults to calling things green just because) and is pretty good counting to 10, just tends to leave out eight? He is still very concerned with cars, their colors and their owners. And he has been extra cuddly lately - maybe because I was gone this weekend? - he has told me several times a day that he loves me, though he will snap at me if I choose to take a toy or privilege away. A work in progress for sure...