Memory Lane - Gunther

Lots of people don't know it, but mom was a Boxer person before she was a Pug person. Can you believe it?

So she's decided to share the Boxers she's had in her life with all of you.

First up: Gunther

Gunther on a camping trip at Whiskeytown Lake. He LOVED the outdoors

Official Name: UCD, Cheers to Gunther, CD, NAC, NJC, NGC, CGC

Born: July, 1988

Died: September, 1996

When mom bought her first house, the first thing she did was get a dog. After much debate, it was decided to get a Boxer. She loved the look, the personality, the smushy face and the wash-and-wear coat. She brought Gunther home at 10 weeks old, and he was all she'd wanted in a dog and more. He was funny, playful, obedient and energetic. That dog LOVED to play. And play. And play. Tennis balls were pretty good, but frisbees were the best. You rarely saw him without a frisbee hanging out of his mouth.

Gunther with his ever-present frisbee

When he was 6 months old, she took him to a dog training class. The instructor told her about competitive obedience, and that's all she wrote. Her's, and our, lives were never the same (and I wasn't even born yet!) He did pretty good in obedience (very good, in fact. He always scored really high in shows, and had lots of ribbons to prove it.)

When he was about 5 years old, he got wiped out while jumping up for a frisbee and tore his cruciate ligament. It never healed right, and he had a hard time sitting down straight. That ended his obedience career (lots of sitting goes on there), but he could still jump. A new sport, agility, was just taking off, so mom brought him to his first class. As you all know, we're still doing agility to this day. He managed to get some agility titles, and showed until the very end.

Gunther slept as hard as he played. Boxers are a lot like Pugs when it comes to comfort

When he was 8 years old, he was out running around the backyard. He was carrying a horseshoe in his mouth (yup, you read that right) and collapsed. It was in the middle of a wedding shower mom was having for a friend, but she ditched the party and rushed him to the vet. It was cancer (all too common in Boxers). He had surgery to remove the cancer, but he never recovered from surgery. He died a few days later.

Since then, she's never been without a Boxer in her house. She always talks about getting another breed, because of their long list of health issues, but ends up getting another Boxer. She says she has them "figured out", so why start over with another breed. She loves the fact they're great with kids, big enough to be intimidating but small enough to carry if she needs to, and don't bark much.

Next Up: Brandy