My dog Gus, Augustus McCrae Everhart, the most gorgeous Golden Retriever of the 3 I had before him, became mine 8 days after I lost my other Golden to a terrible car accident, his name was Worth Dillon Everhart, Dillon. When I got Gus, he was 16 weeks old, and the Culler's a prestigious family in my home town wanted $800 for him, but he needed a name and a home, and I needed a heart to be mended, so I got Gus for $400. My boyfriend was in Seattle, WA visiting his son, who was in the Coast Guard, and had just got out, and left me with his Golden, Toomey, so then there was one, and then there were two again. Gus was the most gentle, and wonderful Golden I'd ever had, I would sing the song, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands, and he would go ruff ruff, and we would sing along together, and I would sing, You are my sunshine, my only sunshine . .. all the time to him. I worked selling fine color printing at the time, and always had papers all over the floors, and he would just walk over them, and lay on them, as if they didn't exist. Oh, how I loved him, he could sing, talk, hum, and boy, did he love to ride in the car, and an open jeep with my boyfriend & Toomey his Golden. I was afraid he would jump, out or someone would steal him, but no, they sat like two peas in a pod for him when he took them out running errands, he always took them trail riding, and doing guy stuff. Then my boyfriend and I decided to tour the West, so we went to about 40 states up and back one way, and back and up the other way with Gus, by the Toomey had passed, and we just had Gus. Gus lived to be 12 years old, but he had a big tumor on his side, and the vet said, don't worrry about it, it's ok. Then I lost everything, because of a disease, Fibromyalgia . . . .and I applied for Disability, and lived on food stamps only for 4 years, before I won my Disability, the tumor got worse, so I took him to a new vet, and the vet said "that has to come off", and that was in December of 07, but he kept putting it off, and wouldn't do the surgery. Finally, I took Gus the vet did the operation, and he called me, and said, well it was "Cancer", and I said, "Will he die", and the vet said, "not from this surgery, we got all the surrounding cells and stitched his tumor site up very tightly." So, I thought well they got it all, and it will be ok. Shortly thereafter Gus started limping in his front leg, and the vet said, "it's arthritis", and put him on Rimadyl, and I thought, ok, this will be ok now. But, no in 3 months, on March 24th 2008, I took Gus back to the vet, to get pain Med's, he stood up in the back of the car, and his ears blew in the wind for as long as he could, and then he had to lay down, because he was in so much pain, the cancer had come back, because, frankly when air hits cancer . . . at that age, the vet said, "he could run tests, but it would be best to just put him down". I looked at his big blue eyes, and agreed, he gave him a sedative in the outside of the lobby, and then they took him in on a stretcher, before they gave him the lethal dose. I don't think I would have ever recovered without the fact that I got another Golden in May, my birthday month, and I named him Sunny, and he was too tough for me to tame, so I had to adopt him out to a great man, who had lost his Golden of 15 years to lung cancer, and he had died in his arms at 15. The man didn't smoke, and I had never heard of a dog getting lung cancer, but he had just filled out the adoption papers for another Golden. The 2nd hardest think I ever did was give that puppy away after 8 months of burying Gus. That was in November, and in December, I got a new puppy, Luke, Lucus Sterling Everhart, who is now my new shadow. He's just now turning 2 years old next month, and he lights up my world. I have so many pictures of Gus, he was my traveling pooch, we went so many places, and almost moved out West, but decided to remain in the South, in NC, where I was born and raised. I don't regret for a moment the life we had together, and have more picture of him than I do of my own family. I've had 4-1/2 Golden Retrievers in my life of 53 years, Dallas Ray, Worth Dillon, Augustus Mcrae, Sunshine (Sunny) for a a while, and now Lucus Sterling, Luke, who remains by my side as I type. He's my new shadow, and is a great boy, he's also the only Golden that has ever been a guard dog, and that's a good thing because I don't live in the country anymore, I live in the city, so he has a great big back yard fenced in, where he can run and play, and be safe, and he's the boss of my neighborhood, a Golden, really, can you believe it. Gus was always scared of thunder and lightning, I mean he trembled to death, even when I couldn't hear a thing he could, but Luke is fearless. I do so miss Guss even though it was 2008, I still call Luke Gus, or G-Labow as was his nickname, kinda like the cartoon with the skunk, "Pepe Lebow", or "G" worked too. I miss him like nobody's business, and I'm on Facebook, and I don't have pictures of people only pictures of my dogs, because that's who I am, a dog lover. I've never married or had kids, just my dogs, and for what it's worth, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for my Golden's. They have given me everything and more, that unconditional love that dogs give us, I think dogs believe we are their God. I know I loved Gus, and with that, I'm glad for Rainbow Bridge, and in the meantime, I hope somebody reads this, and if your pet has cancer, maybe you shouldn't operate on them, because now that same vet, won't operate on one of my friend's dogs, because he says as soon as air hits the cancer it spreads, and I believe it. If you can do chemo, etc. good for you, but I know my dog had a great life, and I couldn't let him suffer. So I did for him what I would want done for me, release me to heaven, never hold me back . . . because I'll see you on the other side of Rainbow Bridge, Gus, of that I'm sure!