December 2012: Shaking hands, dry mouth, racing pulse…..I was in love!

While skimming through the ‘Westies in Need’ Success Stories, this noble little face had just appeared. Steven was not yet adopted, a survivor of the infamous Shawville Puppy Mill and I absolutely knew he was the one for us. But Corrie had to let me down gently. He was going to meet his prospective family that very weekend - a fait accompli. “He’s going to a good home, he’s going to a good home” became my mantra.

But the stars must have all aligned in my favour because Monday morning I got a call that the visit hadn’t worked out and, if I still wanted him, he was mine. IF I STILL WANTED HIM!?!? My daughter and I were on the road to Ottawa at 4:00 a.m. the next morning, beating an early winter storm by hours.

When we arrived there, his wonderful foster mom, Cheryl Turcott, brought him downstairs and put him in my arms- he was absolutely perfect! I renamed him Gulliver after Jonathan Swift’s hero who had to go through so many trials and tribulations. We arrived back in Burlington to find my Westie girl, Piper, and a few of the neighbourhood dogs romping on the front lawn. Gulliver hopped out of the car and joined right in. It was like he’d always been a part of our neighbourhood. He was the most adorable, sauciest, lovingest, just full of Westi-tude pup you could ever ask for.

I even broke the cardinal rule and let him sleep on my bed and he would lie on the pillow beside me with his little neck stretched across my throat.

But WLD reared its ugly head and all the medical knowledge available could not stem its advance. Gulliver was only six when he succumbed to it in February 2016.

If the number of tears that were shed by my family, neighbours and friends is any indication of how much this little guy was treasured then he was truly a beloved Westie.

There isn’t a day that goes by that we don't miss you so terribly, sweet boy- my precious little Gully Pup.

Dorothy Charlotte MacKay and Piper