Gryffindor

Merr got Gryffin in 2006, on his 13th birthday. It was the second-best surprise ever (first being that of my 14th birthday when all of my dreams came true and I got Jynx, my horse). Gryff was the tiniest, cutest little fluff of black German Shepherd fur. His bark was tiny. His howl was tiny. His little ears were so tiny. It was love at first sight for all of us.

 But especially Merr.

Teehee! I love this one.^^^

At the Christmas Tree farm his first Christmas. He was in heaven.

Goin on a winter walk on Christmas Day.

Gryff stayed in a homemade kennel on the back patio and sometimes the rug at the back door (till he started chewing everything in sight including the kitchen chairs and the door trim) until he was old enough to wander our 5 acres of forest. He grew so fast. He went through his funny teenage stage when his ears were way too big for his head and wouldn't stand up straight but instead flopped to the side. I wish I had a picture haha. It was adorable. 

We taught him all the good stuff; sit, stay, come, wait, down. He was so smart and picked up real quickly. We introduced him to tennis balls and the magical Chuck-It, which ensured hours of fetch in the coming years. Aside from us, Gryffin's best friend was a tennis ball or anything else that could be thrown (that includes sticks, snow/snowballs, soccer balls, rocks, pieces of shredded bark, pinecones, etc.)

Tennis ball in close proximity = happy Gryff.

Same goes for sticks.

This video is weird, I will admit that. I don't remember what we were doing... Something about Sarah trying to get water to spray out of a vuvuzela? But I'm also playing fetch with Gryffin in it haha. So I'm putting here.

Hear that creaking squeaking sound in the background? That's Gryffin chewing on his tennis ball. 

A favorite pastime. 

One of my favorite things soon became his eagerness to see us when we got home. As soon as he'd hear a car pull into the drive, he'd haul to the front of the house from wherever he was and wait patiently outside your door to greet you with prances and tail wags and licks. We'd laugh as visitors would say how they scared the daylights out of them when he'd do it at night. Stories from jumpy greenie missionaries were our favorite ;] haha. 

Summer of 2008. 

This will always be one of my favorite pictures of Gryff. It was Christmas morning 2010, and we were making eggs benedict for breakfast like usual. Gryffin smelled it and was making this face at the door. He knew how to work it. [: And he got some ham.

For some reason I have a lot of pictures of Gryff in the snow. Probably because he was so darn funny about snow. He'd bite at the snowflakes and run like MAD if you threw a snowball, only to search perplexedly around the area it had landed and suddenly disappeared.

Gryff was pooped from all the snowball chasing. [:

Gryff would leap like his life depended on it to catch a snowball before it hit the ground.

Intense focus.

As you can see, Gryffin only cares about the snowball that I'm making in my hands as my Mom took this picture. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

Snowball fight = Gryffin's dream come true.

Always a stick close by. Or a log meant for our fireplace in this case.

More leaping for snowballs. [:

Our beautiful boy.

Chillin inside after a snow day.

Something that really blew Gryffin's mind was balloons. 

He'd leap and bite and leap some more but they just kept evading him!

Another picture with a story behind it. For a while, Gryffin was our partner on our daily runs. Pretty soon he realized that running is NOT fun and that us coming out in our running gear with his leash means he needs to hide in his kennel and not budge. [: Hahaha.

There was this time when Gryff cut his paw on something outside and Mom brought him in every day to soak the paw in an epsom salt bath. He was so good about it and seemed to know that this was something that would help the pain.

Awh. [:

One of the funniest things about summer was looking out any of the upstairs windows toward the front of the house and seeing Gryffin pasted to the warm driveway, soaking up the sun. 

Bahaha.

Summers were also fun because we'd be outside so much more, playing soccer, playing on the swingset, laying in the grass, etc. Gryffin loved it.

Then there were the family walks. Gryffin would come once he realized we weren't going running. [: As soon as it occurred to him that we were all going, he'd be so excited. If we didn't take him, we'd hear him barking and whining in his kennel as we walked down to the trail behind our house. He knew he was part of the pack and felt left out if we did something all together without him (this included family dinner and family prayer too. He'd sit outside the back door and whine haha).

Charging after a twig thrown into the river for him.

Gryff LOVED belly scratches. His back legs would churn like a motor while you did it.

Happy boy.

These were the last pictures I got of Gryffin, taken June 30th. Gryffin was hit by a car on July 4th and had to be put down. I'm not going to write here about my feelings about this. The week after was almost unbearable; the second has been a little better. We miss him so much.

Waiting for me to kick his soccer ball for him.

These were on our way home from a run on the trail. He came out to meet us, precious soccer ball in tow.

Wow I miss him.

The last picture I got of Gryff. We were playing fetch and he was bein' a turd and not giving me the tennis ball back. Such a pretty boy.

Thanks for the memories, bud. We miss you.