"Beloved family member and
'experience enhancer,' Thurber was a remarkably beautiful, noble dog, with the most exquisite head. He made us relish everything a bit more, just by his presence. He loved car rides and would stand right next to the driver, pointing the way ahead, except when he was distracted by squirrels, dogs, or motorcycles. Thurber really hated motorcycles and felt obligated to express his outrage at having to share the road with them by barking as loudly as possible at them until either we pulled away, or they roared off into the distance.

On our Cape Cod beach, he was involved with every single gull and little sandpiper and where they were flying. He loved running after gulls on the Cape Cod beach. He was incredibly fast, and very thorough and used to leap after the wheeling gulls, trying to fly after them. He would race up and down the miles of sandbars until there was not a single gull left, then clear off the sandpipers and come tearing back to us, looking for praise. After a not-too promising start, Thurber stopped churning up the water and turned into a superb swimmer. He loved pulling the kids in the inner tube in the water on the Cape. He was a phenomenal swimmer, and would accompany Ernie on long-distance swims, trailing along behind him for miles, never giving up. He loved to go blueberry picking on the Cape, and would chomp the branches of the blueberry bushes, pulling off the ripe berries, patiently waiting for us to fill our own pails while he filled his tummy.

He was so noble and lion-hearted. He once killed a rat in the backyard to protect the kids, and was very proud of himself, as he should have been--DC rats are BIG. He was a stalwart running partner, trotting along beside us at a regular pace. Once, Anne, running alone, tripped and hit her head, hard, on the pavement. Thurber stood over Anne and would not let anyone near until someone phoned Ernie, who came to the rescue.

Thurber loved the snow. He always bounded out in the back yard after a fresh snowfall, sniffing and leaping around. He loved pulling the kids and their friends in harness on a sled.
He was completely gentle and 100% reliable and patient with little children. He was also a bit of a klutz. He would press against us, trying to get ever closer to be patted and
'thumped,' and in the process, would inevitably step on our feet. He was the best family dog imaginable. His preferred place was right between Rachel and Adam, wherever they were. He never played favorites and made everyone in the family feel equally loved and included. He was wonderful to little Tovi, welcoming our cocker as his own when she sauntered into our house and began to boss him around, and was equally wonderful to Aspen, his great, great, great niece, teaching her all kinds of things about how to be a GSP.

Thurber loved his back yard. He managed to make his own running track around the perimeter fence, and even in his prime, he liked to wander around, sniffing at grass and flowers like Ferdinand the Bull, when he wasn't racing around. He loved playing Daddy Monster with Ernie and the kids when they were little. In this game, Ernie roared, raised his arms up and chased the kids around the house. Once, on the Cape, Thurber thought that Ernie was a little too realistic as a monster. As Ernie closed in on Adam and Adam shrieked, Thurber very gently closed his jaws on Ernie's wrist, stopping Ernie in his tracks, whereupon Thurber immediately let go. When we first brought Thurber home, Adam and Rachel each had a hand on him as he sat in
mom's lap. Adam was patting his side of Thurber, and said, 'I never knew that love could happen so
fast.' We all instantly fell in love with our big wonderful dog. We miss our Thurber so much, and are very grateful to have had him for so very long."