For a lot of us, picking through the newspaper, listening to the radio and watching the news scroll on TV has become a river of bad news.
Last Sunday, something quite different greeted Times Free Press readers. A paid obituary giving homage to Gunner, the beloved "Poodle Pony" owned by Chuck and Lynne McGlothlen.
"He was born to be a therapy dog and to help people," Mrs. McGlothlen said Wednesday, less than a month after multiple seizures and pain took Gunner from this place. "He was a force of nature."
Gunner, who died earlier this month a few weeks before his fifth birthday, was every bit that and more.
After an early consultation with Middle Valley Animal Hospital vet Dr. Kevin Ade, McGlothlen realized then-puppy Gunner was a superstar.
Jay Greeson"Sometimes you just get a sixth sense about things," said Ade, who has been working on and with animals for 39 years. "Gunner was so good-natured, so laid back. We love all our patients, but our entire staff gravitated toward him. It was amazing."
With Ade's encouragement, the McGlothlens took Gunner through the 13-week trials and tests to be a certified therapy dog.
Gunner, like Ade foresaw, passed with flying colors.
From his first trip to the Life Care Center in Hixson in February 2013, Gunner took to helping people who needed it like, well, a dog to a bone.
"He was a natural," McGlothlen said. "I believe in the last four years, Gunner shook more hands than the mayor."
How big of a rock star was Gunner?
Well, let's just say he could easily be Jon Bark Jovi. Or Elvis Pawsley. Or, well, you get the idea.
Gunner had his own trading cards that kids at his various stops would always ask the McGlothlens about. Gunner had T-shirts and a registered trademark. They sent Christmas cards to his regular stops and had business cards so swanky that when they stopped by for a TV interview with WRCB, McGlothlen laughed that meteorologist David Karnes told her Gunner's cards were nicer than his.
Gunner and owner Lynne McGlothlen.How famous was Gunner? Try this:
Gunner visited the kids at Siskin every other Tuesday. He would swing by the family night at Hospice of Chattanooga every other Thursday. He went to CHI Memorial hospital downtown every other Monday. He'd go to Life Care in Hixson every Friday.
In between, he'd take requests from other places to come by and bring a smile to everyone's face.
"There were a few places in Georgia that asked us to come, and we'd always go," McGlothen said. "Because therapy dogs have to be really clean, it also meant Gunner got a bubble bath every week."
McGlothen laughed at the reception Gunner would get at Petco for his weekly scrubbing.
She shared a story of a little boy who had spent time with Gunner while his grandmother was in hospice care. After the lady passed, the boy saw Gunner and Mrs. McGlothlen at Hobby Lobby and asked his grandfather if he could go see his poodle pal.
"Gunner ran to the boy and they just hugged," she recalled.
Oh, the grace it takes to handle the most difficult situations, and Gunner routinely made that arduous task look easy.
"I believe all dogs go to heaven," Ade said, "but if they all don't, I know for certain that Gunner's there."
Before he left, Gunner gave a final present for the lady who pointed him to his life's calling.
About 18 months ago McGlothlen got a call from the folks at Big Fluffy Dog, who had a rescue poodle that was in such bad shape that if they could not find an owner the worst outcome was on the horizon.
McGlothlen took in this poodle, who had been saved from a nightmare existence in which he was found among 50 other dogs living in awful conditions.
"They called and said, 'We hear you have a a poodle filled with magic,'" McGlothlen said. "That rescue dog was completely shut down, and I told them to bring him to me.
"They had to drag that dog into my house, and Gunner taught him what to do and where to go and how to trust people again."
In some ways, maybe that was Gunner's final gift to McGlothlen. A "thank you" for putting him in a position to help so many and enjoy his relatively short time here so much.
But if you believe life is measured in quality rather than quantity, measured in the depth of touch as much as the length of reach, well, know that this poodle was more king than canine.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.