Remembering Homer

Yesterday, what we thought would be a routine trip to the vet took a very serious turn.

Homer had been acting sick the last few days, so we took him to our vet to get checked out. We were then referred to the U of MN since the initial tests proved inconclusive. Homer's condition worsened by the time we got to the U, and as soon as they performed an ultrasound, we learned that a cancerous mass was causing fluid build-up around his heart. Removing it would have been dangerous, and it appeared that cancer had spread to other organs. The outlook was grim, so we made the difficult choice to put him down.

True to form, he wanted his paws rubbed to the very end.

Given the health issues that Josie has gone through recently, we weren't expecting that Homer would be first to go. We thought we had a few more years with him, and we were hoping he could continue mentoring his new younger brother Luke. This was a huge shock to everyone.

So today, our first day without him trotting around the house, we're really missing him.

We thought posting a few pictures would help a little.

Here's Homer in his element. He would jump off the dock and fetch tennis balls for hours. During the summer his coat never fully dried since he spent so much time in the lake.

Homer had two speeds: Full Tilt and Sleeping.

Most of the pictures we have of him are him at full speed or sleeping.

These pictures of Homer running on the lake are from two weeks ago! That why his passing is so shocking to us. He was going full throttle until Wednesday of last week.