Homer - August 1997 - Sept. 2010

Those who followed my blog in MSN Spaces know I was very close to my buddy, Homer. We had lots of enjoyable walks around the neighbourhood and on the beach. Homer became really sick last fall. We had to put him asleep in September. The vet was pretty sure from the symptoms he had colon cancer. He couldn't retain his bowels and the last week stopped eating and could hardly walk. The day we realized he wouldn't get better, we booked an appointment and that same day he stopped drinking also, so he wouldn't have lasted more than a day or so anyway. We brought him home and he now rests down back near my flower beds under the pines where he would lay as I weeded and pruned. I'm not really a dog lover but Homer was different. I miss him everyday.

The following week, Paul was having shoulder surgery for a rotor cuff injury he got a couple of winters ago when he slipped on the ice. With Homer so sick we needed to lift him many times when he couldn't get up. I knew I couldn't do it myself. So we had to make this heartbreaking decision, though I doubt Homer would have survived that long anyway.

We have different ways of dealing with our grief: I didn't think I'd ever want another dog, but Paul wanted one right away. We searched the Humane Society web site almost daily and visited a couple times. Then, a friend who heard we were looking for a dog, told us of some puppies available in the country. So one Sunday the four of us went to look at them. Their were eight puppies, the mother a small size Collie mix, red like a little fox. The father was a Lab mix, but we didn't see him. We spotted this little fur ball, the only female among seven brothers. She would be five weeks old Christmas eve, born on Remembrance Day, November 11th. 

Well we brought her home the Sunday before Christmas. It is advised not to get a pet Christmas but it was a quiet Christmas (other than the puppy) because our three kids had other plans with the parents of their "significant others", (BF's and wife).

She has a name of course. Callie. I sure hope she slows down growing soon. She's half the size of her mother or more now at only three and a half months. We don't want an itty bitty dog, but would rather she not get as big as a Lab! 

Here are some picture of her as she has grown. The first one is the day we brought her home.

December 19, 2010

January 3, 2011

February 2, 2011

February 25, 2011

Callie and Ayla have been getting along good. Ayla will only put up with so much. Sunday we took her to our son's and DIL's. I guess she missed Ayla. This is the two of them that evening after coming home.