a BIG change

Tom and I had to do one of the hardest things ever but we knew that it was for the best.  Our dog Lance was a special dog that we had rescued shortly after moving here about 6 years ago.  He came with a lot of  "baggage" but we were patient with him and he grew to be a very sweet and loving dog.  Earlier this year we found out that he had bone cancer.  We had gotten the tumor removed and we were just waiting to see what would happen next and then take it from there.

This was taken earlier this summer.  Garrett and Lance became pretty good buddies.                                

                         
Well the tumor ended up coming back and it had gotten to the point where Lance was just not himself.  He would have pockets of time of running around and having fun but most of his days were spent keeping to himself.  So Tom and I decided that we didn't want him to be in pain anymore so we took him to the vet.  The hardest part was telling Garrett that we needed to take Lance to the doctor so they could make him feel better and that we wouldn't be bringing him back home.  The night before, we were at the dinner table and I started to tell him what was going to happen the next day and I started to cry.  He asked me why I was crying and I said that people cry when they are sad and that I was sad.  Then he asked if he could cry and I said if you feel like you need to you can.  So Garrett busted out in a loud fake cry...I'm sure it was to help me feel better, which it did and we all ended up laughing!  Such a precious moment.

Lance enjoying his last snack with Garrett. 

Saying good bye to Lance was hard but we decided to head to the zoo to help get our minds off of our loss.

Hanging out with the BIG guys!  

Our zoo get-a-way was a nice distraction to the morning but I know the days to follow are going to be hard. We have so many great memories of Lance and I'm glad we have those to remember.