Homer

Dear Women's Animal Center Staff and Volunteers,

I wanted to say thank you for all you do. This has been a tough few days for our family, as the day finally came to say goodbye to our Homer.

We adopted Homer from Women's Animal Center way back in 2007. He was a struggle at the start, testing me quite a bit on who was boss in his new home. He would lunge at me in our backyard and take chunks out of the arms of my hoodie. This was new to me and I didn't know how to react at the time. I actually called your Center and had thoughts of bringing him back to you within a couple weeks after getting him…concerned about our two boys, who were 10 and 7 years old at the time. We pressed on with Homer and in time he came around ….although he was an escape artist in those early years. 

One brief story on that: We live about a block or so from the Pennsylvania Turnpike that runs through our neighborhood in Feasterville. Homer got out through gaps in the fence about 4 or 5 times in those first couple months. One of the first times he escaped, we were looking for him through the neighborhood for about 40 minutes and our phone rang.  A woman was on the other end and told me she had Homer in her car, where she was sitting on the Turnpike. She had seen our dog on top of the sound barrier wall, so pulled over and was able to get him into her car. I then had to proceed to drive to the NEXT exit (Willow Grove) in order to meet her for the pick up!

In time, Homer settled in nicely to his new surroundings. He bonded with all of us and became part of our family. The best decision I made was sticking it out with this dog and giving him time to adjust and feel loved.

Those 10 and 7 year-olds I mentioned above are now an Army soldier and college student. Along with their mom and me, we shed some tears the last few days, but we know Homer's suffering is over and he's in a better place for sure.

As I've said to everyone at home, we gave him the life of a spoiled rotten dog for 12 plus years. He had it good and he was the absolute best.

Your crew was great with us this past Saturday morning. Thank you so much for that. The vet tech, Conner and Dr. Langan - both were phenomenal. We were admittedly a mess, and although I'm sure you see a lot of that, their patience and understanding and genuine caring was very much appreciated by us.

So you know who our Homer was...

RIP Homer...Thanks for 13 years of you being AWESOME!

- John & Diane Busch, Homer's Dad & Mom