A Part of my Heart...My Otis

Otis.  The first love of our lives, ever.  He's our first born.  He's our white boxer. 
10 years ago, during one of the worst times in my life, I got a phone call at work from Kevin's cousin who had been taking care of our dog, Fatman, who was deathly ill from heartworms.  She told me that it was time. So I gave her the go ahead.  That evening I got a call from her again, which I thought was weird.  So I answered the phone and she said we just got a litter of boxer puppies and there are 2 white ones, do you want one?  I immediately told her yes and you have to keep it a secret. We decided we weren't going to tell Kevin.  13 weeks later she pulls in our driveway, and Kevin looked out the window and of course asked why she had just driven down here 2 hours when it was already so late in the afternoon. I said I have no idea...she got out and this little white wrinkly thing was wiggling around in her arms.   Kevin looked at me and said "what in the hell is that?"  And I told him, I don't know, why don't you go find out. He looked at me and took off running out the door.  And that was it, our hearts melted and we were changed...forever. We were officially, A Boxer Family, and never looked back.

We never looked back,  until this June, 10 years later.  When we took him in for what we thought was a regular check up.  And then Kevin calls me at work, and I can't understand a word he's saying to me.  He's crying so hard that he had to pull over the car and catch his breath.  I haven't heard him cry like that since Noah was born.  So finally I could make out a couple of words that are coming from each sob.  "Otis...cancer."
My heart stopped.  I couldn't hear anything.  My head was spinning.

Our AMAZING vet told us that he had stage 4 lymphoma.  With chemo it could get rid of it and he could go into remission or not.  And without the chemo, we had probably 2 months before he was gone.  We decided no chemo.  I saw what it did to my dad, and I wasn't having it.  We put him on prednisone to help shrink the tumors.  They literally went from half dollar size to pea size in days!  His attitude completely changed, he was happy, playing, eating! 
Then about 2 and a half months down the road, it all changed.  He stopped eating, playing he just stopped.  Otis went from 75 pounds to around 49 pounds.  The prednisone had stopped working.  It didn't even make him hungry anymore. 
It was time.  So a little over 3 months from when we got the diagnosis, we had to help him cross the Rainbow Bridge.  It was most definitely one of the hardest days we've been through in probably the 17 years we've been together.

We know he's in the best place and will be waiting there for us all wiggly and excited...lets just hope he doesn't pee every where when we get there!
So after you read this, go hug your fur babes.  And cherish the short amount of time you have on earth with them.