24/02/2025
Today, my good friend and colleague of fourteen years, Húni from Snæbýli in Skaftártunga, died. Many of you travelled with him and have fond memories of him.
He was born on October 3, 2011, and all his life he lived in Ölfus with my wife and I, and our three daughters, who were his best friends.
Húni was a quick learner, learned Icelandic and English words as well as sign language. His vocabulary was extensive, from requests to orders, but it was the sign language that proved useful to us in the last months when both sight and hearing failed him.
He was understanding and had a great presence, whether it was humans or quadrupeds. He studied human life and quickly adapted to rules, manners, consideration and had such a warm aura.
He was probably one of the best travelled dogs in Iceland. Everywhere he was a welcome guest, as he was polite and showed good behavior. With about 60 trips around the country under his collar, he made good friends, and being well-known to most of the rangers of the national parks, he was often allowed to be on the invisible strong leash that was between us.
His car trips are countless, but it can be assumed that he accompanied me on tours about 500 times.
He was utterly loyal to me, walked by my side, at my heel as best he could, waited outside and explored the surroundings. No matter where I was on the ground floor of hotels in the country, he slept by my window, greeted tourists in the morning and recognized them.
Húni was an outdoor dog, and lived most of his life outside, preferring that to the house, which meant he welcomed his friend Egill Viggósson every morning, bringing the daily paper between 5 and 6 a.m. and turned Egil's fear of dogs into a successful friendship.
In his last months, he helped me raise the new puppy, whose name is Vaskur and who is from Stórhól in Lýtingsstaðarhreppi.
The dog's loyalty was unlimited and missing him is hard and painful for our household and other animals living here, but due to his old age, stiffness and rheumatism, and eventual inability to walk, he left this world in my arms.
