It was a normal Saturday Morning. We got up at 6:00 AM, took our female human outside for some fresh air, and then went back in for some sleep. We have two humans, a nervous female who worries about EVERYTHING and a male human who is rather pragmatic about life in general, much like I am. They both love Cookie and I quite a bit and do everything they can to keep us entertained and healthy. The male seems to be more self-sufficient and we tend to leave him alone unless we need something. The female…well…she gets lost easily and so Cookie and I take turns watching her. As I am the senior hound in the house, Cookie tends to work longer shifts than I do.
Like I said, it was a normal Saturday morning. Our human did her morning inspection of us, checking our legs for any cuts, bumps, and that they matched each other. She is very obsessive about everything about us. Our coat, our eyes, our feet, our teeth. Everything looked good. She went upstairs to go to work and I went back to my bed for a nap.
Around noon, I woke up in pain and had a hot lump on my right front leg. It bothered me enough that I went to fetch my humans to see what was wrong with my leg. They were both in the office and they noticed the lump quickly. It was small, about the size of nickel stuck to my leg, but it hurt. Both were worried about how hot it was and that it wasn’t there this morning. No one said anything but I could tell they were extremely worried. They gave me half a pill of something and the swelling went down. I was able to use my paw again and I forgot about it till we headed to the vet today.
Cookie needed a checkup after her dental and I needed my monthly chiropractic adjustment so we headed to the vet this morning. Dr. Crosby took one look at my bump and sent me off for xrays. When Dr. Huff came back to the room instead, my human got even more worried. It looked like cancer. I have a stress fracture in my radius and a tumor in the same spot. They can’t tell which came first. Twenty-five percent bone loss too. Dr. Huff says we’ve caught it early. He wants a second opinion but he suggested we amputate and do chemo. My human stayed strong in the office but as soon as we got home, she broke down in tears and cried. I ran upstairs to hug her and that made her cry even more. Apparently I’m not allowed to use the stairs anymore either.
Oh my, Nixon. What a great writer you are! That is your name isn’t it? We look forward to following your story, and will share your blog now since members may have missed it due to the older publish date.