First, thank you so much for all the nice anniversary
wishes. Yesterday marked 14 years with
the most awesome person ever, and we had a great time celebrating, remembering
the day, and flipping between the first football game of the
season and watching the DNC.
We even went to brunch, where we made a "14" out of bacon, "Breaking Bad" style. Because that's how we roll.
So, that
was awesome.
I don’t want to make this a sad post, but many people have
asked what is going on with our dog Baxter, and there is no “funny” or “strange”
way to say it: he has cancer, and he’s
probably not going to be with us much longer.
There, I said it.
Cancer. Not just cancer, but hemangiosarcoma– an aggressive blood vessel cancer with a very short life expectancy after diagnosis. Once you say it, you can
start living with it, I guess.
Despite the dire diagnosis, he actually is a very lucky dog, and if you know him, you
already know this about him. We rescued
him from the death-row dog pound eleven years ago, and with THIS near-death
experience (he sort of collapsed, we took him to the vet, and while he was
there he had a seizure with internal bleeding and required an emergency
splenectomy). If any circumstances had been different
(like, if the whole thing had happened while we were out to dinner or
sleeping), he would not even be with us today, and we would not have had a chance to
say goodbye. As it turned out, though,
he had the surgery, bounced right back, and now is acting like nothing ever
happened. In fact, he’s acting BETTER
than if nothing ever happened, and here is why.
I’m all for “seizing the day,” but I also try to be careful
to plan for the future. Now, though,
that is not something we have to do with Baxter, so he is experiencing that
moment in his life where “All bets are off.”
Since we now have what is probably going to be a limited time with him and we feel like we’ve gotten a second chance to show him how much he
means to us, he is now experiencing a “bonus round” of life. Whereas before we were trying to be
conservative with his pain medication (he has bad arthritis) so it wouldn’t
damage his liver, now we’re like “have more!”
Whereas before we tried to limit his caloric intake so he would live
longer, now we’re like “you like sardines and tuna? Eat that for every meal!” It
is truly as if he won the dog lottery even more than before.
And so on. Yes, it
IS sad that he probably won’t be with us for 16 years like we wanted, but this
time is invaluable, and we are grateful for every day.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes, I did do internet research, I
read this book, and yes, I am
feeding him an anti-cancer diet that includes things like Essiac
Tea, anti-oxidants, and fish oil.
It’s not that I’m thinking I can cure cancer, but it would be nice if
the diet could slow the growth of it, plus it’s mostly fish-based anyway, so
that’s awesome for him.
Finally, I don’t want to get up on a soapbox here or sound
like a hippie, but once he was diagnosed and I started doing research, I was
very disturbed by the statistics on canine cancer, the common causative factor
of which seems to be dog food made by big companies. We always fed Baxter high-quality dog food
that you get from a pet store (like, not from a grocery store) so we thought we
were fine in that department, but once I really read up on it, I switched him
immediately over to this
brand, which is mostly protein-based, all natural, and doesn’t have grain
or fillers. Look into it! If this blog post helps even one dog owner
lower their dog’s risk factors for cancer, then I will feel good about that. If you'd like more information about the diet, you can feel free to email or tweet me.
So, to summarize, we celebrated our anniversary, Baxter is well for now and enjoying life, and I thank you for being patient during my self-imposed internet break.
