Cancer cancer is no fun…

I got a call last week from my vet that I never wanted to get. Ever. I had a lump removed from Millie’s ear two weeks ago when I had her teeth cleaned, and like any good dogmom, I assumed the best. What I got instead, was definitely not the best. Not the worst news I could have heard, but not the best. It’s no secret I love my dogs…probably more than a normal person should, but I’m okay with it. Being that I’m single and have no children of my own, they’re my family. I want the best for them, take care of them the best I can, so when I hear bad news, it’s heartbreaking. I got confirmation Friday morning that my sweet Millie has cancer, and all I could do was cry. “But, she’s too young”, “I haven’t had her long enough”, “could I have done more?” all started cycling through my brain the moment I found out. When you’re hoping for nothing and hear “mast cell tumor” instead, it’s just scary. All I could do was hug my girl and promise to do everything I could for her. The good news in all of this is my vet feels confident she got all the cancer out when she removed the tumor from her ear. Her margins are clear, her numbers that need to be low are low, the tumor itself was a low grade, so really, if she was going to get cancer, this was the way to do it. Dogs that have had similar tumors to Millie’s have lived long, happy lives, while others have had occurrences of new tumors within months. There’s no way of knowing which route my girl will take, but what I do know is I’ll give her the best life I can for as long as I can.

Through the tears of this diagnosis, I realized it’s been months since I’ve taken any photos of my dogs. I don’t always post them here on the blog, but I’ve tried to make it a point to photograph them often. With the “c” word being tossed around, it made me realize it’s been 6 moths since I’ve taken any photos at all. So, yesterday, I changed that. And given Millie’s diagnosis, I decided I’d blog them….if for no other reason than to remind myself that life is short, and their lives are even shorter.

Where her tumor used to be…