Yule Stock Show Moon
What a day. Todd came to finish up the remnants of the kitchen remodel. It looks wonderful and Kate brought it in for a reasonable price. It’s been difficult, stressful for her, but she’s done a wonderful job. We’re going to the Fort on Sunday night to celebrate her work. Meanwhile she’s happily moving things back in, organizing the kitchen anew, sort of the point of the whole project. Lots more storage space. I’ll post some pictures later on.
But that wasn’t the significant part of the day, at least not the most significant. Ironically, as I wrote Our Friends, Vega was at the vet’s having her left front paw x-rayed again. It’s been swollen for several weeks now. The first x-ray showed infection rather than cancer. So, antibiotics and pain meds. But the swelling has gotten worse.
We got a call from Palmini, the vet. Could we come in at 1 o’clock to review what he’d found? Uh-oh. After several Irish Wolfhounds dying of cancer, we imagined the worst. Tears and reminiscing. Vega is the sweetest, happiest dog we’ve had. Like all of our dogs her place in our lives is special, irreplaceable. That means anticipating a hole where her funny, talkative, bouncy presence is hurt.
Not as bad as all that. It might be cancer, could still be an infection, but we’ve agreed to a biopsy on Monday. The good news is that even if it is cancer, an amputation would cure it. The possible cancers are not aggressive. Amputation sounds drastic, and it is, of course, but for a dog not as big a deal as you might imagine. They quickly adapt to the tripod life and go on. One thing we can all learn from dogs is how to deal with physical adversity. Don’t quit.
We don’t have to lose Vega right now. And, I’m glad.
