My Old Friend

My Old Friend.



A few cuddles together. Our old boy is very unwell. Poor old Copper has cancer of the salivary gland. A large tumor has grown on his neck. Imparing his swallowing. He has been moping about the place for a couple of weeks. The vet said today its a $4000. surgery which may not be successful anyways. So we will be saying good bye to our old friend tommorrow. The vet says he doubts he would make it through the holidays when I asked if we could hold of on the inevitable for the sake of a happy Christmas. No point dragging out his suffering. Then all of a sudden tonight Copper got up and had a lively, alert half an hour. Looking like his old self. Making our decision seem so cruel. He still has this large mass on his neck and is still wobbly on his legs. These decisions are so difficult. He has has a long, happy life with us. He is almost 15, pretty old for a dog. I pray tonight for lessening of his suffering, myself and family's broken hearts and for courage in tommorows final visit to the vet.
Doggy heaven will be all the richer, this time tommorrow.

Puppy love and kisses.

UPDATE:

Thanks to all of our blogland friends who offered kind comments and support on this post. When we got up this morning Copper was feeling even more spritely. We took him to the vets anyways and Dr.B. Suggested we leave him on the anti -imflammatories, thru the holidays and see how he does. If the tumor shrinks a bit more them he may be able to take the tumor out safely, with out involving as much facial nerve damage. Its incredible to see him back to being perky after he seemed to be on his deathbed. Part of me just wanted to say , just do it, put him down, because I don't want to go through this torture again of making this decision and saying good bye. But Keith and my son , want to give him this extra time as long as he isn't suffering. So we postpone the inevitable and at least our christmas wont be spent in mourning. Thanks again for all your kind thoughts.