Sad Maggie News

Thank you for the birthday wishes for Maggie! She was so excited over her birthday hamburger from Carl's Jr, that she walked a foot away from her dish and peed on the kitchen floor. Yeah, Maggie! (Even though she is 17 now, that is not something she does that often.)

Unfortunately, I have some bad news about my little dog. The vet found she has a large mass on her liver, which he is pretty sure is cancerous. There's also a lesion on a bone in her back leg and she has an enlarged heart. After he showed me the x-rays, he recommended having her put down. I was devastated because up until this, she has been pretty healthy for an older dog. I knew she wasn't going to live forever but I didn't expect this.

I know she has lost her hearing but maybe she somehow knew what the vet was suggesting because since that visit last Thursday, she has been acting as if everything is fine. She naps a lot but when she's awake, she is active and her appetite is really good. The other day, she was sitting on my bed and pawing at me to give her something to eat. I offered her a dog biscuit, a piece of Pupperoni and some other soft treat, and she turned all of them down but kept scratching at my arm and making this low growl. Finally, I realized she wanted a Sweetart. There were two of them sitting on my night table -- they're good for bringing up low blood sugar so I have them around -- and I gave her the blue one. Every try breaking up a Sweetart into little tiny pieces for a dog who doesn't have that many teeth left? I was ready to give her the whole thing and let her gum it.

So, for now, we're in a holding pattern. I've read some stories online about dogs and cats who were diagnosed with liver cancer and they seem to go downhill pretty quickly. I hope that doesn't happen with Maggie. I'd rather she passed away in her sleep after eating a Sweetart. But we'll see how it goes. We won't let her suffer but I don't think its time yet to do anything drastic.