Puppy Update

This is again off topic, but being that Layla is basically our first child, I feel very inclined to discuss what is going on here. As you probably remember, last week was very trying for us as Layla had to have emergency surgery to remove her spleen after a tumor was found. She stayed in the hospital for 3 days, and finally came on late Thursday. She was pretty pitiful all weekend, but she has been coming around to her old self, and by today, she seems almost normal. She isn't allowed to go up and down stairs right now, so my hubby has been sleeping downstairs in the living room with her.

But right when everything seemed to be getting better, the biopsy results come back, and it's not good. The tumor was a Grade II malignant mast cell tumor, and its likely the cells have moved on to other places in her body well before we even found the tumor. We have to see an oncologist to determine what our next steps are, but even with chemo, it doesn't look like she will be around very much longer, likely only 6 months or so.

As you can imagine, my husband and I are devastated. I never in a million years would have thought Layla wouldn't be here to meet our babies and grow up with them. She is only 7 1/2 years old, and granted, has gone through a lot (doggie ACL surgery on both hind legs, mast cell tumors on her skin removed, pancreatitis, etc), but we felt like we still have several years with her. My husband is especially upset. He was given Layla at only 4 weeks old, and spent the Christmas vacation at home bottle feeding her. She fit in the palm of his hand, and now she is 80 lbs. They have been attached at the hip ever since, so much so that when we first started living together, she had a nice way of crawling between us at night and pushing me out of the bed at night so she could be in bed alone with him. But I must have grown on her after some time because she very much recognizes me as the mommy.

Please keep our baby girl in your thoughts, and us as we likely will have to make some difficult decisions in the coming months.