Unfortunately it's cancer. So here's a photo of a puppy. 

Puppy cancer.

After having lost my mother to cancer 5 years ago the diagnosis is pretty frightening. All told I'm doing well. I'm just relieved to at least finally have a diagnosis. Now we can actually DO something about it. Keep calm and carry on, right?

Life keeps throwing curveballs

This past week has been a bit surreal. My father has been in the hospital since last Tuesday, and it's scaring the crap out of me.

He was ill with what we thought might be bronchitis. He lost his voice two weeks ago. He went to his doctor for some meds on Tuesday, was diagnosed with an elevated heart rate and a mystery lung issue. The heart rate is being medicated, but they've not as of yet diagnosed the lung/throat issue, and they've requested he stay for tests and monitoring. Basically it could be an infection, or it could be cancer. And all the blood cultures taken have come back negative to date... 

So I've been stressed, to say the least. I never thought I'd wish so hard for an infection to be diagnosed.

To keep with the topic of the blog and to cheer myself up a bit, here's a photo of my dad the day we picked Cohen out of the litter.

I always though this photo had a Madonna-esque feel to it. 

Photo Friday

She's hot, but she's happy.

Boarded!

I was out of town for a wedding this weekend, and just about anyone who could have watched Cohen was out of town with me. So we boarded her.

As I've said before (a lot), Cohen is not an easy dog. She's rambunctious, loud, and has a history of guarding food and toys from other dogs. While talking with the woman who was boarding her, I stressed this... a lot. I wanted to make sure that she knew what she was getting in to before she was stuck with my dog while I was out of the city for five days. Better safe than sorry and all that.

Well, it turns out apparently I was worried over nothing.

I got Cohen back this morning. Apparently she did really well. She was fine with all the other dogs, large and small alike. Apparently her barking was under control. And most noteworthy to me, there were no reports of guarding (all food and toys were carefully controlled). The only vague negative was that Cohen could "get a bit silly"... your guess is as good as mine as for what that might mean. All in all, it was a success.

All this gives me hope that Cohen and Chihuahua-Megatron will coexist peacefully when Adrian and I finally move in. Of course this won't completely stop my worrying, but it'll lessen it. At least for a little while.