Georgy Porgy

The last couple of months Brian and I have notice a little lump on one of George's legs. We honestly didn't think much of it. Lots of older dogs gets lumps as the years go on and it wasn't bothering him at all. However as the weeks went on, George was getting quite clumsy. He had fallen down the stairs a few times and was loosing his confidence in little things like jumping off our (not very high) deck.. something he had done so easily just a couple of months ago. three weeks ago we noticed that his lump (we liked to call it his "muscle") started rapidly growing. He fell down the stairs again and we knew it was time to take him to the vet for a quick checkup. I dropped the kids off at school in the morning on Monday October 7th and Brian headed to work and George and I headed to the dreaded vet. I still was confident that he would be fine and the lump would be fine because... well, its George and he is indestructible!

The Doctor felt it. It was large, hard and immovable. She said it looked like Cancer but she would confirm either way. She said given his age (13 and a half) and the rapid rate at which the tumour is growing, surgery was not the best option. She wanted to do an Xray and a fine needle aspiration to see if we could get a diagnosis. His heart sounded great, his lungs sounded great and he only has a little bit of arthritis, which is normal for his age and not of any concern.

She took George back for about 20 minutes.



Our number one priority is making sure George is not suffering. Regardless of this outcome today, she said he's good to come home because other than his massive "muscle" he's doing great.

They brought him back out to me and we sat and waited for another 20 minutes before being called in for the results.



"George has a cancerous mass, it is a Mass Cell Tumour (MCT)" I still feel like Im in denial because he's doing really good. He's more sleepy recently but isn't in pain and is still walking around jumping on the couch etc. The X-rays showed that it is not yet in his bones so they know he's doing ok.





(This is a picture of his good leg for comparison)



She gave us some pain meds and sent us home. We are to be watching for puking, diarrhea, lethargic, no interest in eating.. that is how we will know when its time to take him back and put him down. My heart shattered that day, hearing this, I know he's old and that this day would eventually come but you always dread it.

We did tell the kids. At first, I tried to explain that George's "muscle" is actually making his body very sick and that eventually he will go to heaven because of it so we need to watch him closely, give him lots of love and be very carful with him. Penny immediately said "Mom! He's just like Terry Fox!" (They had recently done the Terry Fox run at school and learned all about him, his leg, his cancer and how amazing he was) I quickly responded with "yes, You're right" after which Bentley said "but does he have cancer? Terry fox had cancer.." With a heavy heart I did explain that yes, George has Cancer. It was silent for a moment and then Bentley said "Mom, next year, can I run for George in our Terry Fox run?" .. "Of course you can buddy" I replied.

The one good thing about knowing our time is limited with George is being able to do things with him that maybe we would have just said "one day we will do it" not realizing that sometimes, we aren't always promised that next day.

So I set up my backdrop and we did some fun photos of George with the kids and I am so glad we have these photos to remember our sweet first pup.













We don't have a timeline for George. Online says that the dogs typically pass away 2 months after diagnosis but we know that George is RESILIENT. Literally NOTHING phases him. He has eaten grapes, chocolate, rasins... all the things that are "poisonous" to dogs and has never even puked from them. He has physically tipped over our metal garbage can (too many times to count), just to eat the treasures inside. He has fallen down the stairs a handful of times and never broken a thing. He just keeps on going and we're hoping that this doesn't phase his either. However, as much as we are hopeful, we also promised ourselves to be realistic. To have George at the forefront of our minds. To be sensitive to him and make sure he's not in pain or suffering and making the call when we know he's uncomfortable.

For now, he's being spoiled sleeping in our clean, hot of out the dryer, laundry, eating treats and being loved on like crazy. We love you so much George.