The Charlie Chronicles (Part 5)
Biopsy Results
I was on my exercise bike this morning when the Fox Valley Animal Referral Center finally called with Charlie’s biopsy results.
I ran upstairs to get better reception.
Dr. Leonard, the vet, let me know that the tumor was unfortunately malignant.
Not the news we wanted.
Tumor
The tumor could (and probably would) return again. Her recommendation was to do an ultrasound for Charlie every 3 months or so. That way they can try and track any growth progress.
If/when (she seemed to think it would be a when situation) another tumor is detected, we can decide how to proceed from there.
I felt OK about that. Then she told me another tumor could show up in 6 months-2 years. At that point, we could decide to take him to Madison for chemo or other treatments. But, at that point, we would have to think about whether we were doing it for Charlie, or for ourselves.
Quality Over Quantity
We will not put Charlie, or any other pet, through any pain or suffering for our own benefit. Quality over quantity.
Then she told me that Charlie would likely not make it to old age.
That hit me hard.
Just typing that makes me cry.
When she told me that, I looked at Charlie who was sitting on the other couch. He looked back at me, oblivious to the news I had just gotten.
Once I got off the phone with Dr. Leonard, I sat by Charlie and cried for a bit. He started licking me. He seemed to be trying to comfort me.
He continued licking me while I called Jeff and told him the news while I cried.
I informed a few other people through text and then had to finish my bike workout so I would be ready to get Charlie to the vet for his 1 PM appointment.
Staples
That’s the good news for today, Charlie got his staples out!
Waiting for Vet, Curbside
Our vet has gone back to curbside treatment, so I actually had to hold Charlie in the parking lot while a vet tech took his staples out. There were a LOT of them!
Charlie had the cone AND a muzzle on. He behaved so well!
The vet ended up having to take Charlie inside and use a second tool to get some of the last staples out that were crooked. He was very patient.
The vet handed him back to me and now he is staple and cone free!
Since our store, The Game Capital, is not far from the vets office, I wanted to stop by with Charlie so that Jeff could see him cone and staple-free. I also wanted to see some of the changes that are currently in progress at our store.
Joy of Being a Dog Owner
On our way into our store, The Game Capital, Charlie decided we needed to take a little stroll to the end of the block, past some neighborhood houses.
(Warning: Upcoming description of poop)
A large dog (I’m guessing based on the sound) started barking as we passed by one of the houses. Charlie started sniffing the grass between the sidewalk and the street in front of this house. Then, of course, he chose to poop there.
No big deal. Just the joy of being a dog owner.
I prepared a bag to pick it up while he pooped.
It happened to be more mushy and not an easy kind to pick up. There was gonna be some left stuck to the grass. Other dog owners probably know what I’m talking about. I picked up what I could, which was the majority, and started to tie off the bag.
Awkward Situation
I was startled by a ladies voice shouting out from the house “What about the rest of it!?”
I replied “I’m gonna get it.”
“OK.” she replied.
I set about opening up another bag and started scraping and basically pulling out the wad of grass (it wasn’t a great lawn) that the feces had stuck to.
During this, I had to coax Charlie to come closer to me because I couldn’t quite reach the spot on the lawn while keeping him at leash length. Then he wanted to try and walk down the driveway into the street.
He was making an awkward situation more difficult. He is lucky he is cute.
Today of All Days
The whole time I was being watched. I was irritated that today, of all days, this had to happen. I thought, “Man, if she knew what kind of day I had had so far…”.
Once I had cleared away any sign of poop, and a wad of grass, I tied off the second bag.
The woman then out of her house and walked towards us. She said, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, there’s just been someone letting their dog poop in one of our neighbors’ yards and not cleaning it up. So I had to say something in case it was you.”
“Oh, I understand.” I said awkwardly.
“Sorry if I scared your little dog here.”
I had the opportunity to let her know I was having a shitty day thus far, so I took it. “No, its ok. We’ve just...had a tough day. He just got staples removed from a surgery he had 2 weeks ago” I said.
“Oh, that’s no fun”
“Yeah, and we also found out today that he may not have a lot longer to be around…” I trailed off a bit because I was choking up a little.
“Oh no! That’s terrible! I’m so sorry to hear that. That’s really hard. One of the hardest things you can go through.”
Now I felt a little bad for wanting to make her feel bad.
We went on to talk a bit more about how she had lost a dog in the past in a similar way.
Hope
She must have assumed I lived in the neighborhood because she asked if I knew the people that live behind her. I said no and almost explained that I was actually in the neighborhood because my husband and I owned the game store down the street, but I decided against it
She let me know that those neighbors behind her had a dog who a had a tumor in his near. They had gotten a similar prognosis to what we had for Charlie, and their dog was still doing fine. So there is hope.
I thanked her for that and she wished Charlie a healthy life and a good rest of our walk.
I feel like this story should end with some sort of lesson, but I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s that people are nicer than you think, even if the first impression would lead you to believe otherwise.
At The Game Capital
Once we were at our store, Charlie started celebrating that he was cone-less and started rolling around on the carpet and getting in all of the ear scratches that hes hasn’t been able to do for the last 2 weeks.
Freedom
He has been enjoying his freedom from staples and the cone of shame. I am just going to try to enjoy him and love him as much as I can for as long as I can.
Enjoying cone-free couch time
Once he does eventually have to leave us, that just means we will be able to give another dog a chance at good, loving home. That is, if we decide to get another dog. That’s hard to think about yet.
Click HERE to start from the beginning of The Charlie Chronicles
