Yesterday was a day full of appointments and running around. The appointments were for my dogs, two of which needed minor surgeries. Josie my Beagle/Basset hound mix needed her last puppy tooth extracted and my old man Chester who's 16 years old needed four growths removed one of which was on his third eyelid and is being biopsied as we speak. This particular growth is a melanoma similar to what a human would get from too much sun exposure. All we can do right now is pray that it isn't malignant, because if it is it is an aggressive form of cancer in a dog and at Chester's age there isn't much we can do for him. If that wasn't enough Chester's chest x-rays revealed an enlarged heart and too many shadows in his lungs to count, our vet said the enlarged heart in due mostly to age. It’s also possible that before we adopted Chester that he suffered from heartworms from what the x-rays showed.
Chester is our second dog. We adopted him when he was around six years old. He was set to be euthanized the day we walked into to the shelter in 29Palms, CA to find a pal for our Golden Yucca. I was immediately drawn to him, but not my husband. We looked at every other dog and finally when my husband went home to get Yucca to meet a few of the dogs he liked I had them bring Chester out to me and I knew right away he was the one for me, all I needed was Yucca to feel the same. I knew Yucca and I knew that he would be the one. You couldn't ask for a better dog, he was calm, loving and his tail never stopped wagging. He knew he'd found his home with us and eleven years later he's still with us loved more than the day we brought him home and still smiling and wagging his tail.
I know many people would question my sanity for spending so much money on him to keep him well at his age, but how could I not when he's been such a terrific family companion. He deserves at least this much and if his biopsy comes back with bad news I won't regret the decision because he's worth every penny for the comfort, love and joy he's given my family.
My prayers go out to you and your Chester...I I would never question the amount of money a pet lover spends on their pet. They are a member of your family, and i couldn't imagine having any member of the family go without medical treatment.
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