Wednesday was a really bad day... We took Chewy (our 10 year old Chocolate Lab) in to see the vet. He hadn't been his usual happy go lucky self lately. He has always been a finicky dog, so we just chalked it up to him getting older (he just turned 10 last month) and slowing down.

That wasn't the case.

He had lost his appetite a few days ago, but he did that from time to time. He was a really finicky dog. What was alarming was how swollen his belly was on Wednesday morning. He was also having a hard time breathing. So we took him in that day.

The vet checked him out and had some suspicions. She thought it could be bloat, or that maybe he had eaten something that got lodged in his bowel (he wolfs those rawhide chips down). She wanted to take some X-Rays of his abdomen. After the X-Rays were done and she called us back. We heard the news. It wasn't bloat, or a mis-routed rawhide. She was about 70% sure it was cancer.

The vet wanted to take a chest X-Ray to be 100% sure and to see how far along this cancer had progressed. If it hadn't metastasized Chewy would have 6 months or so with chemo. It turned out that Chewy didn't even have that long. She called back and let us know that it had indeed metastasized - to his heart. Chewy didn't have months. He was already living on borrowed time. We packed up the family (our kiddos wanted to come too) to go back up to the vet - not to take him home, but to say goodbye.

We didn't want to be selfish and take him home(though we came close). We didn't want Chewy to suffer (as he most certainly would have in the coming days). We weren't ready to say goodbye just yet, but knew in our hearts that it was the best option for our faithful friend.

Though we have other dogs (who miss him dearly) the house is just not the same without his presence. We'll miss you Chew. Thank you for being such a true friend.

Thank you.