MY Summer, my sweet, sweet Summer!!!! I love you so much, my little baby!!! You adopted me April 2005....and you are in each and every step I take...you are always, but always at my side...in bed, in the easy chair,as I step out of shower, on potty or wherever I am at!!!! When I was in the motorcycle accident in May 2006...you took to my bed with me...standing faithful guard over me....biting anyone who tried to help me...all I could do was to laugh..I hurt so badly...with 5 fractures of foot and 2 of ankle, is it any wonder why???? When Cathy tried to put the ice bag on my cast....it hurt to move it at all, and in my crying out in pain, you stood guard...teeth bared...to let NO ONE near me, and you wedged behind my bottom so tightly I couldn't get you out either....and you stood ever faithful...watching over probably the only human who had ever been kind to you...those sad eyes....feeling every bit of my pain....never leaving me except to be taken to potty....but you came right back..to your post....solid as a soldier standing fast o'er the land...defending me...at any cost!!! What a loyal companion you have been to me!!!
This little soldier stood guard again over me August 2007 when I fell and broke that same leg in 2 more places. Never wavering her guard post...only to (forcefully) go potty and right back on duty!!!! None of my other 3 were as devoted to me as you are...not standing guard...this little girl would take on a 300lb. gorilla if it were a threat (perceived or otherwise) to me!!!! She's tenacious!!!
Last night I felt a lump in the left lymph gland...the size of a quarter...I check my dogs all over regularly...I spent a sleepless night...watching over my little soldier....hopefully as raptly as she has always done by me...in to see the vet bright and early this am....she didn't like the placement or the feel of this....she did a needle aspiration (3x I might add) and sweet little Summer just sat quietly and didn't flinch....or budge...or growl...she just looked lovingly/trustingly into my eyes....this just kills me...an animal who can't tell you if it hurts...or if it is scared...I was crying...the vet went to do a rough micro scan...she came back and said she saw a few extra large cells with mitochondria suggestive of LYMPHOMA.....the specimen will be sent out and I have to wait a week for results...in the meantime, she is taking steroids and doxycycline and she is expecting the lump to go down a lot....she is being optimistic...maybe she got a tick borne infection from a tick....no ticks on her in a couple years now...maybe an abscessed tooth...will look at teeth at next visit....and maybe this was the only cells in the lump...that suggested lymphoma...
I have been numb all day long....yes, Summer is somewhere between 13 to 16 years old...pretty old for a doxie...as I said she rescued me 3 years ago this month....don't know where she came from, except she was passed here, there...no one wanting to see the beautiful little faithful companion she is...til I got her. Her little tail is less than half what it is supposed to be...don't know that history either and probably don't want to either...I have loved her from day one with my heart and soul...she just pirouettes when I get feed bowls ready to eat...and she goes in circles. When I get the can opener going at night, as each gets a half can of short cut green beans (excellent filler and no calories), she really goes bonkers...they are so funny...she will be the only one to go out in rain to potty....dachshunds, you know, HATE rain and will NOT go out for the most part. But sweet Summer Beans will...always...my sweet Sum-Sum...all I can do is to trust in God,, have some faith, and pray you are going to come out a-ok....isn't it ironic, my partner and my dog both suffer from Cancer...my first doxie died in 2004, from an auto immune disorder of some type...she had cancer a year and a half prior to that...and I found a rescue group in the Southeast...adopted 9 all together...I have 4 left...some were old, real old, and some we had to re-adopt out....due to having to "rent now"...landlord will allow 4 max. Anyway, I am rambling...I am brain tired..just had to come to my Journal...and write of my heart...my mind, and from my soul...I am sure hoping the "black cloud" of past 2 years will surely go away....I just would like a break...some time from heartbreak and disappointment...its sad enough to watch a partner suffer with terminal Cancer...and to now have a pet.....isn't this a bit much for one person to shoulder.....I am going to sit and hold my 4 babies...and love them...like there is "no tomorrow"....Chatter (whose heart is broken tonight)