anitabuchan

My mum called yesterday, to let me know that our dog Brandy has only about a month to live.

He has cancer, which we've known for a while. It started with a large tumour on his back. This was removed, then regrew, and at about that time they also found a small tumour in his liver. But yesterday he was supposed to have the tumour on his back removed a second time, with the hope that the inoperable tumour in his liver would turn out not to be cancerous. Except they x-rayed him before the surgery, and found about a dozen new small tumours in his lungs.

So. No operation. It all depends on how fast the tumours in his lungs grow, but the vet thinks about a month.

I've got some time off work to go visit him (luckily my boss also has dogs). He's about the best dog you could imagine - a collie/spaniel cross, absolutely gorgeous and dead clever, and he always knew when you were upset, and would come to you. Most of the time he considered himself too far above the us to pay any of us much attention, but whenever you were upset he'd somehow sense it, and appear to let you hug him. He was found abandoned at 5 weeks, and we got him shortly after that. He's 14 now.

He doesn't seem to be in pain. He gets breathless easily, but that's it. I know he's just a dog, but he's also family, and I am going to miss him so much.