Happy birthday to me…

Posted on March 9, 2011 by riosmom

Yesterday was my birthday, and the best present of all was a happy Woo. Her dad sent her in to do a little post-breakfast snuggle wearing a festive ribbon on her harness. My present was a book of Rio. Her dad had collected all the great Rio pictures from the day I brought her home to post-surgery, and compiled them into an iPhoto book. We had made a couple of these books before — one of all of our Halloween party guests, and one for the in-laws 25 wedding anniversary. Apple really does a nice job, and they’re a great memento without the headache of trying to put together a photo album. They are hardbound and the pages are glossy, and you can easily add captions and text to the pages as well. And so the legendary Story of Woo will live on now in print.

Rio has a vet appointment this afternoon. We’re going to check white blood count and have the doctor take a look at her knee. She’s been having a bit of difficulty with it — it’s been swollen and at times it simply collapses under her. Hoping, hoping that it’s just tired from carrying all the load and not something like a torn ligament.

Crazy Woo

Posted on March 6, 2011 by riosmom

Rio is definitely starting to get her old “rock head” back. We had been limiting the climbs to the second floor to when she was wearing her harness and could be assisted up the steps, but yesterday she decided she was tired of not going upstairs when she felt like it. Not only did she climb the stairs unassisted and without any permission at all, she did it twice. I think she thought maybe her dad had food up there that he wanted to share with her. She also went walkabout in the yard and ran up the driveway a couple of times (our driveway is about 300 feet long) to “greet” the neighbors. Today, we played a little ball outside with Tosca and Zephyr… I have to remember to throw low for Rio, because she is used to leaping up for the ball, and she’s fallen a couple of times trying to jump since the surgery. We’re both learning what she’s capable of, but she seems to want to go at a little faster pace than me! She is definitely a tough old bird!

Starting chemo

Posted on March 4, 2011 by riosmom

Today is Friday, three weeks and three days since Rio’s surgery, and yesterday we started chemo for the second time. I must say, when I saw my “little waif in the cage” nearly 11 years ago, it never would have crossed my mind that we’d end up on this road. Not that knowing would have made me walk away without her…. Could you??? Look at this face!!!

The day we met!

Continue reading →

Two weeks and a day

Posted on February 23, 2011 by riosmom

Tuesday marked two weeks since Rio’s amputation. I didn’t really have any real updates on her yet, as we are still waiting on the c-KIT findings and we haven’t started chemo yet. We should have the test results any day now… I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking and was just feeling a need to vent: Continue reading →

The dreaded pathology report….

Posted on February 19, 2011 by riosmom

Last night Rio’s oncologist called with the pathology results. As I already half expected, the results are less than great. Since her cancer has resurfaced post-chemo, we knew going in that it was likely to be a more aggressive version of the disease. Also since it was in the region of a lymph node we knew there was every likelihood that it could be in those tissues as well. Continue reading →

Road to recovery — Part I

Posted on February 9, 2011 by riosmom

Rio underwent the amputation surgery yesterday, February 8. I’d been having a really hard time with the idea of her losing her leg, and I wasn’t positive even as we went to our appointment with the surgeon if I was going to go through with it. I’d been trying to think about it from the angle of “if it was elsewhere on her body, what would I do?”. If it was on her back or her haunches or some other easily operable spot, the surgery would have been scheduled within hours of the diagnosis, so what was my problem? The surgery was imperative if she was going to survive this particular tumor. Continue reading →

The next step

Posted on February 2, 2011 by riosmom

I have yet again grilled my oncologist and regular veterinarian ad nauseum about the pros and cons of the entire spectrum of treatment routes and their respective prognoses, and have gone ahead and scheduled Rio’s surgery for next Tuesday, Feb. 8. Now I just have to stay busy and try not think about it too much between now and then…and remember to breathe when I do….

On a separate but related note, does anyone here have any firsthand knowledge of some of the holistic/naturopathic formulas on the market, specifically K9 Immunity, Transfer Factor or other similar? Are they as effective as the websites they are sold on would have me believe?

Say it ain’t so….

Posted on February 2, 2011 by riosmom

My best girl, Rio (aka, The Woo), is almost 11. I adopted her from the Humane Society when she was just 6 weeks old. From the very beginning, we were soulmates, best buddies, inseparable.

We were told she was German Shepherd/Lab mix when we got her, but according to a recent DNA test, Rio is a German Shepherd/Whippet/Harrier/Pug/Mix. Continue reading →

Rio's Story

Surviving cancer….again.

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