Yappy New Year!

I seemed to have blinked and the rest of 2013 went by in a flash…

Miller has continued to grow stronger and has taken his chemo with incredible positivity and patience. All the oncologists and nurses at the specialists have fallen head over heels in love with him and he continues to improve every day, it’s taken nearly 6 months but the hair that was shaved around his op site has nearly grown back and he’s beginning to put on enough weight to be classified as “normal”. Chemo was probably more unsettling for us than him, he showed few symptoms of being uncomfortable, wasn’t off his food any more than usual and could always be tempted by the odd treat, he’s always been a huge favourite at our local park where there’s a huge fenced in area where the dogs can run offlead but since his op he’s attracted even more attention and has even taught a little girl who has always been terrified of dogs that not all dogs are scary…

Our first big day following Miller’s surgery was our wedding. I was so thrilled that Miller was able to be with me all through our wedding preparations and that I got photos with him before heading off to the church

Miller and me on my wedding day… This moment made it all worthwhile

Before we knew it, the festive season was upon us, and we were still doing a 4 hour round trip every four weeks for Miller to get his chemo. Typically he was fine on the day of the chemo, although he did once grumble at the vet when she was trying to give him his anti nausea medication. After that they decided to see how he would do without the anti nausea IV drugs and he actually coped very well. Usually around day 10 he’d lick his lips a little more frequently and be more likely to reject his food but an oral anti nausea tablet usually fixed that within about an hour. To add to our already chaotic life, our other dog, Toddy was a cryptorchid and we’d finally got around for taking him in for his corrective surgery and castration. He had a really tough time during surgery and was definitely in a lot of pain Miller was so sweet to him and really looked after his baby “brother”…

As always we trekked all around the country over Christmas visiting family but the dogs came with us (of course) and had a lovely time, they even got given beautiful new coats by my sister-in-law, custom made for a perfect fit… Such a thoughtful gift as he’s really feeling the cold at the moment and likes to wear his “smoking jacket” even indoors… when we take it off he grumbles until its put back on!

We had some of our closest friends over for New Years Eve, including 3 additional dogs, all of whom were subjected to the humiliation of having their photos taken in party hats – this is Miller’s, he’s really very accepting of us putting silly hats on him, I think he just loves the attention!

On the Friday after New Years Day we took Miller in for his sixth and final session of chemotherapy, he wasn’t all that impressed to have been dragged away from his warm bed and voiced his objection by leaving a deposit in the middle of the waiting room (despite having been walked around the carpark for a good few minutes to encourage him to do his business), They took him in and sedated him to x-ray his lungs to look for signs of metastasis while we went off to visit friends as it was too far to go home. While we were at lunch the lovely vet telephoned us to say that his x-rays were ALL CLEAR and that she was about to commence with the chemo. It’s been a really long journey this far but the news that he’s doing so well at this stage is really heartening. Thank you so much for all of your support in 2013, we really couldn’t have got this far without all of the really useful information on this site and we wish you all the best possible health and happiness for 2014.