Oh wow. Thirty-three months! Oh my. 

LOVE the picture. Classic pose.

Good news on any day, even if it's just for a day, is always worth celebrating. Happy the drugs for the heart; hope they continue to.

Thank you for this truly inspiring update! 

Yes, she's on Vetmedin and also Enacard

You know – I don't think there is anything I can say which has contributed to how well Darcy has done, other than pure luck.  I wish I could say it was a food we fed her or a supplement we added to her diet but in all honesty, although we did feed her reasonably carefully during the early days, she soon went back to eating standard food and I've not used any supplements.  It would be easier if there was A THING we had done or a path we had followed because then we could share and hopefully others would get as good an outcome but – I really do think it's down to the luck of the draw.  And that's the really crappy thing isn't it, when a person is faced with the decision about whether to amputate and do chemo or whether to just offer palliative care right from the start.  Some of the dogs who you think may do well, don't – and others get lucky.

The figures in the UK show that in 98% of cases, dogs with osteo will already have some sort of spread BEFORE you even know your dog has the disease.  But I always maintained that this still leaves 2% who do not have any spread by the time they are diagnosed.  And I know we are lucky (and thankful) that Darcy managed to plonk herself in that very tiny 2% bracket.

When she met the cardiologist re her heart for the first time, a few weeks ago, the cardiologist thought that "someone had got their figures wrong" when she read about Darcys osteo survival.  She said she's never come across another like her.  I personally do know of others like her, although of course there are not as many of them as any of us would like.

Oh I'm rambling on now but – when we found out about her dilated cardiomyopathy – although we were very upset, we tried to look at it like this…..

If Darcy had seen another vet (other than our own) on 16th October 2007, she may not have been given a chance to even have an amputation and chemo because many vets just say "oh they don't survive" or "oh these dogs are too big" or some other such thing.  But she was given the chance, we took it and she's here 35 months (and 8 days ) on.  Had she not been given the chance, we'd have lost her when she was five and a half.  But we didn't

I'm not sure if that made any sense what-so-ever LOL but I know what I mean

Guess what?!  (I'm a bit over excited LOL)  Darcy has just played (on her bed) with a toy   She's not shown ANY interest in toys for months and months and months but tonight when I gave her two new ones, she had a little play  

And I swear, in this picture, she really was laughing with me (I was laughing as I was taking the pic and she looked so pleased with herself!)