Hi everyone,

Barley is probably not very familiar to you -- he was my sweet chocolate lab, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his left front leg just before Thanksgiving 2007. He had been with us since he was 6 weeks old, and we were just destroyed with that news and didn't know what to do. Just about everything I found online was incredibly depressing, and then we found Jerry's site. Jerry and his people were immensely helpful, and as you all know, reading about successful and happy recoveries mean the world to those of us coping with the diagnosis.

We decided to go ahead with the surgery, even though one of our vets discouaraged it because of his age and hip dysplasia. Like many of you, we second guessed our decision at first, but it was absolutely the right thing for him. It's really true -- the dog part didn't live in his arm, and he was the same sweet boy after the surgery. He was amazing -- hopped out of the vet's office practically by himself, could do his business, and even tug with his best buddy Morel in no time. When we used his "ride" (the sling they gave you post-op), he practically ran.

Shortly after his surgery, we treated ourselves to a brand new King-size bed -- because I was pregnant, and the horrible futon we'd had for the past 5 years was pretty uncomfortable. For the next 5 months, Barley slept in the middle of that bed. Some nights I didn't think I'd get any sleep because of all the bunnies he chased in his dreams. But wow -- the amount of quality time we got with the brown dog after his surgery was just irreplaceable. We did decide to go with chemo, and Barley handled that well too -- never had a bad side effect, and as always, had a positive spirit.

Our first baby was born in April, just after Barley's 12th birthday. He and Charlie got along just fine, though he probably wished we'd named our kid something that didn't rhyme with his name.

Barley started coughing about a month ago, and an x-ray confirmed that the cancer had metastasized to his lungs. We made a last-ditch effort on the at-home chemo drugs, and gave him Prednisone which made him much more comfortable and quieted the cough.

Around the 4th of July, Barley started to not feel so good. I could tell things were starting to go downhill, though even right up to the end, he was diving for rocks in his baby pool. It's always been impossible to keep that boy out of water. Something seemed to happen to his back legs and all of a sudden he wasn't able to get up by himself to do his business, and that was tough for all of us. I don't know what it was -- his back leg just seemed to curl under him, and he wasn't able to put any weight on it. Our vet thought it might have had something to do with spondylosis. I haven't done a lot of reading about that yet.

We said goodbye to Barley on July 9th. My husband and I took shifts snuggling on him on the futon upstairs the night before, and got in as many more kisses as we could. What a good friend Barley was -- we miss him terribly. I bought some little kids' records so I could sing some songs to my baby -- there's a tune "Blue" on one that talks about this great friendship with a dog named Blue, who died after many years. "When I get to Heaven, the first thing I'll do is blow my horn and call for Blue. Ya-ha Blue, you good dog you." We love you Barley.

Thanks to everyone here for your stories and support, which benefit even those of us who read and don't post often.

Best wishes to all of you tripawds!

Carey, Gregg and Morel 

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