What a trooper!! We went to the vet's yesterday to find out why Shilo wasn't eating and was soooo nauseated. Luckily we had a few hours to bawl our eyes out before taking the 1 hour trip back to pick her up yesterday afternoon. They preformed a x-ray and ultrasound to see the potential reasons that she was feeling so poorly. For those who find themselves in similar situations I am sharing our story.

Shilo was doing great, running, playing ball, and chasing the light. As you know I found a couple lumps last week and we were going to have her oncologist take a look at her next visit. By Friday she started exhibiting strange behavior. She was restless and had gotten sick. Not like the normal sick but more like spitting up clear mucous. We took her temp which was normal and so took her in the following day. Her local vet checked the lumps which came back positive for cancer. They could not figure out why she got sick all her blood work came back great. She ate that day and kept everything down and I figured ok fluke, she just had a bad day. Sunday she wouldn't eat until dinner and had some chicken breast but, threw up over half of what she ate later that nite. This was the last time she ate..

So yesterday we had the tests done and found that her cancer has spread through out her body. Although the last x-ray showed her lungs clear 3 weeks ago, she not has 3 visible mets. She also has mets in her kidneys (both left and right) and her other abdominal structures. This really makes me wonder if some of the things that happened strangely in the past 2 months was due to some of these mets. The vet believes the mets started in her abdomen where there is a fairly large tumor. We had blood work done and amazingly all her functions were normal (ie kidney's and liver).

So we are now buying precious time. Last night was a little rough with her fever but we are addressing that with the rimadyl and tylenol. She is on 2 anti nausea meds and a appitite inducer. She ate a small piece of cheese today!! She still is fighting and has lots of spark. She is still into wanting to know where everyone is and she is having family come and visit her. Her sister Shadow will be here later this afternoon. Her best human friends are coming by today and tomorrow. Later she will get to go for her favorite drive. I wanted to take her to the coast but the weather is not cooperating so maybe a visit to our local park will do.

As long as she is comfortable and fighting we will be there for her. We are also watching for that sign that she is done, and when she is we are as prepared as one can be. She snuggled with me last night on the bed with her head across my legs like she did when she was a puppy. She is still mobile and going outside to potty.

I want to say that I bragged about this place to the vet while I was there. They are looking to give this information to those facing similar situations and giving a place for support. It has been a life line for me, I have been able to be strong. So thank you all for the support.

We will be spending the next few days taking lots of pictures and loving her each minute of the day.

Shilo & Alisa

PS for those who are contemplating this walk, Shilo has been told she is not of the norm. They will be using her story as a teaching tool for future research. Needless to say we have NO REGRETS!! We got 8 weeks(and are still counting) so far on quality, painfree time. I would do it all again making the same decisions we have made.