I Love Lucy

I'm just going to do a short post tonight. Our old dog Lucy is in the process of dying, and had a hard day today. Our vet told us before Christmas that she has a tumor in her spleen that's causing bleeding in her abdomen. She could have surgery, but it would either fix the problem or make it worse (I guess that's true of most solutions). She's an old lady, so we decided we didn't want to put her through surgery when there isn't a clear positive reason for doing so. So for the last 3 weeks, she'll have a bad day or two, where her tummy swells from internal bleeding and she is pretty exhausted and doesn't eat, followed by a good day or two, where she eats and goes on short walks and is engaged in life.

The vet said that this is a painless way to go, so we'd love for her to die a natural death, but it's pretty agonizing to watch. When she has a bad day, we're sure she's going to die that day or over night, but she's a pretty tough old bird. As the time has gone by, though, she's getting weaker and weaker, so even on a good day, she can be pretty wobbly when she walks. She still wants to be part of the family, though, so as we go from room to room, she somehow gets herself in the room where we are.

So I'm feeling very down tonight. Here's a picture of Lucy tonight on her new deluxe, heated dog bed: