It’s been a while since I posted an update. We have enjoyed a lovely few months where Riley just got to be a dog. In the photo above, she was enjoying some outside time, and having fun gnawing on a stick. For the most part, Riley does many of the things she was accustomed to doing before all our worlds got turned upside down. She has even tried to wrestle with the other dogs a bit. While the spirit is willing, she inevitably falls on her butt. It is great to see her having fun again. We reworked the dogs’ sandbox (4000 pounds of sand in a 10x 12 area!), and Riley loves to lie in the sand and watch the world go by. If the spirit moves her, she will dig for a while and tear around the yard.
Stairs are still a problem, but we assist her upstairs each night with her harness. Although Riley is pretty ungainly, she must be getting stronger, as she has managed to jump on the couch a couple of times. Usually, she just stands in front of it and whines until her human staff helps her up. With all the pampering that Riley has had in the last eight months, we find that she has become quite the demanding girl. We really don’t mind, and are just glad that she can express her wishes.
This week was the three month post-chemo checkup. The oncologist was very pleased with Riley’s progress. No recurrence of cancer was visible either on the chest x-ray or the physical exam. Woo hoo, that is great news. The oncologist says that it is highly likely that there will be a recurrence at some point, although we might get lucky and Riley could be an outlier. We continue to give various supplements daily, and Riley gets green smoothies with every meal to provide a large dose of antioxidants. Daily stroller outings are not as far as before – because she wants to walk! So we will go a couple of blocks, and then she will walk back on her own.
Earlier this month, we celebrated Riley’s birthday. In our world, dog birthdays are celebrated with hot dogs all around, so it was a pretty big deal for our girl. What a chowhound she is! Through two surgeries and five rounds of chemo, she never missed a meal. We are fortunate that her appetite has never waned. For a while there, it didn’t look like there would be another birthday for her, so we are enormously grateful to have her with us.