Survivors and Celebrations

Ian's Story

Last April,2009 Ian started with an occasional dry cough. At the time, I thought he might have pieces of fuzz caught in his throat from playing and pulling at his many toys. He would always swing them growl at them and then pull the fuzz off. He was a silly boy. I took him to the vet's the end of April and he thought Ian might have bronchitis and but him on antibiotics for 10 days. There was no improvement. I took him back to the vet's and he took some fluid out of the lymph nodes in his neck. He sent it away and it came back positive, canine lymphoma. We were devastated. We even got a second opinion. We had two options, chemo or prednisone. I researched the chemo and that was out of the question. I was not going to have him suffer with the nasty side effects. He would not have liked that. He was a happy boy. The prednisone would be short term and shrink the lymph nodes. We tried the prednisone and Ian was so tormented with the side effects we stopped within a month. His neck became so swollen and the lymph nodes in his legs. He was a trooper though. He still went to PetSmart every weekend and to the ball park and to Bass Pro to visit his friends. We did not know if he would make it to his next birthday which was on Sunday September 6. On Saturday the 5th Ian had a birthday party for his human friends at PetSmart. Ian supplied pizza, cake and snacks and soda. He had a ball. All the attention a dog could want, and belly rubs too. Sunday, his birthday, we had a big cookout and another group of his friends were invited. Another full day of attention, he loved it. However, that horrible day came when Ian stopped eating, and we new. Ian passed away October 14, 2009