Spike-alicious.

Spike had another vet visit. Our time with him has been shortened considerably. We were looking at 3 - 5 more months, and now we are at 2.

Two months. The cancer is spreading quickly, despite the meds.

I handled this by buying more squeaky toys and dog treats.*

Jeremiah handled this by driving us through McDonald's and getting Spike a burger and fries.

The vet handled this by giving Spike treat after treat. Seriously, I've never seen anything like it.

When your dying dog's favorite thing to do is to eat - you let him eat. In the last three weeks, he has gained a pound. That's a lot when you only weigh 17 pounds. The vet says he fully supports us having a fat dog at this point.

It's weird to think about him NOT being here. He's so stubborn and tough that I imagined him going on forever. But we are prepping ourselves for the upcoming months and doing everything we can to give Spikers a quality life.



*If you have dogs and have not tried the Neuman's dog treats (available at Target or Sprouts), you are missing out. They are little heart-shaped treats with a line down the middle so they can crack in half, which is great for us, because each dog gets a piece of the treat (At this point, Atticus has gained a bit of weight, too. But we will worry about that later.). The ingredients are SIMPLE and I can read them all - not a lot of fake-y chemical stuff. My dogs LOVE them. They adored the sweet potato treats and now we are on the peanut butter treats. We went out yesterday and bought more.

Days of Spike

Last Saturday we were all playing in the pool. I noticed that Spike's backside looked a little odd. I laughed about it, not really taking it serious. After all, this dog of ours is indestructible. He's practically a super species.

Regardless, I called the vet and Jeremiah took him in the next day.

Tuesday we got test results back.

Cancer.

Friday we had a follow-up. X-rays to see if it had spread to lungs or lymph nodes.

Has not spread to lungs, but the lymph nodes have been effected.

At this point, surgery to remove the tumor is basically pointless. Recovery time is extensive. With surgery, we'd have maybe a year. And that's if there are no complications and no infection.

Without, we have maybe four months.

Four months. For Super Spike. My heart breaks.

You would never guess he was sick. He's so happy and bouncy. And loud. His barker has not been touched.

We have opted to celebrate all of these days that we have with Spike, however many that may be. A trip to Cost-co and Petsmart had us dropping over a hundred on anything that squeaks and every treat we could find.

We will celebrate with him, and when he can't celebrate anymore, we will celebrate for him.

We are using #daysofspike on instagram and facebook if you'd like to find us. If not, please just send happy and positive thoughts our way.