Bad news about Dillon

He does have cancer after all. I'm devastated, and so is Anna, who heard the news (from me) shortly before leaving Seoul, S. Korea, where she spent last week on business while I came on home from our wonderful trip to Cape Cod.

I took him to the Snall Animal clinic at Texas A&M because no one here could read the xrays, and in fact the cancer didn't show on ordinary xrays-- only on a CT scan, which is actually hundreds of images.,/p>

He has a nerve-sheath tumor. It presses on a nerve that runs down his leg-- hence the pain that nakes him limp so heavily on his right foreleg. The tumor starts deep in the area of the armpit, then goes up under the shoulderblade and around the rib, heading for his spine. Poor dog.

They'be told us there are two options, one of which involves giving him pain medications and so making him as comfortable as possible for as long as possible-- maybe 4-6 months. The other involves amputating the right foreleg, a delaying action that nay add a year or 18 months to his life but leads eventually to the same result.

What to do? It's our call. As the doctor says, there are no right answers; and no wrong ones, ither.

If you've had experience with this sort of agonizing decision, let me mnow. We're hurting and at a loss; we need advice.

Love you,

John and Anna and Dillon.