Pillars of Strength

You know, out here in blogland, we are a close knit community. When one of our own hurts, we all hurt. So it goes with K.... she hurts, and we all hurt with her.  But, in good blogland fashion, we are all ready to rally around our own and send out those healing thoughts and prayers. And share with our readers to do the same.

So, this post is for K, a very special dog fighting a battle with cancer. I have only read a few posts but I can tell that K is a very special, loved, heart dog.  And, I've been inspired to write a little bit today, for a day we are calling Pillars of Strength.

My long term readers will know that my beautiful niece Katherine fought her own battle with cancer and won. That was hands down, some of the most difficult years in my family's life and I would wish it on no one.  But, it can be beat and Kath is a picture of health now. Kath is an inspiration for me, in the human realm of what love, perseverance and a beautiful spirit can do. It CAN overcome and beat cancer.

In my doggy world, I've been touched by canine cancer as well.  Maggie, my (previous) foster came to me after her owner died of cancer. Ironically, Maggie was suffering from cancer as well too.  She underwent a couple surgeries to remove a bunch of lumps that were all mostly Mast Cell Cancers.  Shortly after Miss Maggie moved to another foster home- I wanted to keep her so badly, but she clearly wasn't happy here. She spent her time barking and was getting increasingly annoyed with Murphy which wasn't working for her, Murphy or I.  So, I made the heart wrenching decision, for the sake of my neighbors (who had complained to the bylaw officer and I had been duly threatened with fines if it continued) to move her to another home.  Maggie took a turn for the good there- she has chances to hang out with children everyday and she is happy and quiet.  She was even declared cancer free and was up for adoption for a few days. That quickly changed as her new foster mama found another lump which indeed is a cancer again.  So sad for my girlie.

Maggie taught me in her short time in this house that while cancer is awful, dogs are resilient. They can overcome. Even if the cancer keeps spreading and keeps working it's terrible way through their bodies, their spirit comes through that. Maggie handled her surgeries, she doesn't know she's sick and she keeps on wagging her tail and giving kisses through it all.  Maggie's journey isn't over and I have no idea how long she has, but I can tell you this- she will continue to wag that tail to the end. She reminds us that despite uncomfortable lumps, bad shave jobs from surgeries, difficult incisions to heal that under all that is an unfailing love and trust for her people. We just have to keep on.

So, with that, I wish you all the best K.... lots of love and peace coming your way from us over at the mostly black dog blog.