It's time to settle into the spring semester routine. Spring break is months away and the ink on my syllabus is still wet (or it would be if it were printed on paper). My racing calendar is starting to fill up.
A couple of weeks ago I went for a run on the east side of the Sandias, at a higher elevation. It was a five mile loop and I decided to take both Idgie and Sadie. The first part of the trail was packed snow. Then we hit fresh powder. It was a delight. I was having a blast kicking through the snow. Sadie was doing her disappearing act. She'd leave the trail and suddenly show up in front of me. Never could figure out how she did it. We came to the trail intersection and I couldn't discern the trail since no one had yet tracked it up. It took me a few false starts, but I was able to locate it. I wasted a bit of time and realized that I would be hard-pressed to make it back to the truck before dark.
The best part of this run was being with Idgie. She loves the snow. She romped, she chased Sadie, she stayed with me, she was smiling! We had done this trail in the summer and she wasn't able to run it. The heat wiped her out. But this day, she was on top of her game!! I was thrilled to see her running easy.
I was reminded of her days as a "huffer." In Wyoming, she loved to run behind the snowmobile that groomed the cross country ski trails. She was stay right behind it, breathing in the fumes. Then she would throw herself on the ground, rolling and tumbling and acting just like a cat on catnip. I know she was getting high. Whenever she heard the snowmobile, she would start looking for her fix!
I am glad we had that day. Yesterday I took her to the vet. She has been having trouble breathing and her neck was very swollen. The vet gave a diagnosis of lymphoma. Without treatment, she will likely die within a couple of months. With treatment, she will likely go into remission. Remission will only be temporary. Her life expectancy, even with treatment, is only about a year. She is 12 years old, no spring chicken for an 80 pound dog. She has had a pretty good life. I can deal with her death. The hardest part is making the decision. Do we choose chemotherapy for a 12 year old dog? Or do we choose treatment to increase her comfort? Either way, there will come a time when I will have to make the final decision.
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