Mia

We've had quite an emotional few days at our house. A few weeks ago, Mia, our first greyhound, fractured a toe. She was getting better but then started limping and stopped using the foot all together. Chris took her to the vet on Wednesday afternoon and it turns out the initial area of concern on the xray has changed and looks now like something much more sinister. We're trying 10 days of antibiotics just to make sure it's not an infection at the fracture site, but there's a very strong possibility that this is cancer. Greyhounds are prone to osteosarcoma and it moves very fast in most cases. We head back to the vet next Saturday morning to do more xrays and talk about our options. Most likely. we'll be amputating her affected toe and moving forward from there.

We are fairly ridiculous about our dogs. Ask anyone who knows us. They are both the babies we had before we had babies. We adopted Mia before we got married and she lived with me until Chris moved home. We stayed at our house on our wedding night because we wanted to be home with Mia instead of in a hotel. When I was in labor with Meredith, I knew I was running into the time when Mia and Philly normally were walked and had dinner, so I begged Chris (in the middle of pushing!) to go home and let them out. I promised not to have her before he got back (thank goodness he didn't go!). Philly only got to stay because Mia liked him (and Mia doesn't like anybody!). She was really the first one who taught me how to mother another person. She was great practice for Meredith and Jack! To think that we may only get a few more months with her is so crushing. I really pray this turns out not to be cancer, but in my heart I already know it is. Four years with her is not enough. I want a lifetime. The thing that really gets me is our kids are young enough that they aren't going to have memories of her. She loves both of them and they light up when she (and Philly) come in the room. "Meez" and "Bubba" were Meredith's first words after "Mama" and "Dada". This is not fair.