(Friday, 10 April 2020)
Do you know what? I’m just going to get this over with, I’ve been avoiding telling you about Jack, as in these difficult times, everyone has their crosses to bear and I didn’t want to make (another!) less upbeat post, as it’s not what anyone needs to read at the moment. It has been at least one of the reasons I was struggling to write yesterday’s and today’s updates.
Mark and I talked about it many times and decided that we also just weren’t ready to share – or more accurately – talk about it openly. Possibly because we weren’t quite ready ourselves and it makes it seem real putting it in print but, we are also aware of how many of you are fond of him and that some of you at least, would want to know.
The sad news is that Jack’s cancer has come back. He had an op to remove a mast cell tumour almost exactly 2 years ago and had a long hard road back from the op. He did recover and has been like a puppy again ever since. When we took him in for the dental op a month or so ago, I asked the vet to check on a couple of tiny lumps in his skin, one was normal and the other, sadly, was not. There was also an abscess in his jaw which, at the time, we all thought was related to a rotten tooth. It was removed, he had antibiotics and such like and made a good recovery from that op.
We thought long and hard and took as much advice as we could lay our hands on, about another op for Jack on the not good lump, but ultimately decided that the prognosis was not good enough to warrant putting him through another difficult and painful operation. We opted instead for a possibly shorter, but definitely better quality life for him. Unfortunately, a couple of days ago, we noticed that the abscess in his jaw had come back, hence yesterday’s visit to the vet.
It turns out that the ‘abscess’ is another tumour. Whilst the other little lump is growing very slowly, this one has come back quite quickly. Located in his jaw, it is inoperable and there is nothing we can do for him, bar manage the situation as best we can whilst balancing that with his quality of life. And that’s what is important, above all else. We don’t know how long we now have with this beautiful soul in our lives, it could be as long as 6 months – 1 year, or it could be less if it inhibits his ability to eat, but we want to make it as happy as possible.
We are broken hearted. Jack is one in a million, he has the most beautiful soul and is the most generous spirited and loving of dogs. But sitting around feeling sad will not help him enjoy his days, or ours with him. So we are keeping busy, doing stuff, building stuff, fixing stuff. It helps us to keep cheerful by doing positive things. The boys are out there with us and enjoying us all being together and the fun of ‘helping’ in their own particular way.. 🙄😂
So, on that note, today was day 2 of balcony reconstruction. The remaining two sections were fitted, the balcony cleared of ‘stuff’, pressure washed and then the whole base was varnished. Hopefully, tidying it all up and trying to blend the new wood with the old a little better. The whole of the balcony is well overdue being decorated, but it’s a difficult one to schedule in. You need good weather and several days of no guests. These two things together are a little like hen’s teeth… a bit difficult to find! 😉
The weather is perfect here for fixing balconies at the moment, but quite hot to work in, being around 30 in the sun. Suffice to say there have been pink bits appearing but not Mark obviously, he just looks like he’s been on holiday in the Med for a week already…. at least outside of the lines of his t-shirt anyway! 😆
Stay safe everyone xx
