Hi! This is Bo, Jasper and I are terrible at writing for our blog. We just have too much fun barking at every squirrel, cat, dog, person, and delivery truck going past, so we forget to write stuff here. I guess it’s time to write something…
Well, let’s start back in June (I know this because Tom taught Jasper and me how calendars work), I started having some issues going to the bathroom. Without going into TMI (haha, doggos know TLAs too!), I had problems pooping.
Tom brought me to the doctor guy at a place he calls the vet, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. So, for a few months, I still had problems and, while trying to go, I would scoot around and look sad at Tom because I knew he was worried.
Finally, when we went to the vet place, there was a new doctor that looked at me. Tom told her he was worried and she pressed on me and finally decided that more serious investigation was necessary, so TMI (no more comments). They took me into a different room, made me sleepy, then brought me back to Tom when I woke up. She showed Tom this picture of my insides… When he showed me, I was like, “holy crap, how did you see inside me without everything spilling out and making a mess!?” Then I thought, “how did she even see anything in this picture that looked wrong, I guess that’s why she went to vet school!” Anyway, she told me and Tom that she thought I had a colo-rectal mass (wow, that’s why she’s a doctor; I don’t see anything other than a really cool Halloween decoration with all of the bones!) and that she was going to send us to a different place I never heard of.
Shortly, we went to this new place, it was about twenty minutes from our house. By the way, did I tell you I don’t really like car rides, so this was pretty stressful for me! The lady doctor at this new place was really nice, but she took me into a room and did some stuff that made me cry just a little bit (um, I mean… I whimpered, since I’m the alpha guy in the house). She finally brought me back to Tom in the room we were in and said something about trying to get another doctor to help her with a biopsy, but it would be tricky because of where it was located.
Anyway, the biopsy thing came back as “inconclusive,” I’m not sure what that means, but I think it means I need to get looked at by someone else. She explained to Tom that she talked to a really smart oncologist (don’t know that word either) in Orange Park, Florida, and she said I really needed to come up and talk to her. Tom didn’t hesitate and called Southeast Veterinary Oncology and Internal Medicine, like the doctor said to do. Next thing we were in the car for “a long car ride,” said Tom. Wow, it was really long, like over two hours! Tom kept telling me to lay down, but, yeah, like that was really gonna happen! Did I mention I don’t like car rides? Ok, I finally did decide to rest for a little while on the road trip.
When we got there, I was really happy to meet lots of people who were really friendly! They put us in a really cool room with windows on the doors, so I could see what was going on outside the room; especially when Tom and Dr. LaDue (she was the really smart oncologist doctor – I really need to look up that word when I get done with this post!) were talking about stuff that was going on with me. She was really cool and explained lots of stuff, including her history with cancer, so Tom could really understand what was happening to me. I’ll leave the details to them since I was busy looking out the window in the door.
After they talked for a while, I went back to another room where there were some other friendly people, they made me really sleepy, then I woke up again. I got pumpkin and banana cookies! Finally, I got to see Tom, but not until my new friend, Marsha, messed with him and told him he couldn’t take me home because she had adopted me! I really liked hanging out with Marsha, she even gave me a cool turkey bandana!
Well, we went back to Orlando, another long car ride! At least I did lay down for a little while, so Tom would stop telling me to lay down!
Oh, yeah… Did I mention, back in October (this is November now, remember Jasper and I know about calendars), Tom started cooking homemade dog food for us. I think he liked it too since he keeps putting it in his mouth while he portions it out for us!
After a phone call with Dr. LaDue, it turns out I have cancer consistent with carcinoma, and Tom says Dr. LaDue was happy it wasn’t sarcoma, since carcinoma is easier and more receptive to treatment.
And, before I knew it, I was back in the car again…
So, on this recent trip, we went to a really funny house. It was really tall and had funny sliding doors at the front. Tom talked to some guy for a minute, then we went to this funny little room with a sliding metal door. Tom pushed a button and after a few seconds the metal door slid open, and we went in. It was really small and moved around a little when the door closed. When the door opened, things looked different. Strange! There was a long hallway, we walked almost to the end when Tom touched one of the doors; it clicked and beeped, then he opened it, there was a room that kinda looked like our house. I mean, it had a couch, a desk, a bed, and a bathroom; but, they weren’t really like the ones at our house. It was cool! I was on an adventure, I had to check everything out!
That’s when I saw the mirror in the bathroom. Like, have you EVER just stopped to look in a mirror? I had never paid attention before, but this thing was amazing! I could look into the mirror and see Tom! 
Like it wasn’t really Tom, but it was Tom. Yeah, weird, I know. I really knew the difference between the mirror Tom and real Tom, since when he wanted to pet me, I’d look at him, but this mirror thing was really cool!
So, I finally realized why we were at this funny house. Tom was going to take me back to the place we were at a few weeks earlier. This time they took me into a different room, they made me sleepy again, and when I woke up I got more cookies. Then they took me back to Tom and we went back to the funny house again.
I still don’t understand that small, magic room. The metal door opens, we get in, it shakes a little, then we get out in a different place. What kind of sorcery is this!? (I heard that in a movie once)
When we visited the place we went to a few weeks ago, Dr. LaDue met with Tom and me, I was busy looking out the window on the door while she went over some pictures with Tom. He showed them to me back in our funny house later that night, and said that this radiation thing called stereotactic radiosurgery (wow, really cool important sounding words) was going to zap the green part of my backend (TMI, again), and kill the scary cancer cells living inside me. She told him that I was going to have to come back for three days, starting today, like NOW! And, this cool machine would send things like x-ray beams to zap the cancer cells.
After we repeated the visits to the place where they made me sleepy three times, then they gave me a really cool blue cape. I must be a super Pet Hero now! 🙂
Well, that’s about all I can say. From what I heard, Tom is going to take me back to that place in a few weeks, and it might be a long time (possibly 3.5 dog years, six months for humans) before we know if the stuff they did actually worked.
Please pray for me, I’m getting to be pretty old (even though I don’t act like it), so I can use all the prayers you have. Tom still calls me (and Jasper) “puppy,” and I’m not acting like I’m actually 14 (human) years old yet, so I’m also praying that the cool stereotactic radiosurgery thing really killed the cancer cells so I can have many more years with Jasper and Tom!
