X ray

Our plan for this weekend had been to go to Colonial Williamsburg on Saturday; I was going to an Ironclads game on Sunday; D&D on Monday; board meeting Tuesday. How quickly one x ray can change things...

On Thursday night, around 1am, Zoe gave one sharp arf!, which is usually her way to say "I'm out on the deck, someone come open the door."  But she wasn't outside; she was downstairs (which is odd--she normally sleeps in the bedroom) in the living room, in her Princess Pose--laying down, head out, front paws stretched out in front of her. I figured she wanted a walk, so I took her out for ten minutes, she did what she needed to, we came back inside.
She arfed again at 2:30am. She doesn't usually ask in the middle of the night; on the other hand, she's been needing more frequent walks for the last couple of months. So I took her out again.
Again, at 6am. Diana took her out this time. Odd but not worrisome.

Friday evening we were both out of the house for a bit. When Diana came back, Zoe didn't get up to meet her at the door; she just stayed there, her head down on her paws, not moving. Diana rubbed her back and Zoe just stayed put; normally she'll flop over so you can rub her tummy. Odd...odd enough that we took her to the vet. Zoe perked up while we were in the waiting room but we figured, eh, "we're here, might as well do an x ray; if it's good, then we won't be worrying, and if it's bad, at least we'll know."

And so, sadly, we know.

Spleen is about three times normal size. There's an 80% chance it's cancer--given that she had growths in the last few weeks from mouth and eyelid, it's almost certain. As is, the vet says she might make it two or three weeks, but probably not to Thanksgiving.  They can do surgery and give her chemo, but even so, she'd probably only last three months, so what's the point of putting her through that?

We called Josh Friday night; he drove down from the farm this morning.

Zoe's not as energetic as usual but she doesn't seem to be in pain, she alert, and lovable as ever..