This is not good news...

...but I wanted regular visitors to know.

Rooty has doggie lymphoma. He is Stage III, meaning it has spread to all his lymph nodes but, we hope, not to any organs. He starts chemotherapy this week. Humans are given strong doses of chemo in an attempt to obtain a cure. Dogs are given lower doses. The goal is to get the disease into remission while maintaining a normal quality of life.

My last dog, Charlie, was in Stage V when we discovered he had lymphoma. In Stage V, the organs and bone morrow are invaded and leukemia develops. Charlie was also a Wire Hair Fox Terrier. He lived 7 1/2 months after chemo was started. It was a 7 1/2 good months. Without the chemo he would have lived maybe two weeks.

Because of my experience with Charlie, I checked Rooty's lymph nodes every day, that how I discovered that something was wrong. He shows no signs of being sick and is just as loopy and playful as ever. He also loves going to the vet so that helps -- he actually pushes the vet's front door open with his nose in his anxiousness to get inside!

I am not going to allow comments on this post and I will take it down in a few days. Some of you are like Rooty's extended family so I thought you should know. Jim