Rest Easy Sweet Willow

Hello,

Since I've never really gotten to talk about this with anyone at all really, I figure this may be the place to do, around other pet owners.

In November my families 18 month old Black Lab x Catahoula Leopard Dog was diagnosed with bone cancer. We were told that she would only have one week to live. And due to her hip dysplasia there was nothing that we would be able to do for her. Had her hips been able to support it we would have been able to amputate the leg to save her the amount of pain that she would be in. This was possibly the hardest cancer we have had to face with our dogs before. Our last two dogs we also lost to cancer, but they were both 14 years.

Willow lasted a little longer than we had thought, as long as her pain was manageable we would keep her comfortable. We were able to keep her for an extra two weeks from what we had originally been told. It was hard to watch. Everyday the tumor seemed to get bigger, by the time that we lost her it was around the size of a baseball. And she didn't use that leg at all.

Letting her go was one of the hardest decisions that we had to face because she was so young, and because she didn't even realize that she was sick. We loved Willow very much. And still do, she will always hold a special place in our hearts even though we had such little time with her. We lost her about one week before Christmas, making for a very sad, quiet Christmas. My hope is that where ever she is now, she is happy, and with our lab Charcole who we lost when she was a few months old as well as our cat Kinger who bullied her while she was young. Maybe one day we'll meet again. But I like to think that she will be reincarnated into something great and she will have a long wonderful life next time.

I hope you are resting easy my sweet sweet Willow. It's time that I said goodbye, not for good, but for now. I love you so much.