It has been a rather emotional couple of weeks here at Denny Towers. (Yes, we are still looking for a new name – any suggestions would be appreciated!) A couple of weeks ago we picked up a foster for PugHearts named Boudreaux. He’s the cutest little guy & he quickly stole our hearts. He’s about the same size as Charlie and close in age, so the two of them hit it off immediately. And of course Phebes is always happy to have someone else to play with.

While Denny didn’t seem thrilled with the idea of another youngster running around, he was actually pretty tolerant of all the youthful exuberance. Regardless of how they felt, Richard & I quickly fell for him. He just seemed so starved for affection that we couldn’t help ourselves. Given his age, temperament and unabashed cuteness, we KNEW he wouldn’t be a foster for long. Sure enough, last weekend we took him to meet a family who seemed perfect for him. They had another female pug about his age and within minutes the two of them were romping around exploring together. The family was fantastic and Richard & I had to admit that it was the perfect home for him.

As we said our goodbyes to Boudreaux and left the house I asked Richard “Am I going to cry every time we adopt out a foster?” At least there were tears of joy too, as we know he has found his perfect forever home. Congratulations, Boudreaux, you made it!!

On Monday Cindy asked me if we were ready for another foster. I said “Well, we have an open spot.” She said she was going to have us take Lilly. We had been told that Lilly had some sort of masses “all over her body.” Cindy sent us photos – we were a bit shocked to say the least. I have never seen anything like this.

I picked her up on Tuesday after work. The first thing I noted was how beautiful she is. She has a gorgeous black mask and these piercing eyes.

The second thing I noted was how lively she is. This girl is a bundle of energy! She was running and twirling on the lead as I took her to my car. Of course she wasn’t content to sit in the back seat and ended up as my co-pilot. I kept stroking her telling her how beautiful she was and she would just melt down into the seat staring at me. It was if she hadn’t been told that in a very long time, if ever. I was most impressed with how she acted towards our guys when we arrived home.

She came through the door and paused to let everyone get a good sniff. Then she held her head high and proceeded to make her inspection of our house. She checked everyone else out and determined that we met with her approval. She then jumped up on the sofa ready for her belly rubbins! She was not intimidated at all by any of us. She earned the immediate respect of all of our guys and she was accepted on the spot. There have been no issues with jealousy or dominance between any of them. It is as though she belongs here.

We knew that she was going to have some health challenges. She came with prescriptions for antibiotics and steroids. We were told the results of the biopsies would be back in a few days. The first night with us, she barely slept. She was so excited to be on the bed with everyone she couldn’t stay still. When she finally did sleep, it was on my pillow draped over my head. The following night she seemed to settle in a bit better and slept fairly well.

Unfortunately she got a bit sick during a bad thunderstorm, but we put that down to nervousness. On Friday she had started coughing and had another episode of being sick to her stomach. I called Cindy to ask if a chest x-ray had been done on her. Her symptoms kind of reminded us of Alfie’s early symptoms with Congestive Heart Failure and we wanted to know if that had been checked. I was not prepared for the news I was about to hear. No, the chest x-ray had not been done but the results of the biopsy had come back. It was mast cell carcinoma. Cancer. I was in shock. I had to hang up quickly and then proceeded to cry, holding Lilly who had been sitting next to me on the sofa.

Richard joined us and I told him the news. After letting the news sink in he said “Well we’re not going to give up on her. We do not give up on Pugs.” I agreed and we talked about what needed to be done next. As the immediate problem seemed to be with coughing, we made plans to have her chest x-rayed on Saturday. The Vet had said he wouldn’t be there to read the films, but he would leave us a prescription for an antihistamine since she could be suffering from an upper respiratory infection as she is on heavy doses of steroids. He said he would read the x-ray on Monday.

We drove her to Sugarland on Saturday morning and had her x-ray done as well as some blood work. Dr. Hendrix left word that he will call the pathologist on Monday to discuss her results. We will then get her an appointment at the oncologist’s office as soon as we can. We have no idea of the extent of the fight we have ahead of us. Poor little Lilly doesn’t even seem to realize that she’s sick. Right now we are just savoring the time we have with her while she feels so good.

As I type this she is sleeping at my feet under my desk. In a way, I’m glad she doesn’t understand what is happening. I surely don’t know how I would explain it to her anyway.

Robbi