About a month ago, my family was informed that our labradoodle, Shayna, had a tumor in her right hind leg that was most likely bone cancer.  At first, they didn’t tell me, trying to protect me, only a teenager, from this awful news. But, I knew something was wrong so I asked my mom.  When she told me, she made sure to say that Shayna would be going in for a biopsy to see if that was the case and nothing was definite yet.

After her biopsy, it took longer than expected for her to recover. That period of time was very scary and my parents basically told me to start preparing for the end.  Then we received the news that it was cancer but it had not spread to her lungs yet.

We were forced to make the very difficult decision of whether to just control the pain or to try and stop this cancer.  After a week or two we noticed Shayna was not ready to give up.  No matter how much pain she was in, she wanted to play and she still wanted to be with us.  And, obviously, we still want to be with her.  So, we then knew the right decision was to amputate her leg and  try to fight this cancer to maximize our time with Shayna.  No one was ready to say goodbye yet.

Tomorrow morning, my mom will be dropping Shayna off at the animal hospital to have her leg amputated.  The reality of the situation is really sinking into my family and it has been a very hard time for us.  We know we are doing the right thing and that Shayna will will okay.  She will adapt and this will take her pain away.

Everything has been happening so quickly and its all just very overwhelming.  I have no idea what her homecoming will be like and I have no idea what to prepare myself for.  All I know is that I will be helping Shayna get pretty much everywhere and that I won’t be outside in the backyard running around with her for a while like I was today.  I know it is going to be a major change in my life considering I picked Shayna out when I was 5 and she is the sister I never had.  I don’t know how I will react to her homecoming and I am terrified of what that will be like.

What will the recovery process be? Will she be falling? How difficult is it for the humans to handle? How long does it usually take for the dog to adapt? Will it take longer or will it be more difficult for her because she will be 10 years old and she has arthritis? I have no idea what I will be getting myself into and, quite honestly, I am terrified.