I found this little guy swimming in the pool today. Another Red Eft.

What can you really say about a dog bigger than life itself? A beautiful representation of his breed. A Boo. Our Alex. Gone from us in person but forever in our hearts.

Yesterday morning we had to say goodbye to Alex. I am still numb and in denial, even though we were there when he passed. It happened so fast. One day he was eating heartily and bringing me toys, the next in extreme distress. It just doesn't seem possible. But it is.

The cancer won in the end. One of his lymph nodes inside his body had abscessed and had become very large quite quickly, pushing his intestines all to the front and causing him extreme pain. All the doctors agreed he was not a good candidate for surgery, and without surgery he was going to die a horribly painful death. We had to let him go. He was pretty well medicated with pain meds, but before he left us he gave us a little grin with a twinkle in his eye which we both keep replaying and replaying in our heads.

The house is so empty without him. 

He didn't make it to the cabin.

Our hearts are broken. 

Rest well, sweet Boo. You were one of a kind and you are going to be missed much more than you know.

(Rick has posted a video of Alex playing with his toys on his web site. You can view it here.)

Come on in, the water's warm! I'm certain you are all tired of hearing about our warm pool but please bear with me—it's still new to us. Last night Rick built a fire in our little fire pit. It burned merrily while we swam a few lengths. The water was nice and warm but it was pretty darned chilly out. I risked having my camera in the water with me to take the above photo. Pretty scary. 

We made a mad dash for our towels and robes when we got out and sat around the fire with a shot of whiskey and just talked. My robe smells like wood smoke this morning, but it was worth it.

Bottom's up!

Today we are off to the Renn Faire! The weather should be perfect for it.

Okay. No photos. This blog post is just to mark our first truly decadent swim since installing the pool heater. 

Outside temp right now: 57 degrees F.

Pool temp during our swim: 82 degrees F.

Need I say more?? I think not. 

That pretty much sums up Alex's treatments over the past couple of weeks. I haven't posted any updates on him because it's been pretty much up and down. The last round of a new drug two weeks ago didn't make a dent at all. In fact, one of his other lymph nodes under his chin started to grow. Last week the vet could not give him yet another new drug because the drug the previous week (the one that did basically nothing) has a tendency to attack the bone marrow and we had to give his blood cells a chance to recover. 

So, last week he received a round of the very first drug he got in the beginning. We noticed within 24 hours that the lump started to go down. By Sunday we could barely feel it. It felt good to see it go down so drastically. But by Monday it had grown again, and yesterday on his vet visit it was pretty much back to where it was before. We were discouraged but the vet was actually encouraged since the other lymph node was now "behaving itself" and was normal again. Plus, Alex had a really good week of feeling great and eating well, which to me it pretty darned important. He actually made progress instead of going backwards.

Yesterday he received a new drug which we are hoping will make his other lymph node "behave" for longer than a week. We just have to wait and see. He has another appointment next week to reevaluate where he is before we take off for the cabin.

We are still doing the Colorado cabin trip, but depending on what happens between now and his next appointment, we may have to delay by a few days to get another appointment in. It would be nice to leave on an "up" note!

Speaking of the cabin, my thoughts are whirling around in my head. I've started marking recipes to make while we are there, rounding up the books and knitting projects I want to take, and just gathering things in general in the spare bedroom. "To Do" lists have started to form. The truck had been serviced and is getting all nicely clean and detailed today. The girls will go the groomer right before we leave to get their "detailing" and Alex will get his bath and blow dry here at home this weekend. Preparations have begun! Can't wait.

Photo: Early morning spider web between the deck rails.