(The 26th) Man’s best friend

That handsome sonuvabitch on the right is Miles. You might remember him from such posts as this one from last year, when it was announced that Aaron Miles had made the team.

He’s my dog. And he’s dying.

He’d been limping for several days when I took him to the vet two Mondays ago. She said at the time that it (his right front leg) probably wasn’t fractured and might just be sprained. But she couldn’t definitively say what it was without an X-ray. My other choice was to give him pain relievers and watch to see if he improves. I chose the latter.

During the course of the next week, his limping gradually got better. Then it gradually started getting worse, bringing us to this past Monday. Mrs. 26th Man brought him back to the vet, and that’s when he got the X-ray. The vet said it’s 98 percent certain it’s bone cancer. That other 2 percent might be a bacterial or fungal infection, but because he doesn’t have any secondary signs of infection (fever, hair loss, etc.), then it’s likely cancer.

Basically, the bones in his right front leg are turning to sponge. The vet said it’s likely an aggressive kind of cancer and that Miles might have one good month left. From what I understand, it’s basically a horrifying race for what will get him first: Cancer taking over or his leg bone snapping.

Our options are: travel to St. Louis (I live in central Illinois) and spend thousands trying to treat the cancer and an already-compromised leg bone, or just try to make his remaining days as happy as possible. Unfortunately, we do not have those thousands of dollars right now.

It’s a bummer, for sure. For a dog who is such an athlete (he absolutely lives for that tennis ball), it’s a bitter irony that he’s going to be cut down by something that takes his mobility away.

He’s still the same dog, personality-wise: happy and waggy and excited to see people, and he’s still eating and drinking water. It’s just really hard for him to get around anymore. I’m trying to limit my time away from home as much as I can.

Miles is a Cardinals fan, by the way. His first collar after his original home-from-the-farm puppy collar was red, and it’s been that way ever since.