Are Miracles for Dogs Too?

We have 2 dogs.  Both of them are pugs.  We weren't looking for a pug when we set out to find a dog during our second year of marriage.  We went looking for a shelter dog.  Tucker was the first dog we saw and he was so cute.  I didn't even know what kind of dog he was or anything about pugs.  We picked him out and took him home and thus we became pug people.

He definitely looks older now than he did 10 years ago but he's still adorable

After we moved to our current home 5 years ago I was ready to start our family.  Unfortunately I had a health issue that delayed that process by a year or so.  So what does one do when you want a baby and are told to wait....Get another dog.  This time we went looking for a pug but still went looking for a rescue.  We found a rescue organization about 2 hours away and went down to pick out our new pug.  I wanted the playful one and Ryan wanted the one that just looked sweet.  She had been used as a breeder for the Amish and was sold at the farmers market like produce to someone who gave her to the rescue.  She was six years old and we knew she had lived a hard life already.  We didn't care and we brought home Libby 5 years ago.

Who couldn't love that face?

She doesn't like strangers too much but she loves people she knows.  She's much more typical pug in look and behavior.  She's about the sweetest thing ever and she became my baby.

Well, until we had a baby.  Then Libby and Tucker took their place on their beds and have been living out their lazy comfortable life like good dogs do.  That is until this spring.  We took them in for physicals and the vet said that Libby's stomach seemed tender.  2 weeks later I took her back to the vet because her abdomen had swollen to twice the size.  An x-ray clearly showed a tumor the size of a football growing from her liver.  The vet said that it would be quick since it was a rapid growing tumor and gave us signs to look for that it was "time".

I went home devastated.  I texted my family that we were going to lose her within weeks or maybe days.  We tried to prep Ainsley for the loss of another animal (chicken deaths have been plenty this summer!)  And the tumor did grow.  It stretched her loose skin to the point we thought she might rip open.  She struggled to climb the stairs but that was the only sign of discomfort.  We were just watching and waiting.

We went to the beach and had 2 different people split the week watching her.  She did great at the first but by the time we came home and picked her up from the second I thought I was going to have to take her right to the vet.  She had gone WAY down hill.  Her stomach looked like she was a snake that had swallowed a mongoose.  She couldn't breath.  She was throwing up every time she ate.  But I brought her home so Ainsley and Ryan could say goodbye. 

3 hours passed and she seemed to perk up.  So we decided against any decisions.  Then about a week later Ryan asked me if her stomach was smaller.  Sure enough it was.  It was shrinking daily.  And about 2 days ago we really looked at her.  The tumor is GONE.  COMPLETELY GONE!  I called the vet.  She stammered through a conversation telling me she was shocked and happy and yet had not even an inkling of a guess to what had happened.  She assured me it could not have ruptured or she would have died almost immediately. 

So today we sit amazed at our little miracle dog.  She's fine.  She's eating.  She's happy.  She's climbing stairs.  She's very much alive.

Miracles can happen and not just to people.