Emily having a ball
Pets teach us so much, especially since they view the world in a different light than we do. Like us, they might have a bad day here and there, but they seldom seem to let it bother them to the point that it affects who they are. Just reading different stories of how pets can help change us in Nancy Schenck’s Tails of Recovery proves how much we can learn from them by loving them.
My wife Jessika got our dog Emily when she was just a puppy, and she became a major part of my life as well when they both moved out to Las Vegas four years ago. Emily is our baby and helped Jessika overcome her own drug addiction because of how much she cared about her and wanted her to have a better life. Jessika knew that in order to give Emily a better life, she needed to start with herself and become the best mother she could be. Seeing Jessika around Emily always makes me smile and helps me understand just how important pets can be in our lives.
Three years ago, Emily was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which is a type of skin cancer that is commonly found in light-skinned pit bulls due to exposure to the sun. She had surgery at the time hat entailed removing the blister-type lesions from her stomach knowing that it could eventually come back. It returned recently along with a small tumor underneath her eyelid that was putting extra pressure on her tear duct, causing her eye to run excessively.
The doctor had told us that we were fortunate that the skin cancer had not returned until now and warned us that there would always be the possibility that it could come back even with additional surgery. We understood but wanted to do everything we could to extend Emily’s life and keep her healthy. She underwent the second surgery last Friday and only has the scars to show for it.
The funny thing is that you would never know that Emily is going to be 12 years old in a few months – she has shown very little signs of aging except for her brown spots that are starting to lighten up a bit. She gets more excited to go on walks than anybody I have ever know and is not nearly the same dog that was featured on Cesar Milan’s The Dog Whisperer seven years ago. Even though Emily still does not like other dogs, her home life combined with daily exercise has helped mellow her out to the point that she has become very “chill” and fun to hang out with.
When we picked Emily up from the vet, the pain medication had definitely affected her personality and rightfully so. But within 12 hours, the old Emily was back and ready for action even if she was somewhat limited by the protective cone surrounding her giant head. She became what I like to refer to as a “pit bull in a China shop” due to her new love of running into whatever gets in her way. She has even learned to scoop up crumbs from what was left of her doggie biscuits with her cone. In fact, you would never know that she just had surgery if she didn’t have the cone on.
The moral of this story is simply this: we were stressed out a lot more about the surgery than Emily probably ever was. Like most pets, she does not enjoy her trips to the vet, but she also has such a happy-go-lucky attitude that the experience for her was over by the time she woke up the next morning. My friend Brad’s dog Buddy also went through a tough battle with cancer a few years ago, but his resilience and ability to fight through the pain helped him beat it a couple times before it eventually became too much for his body to physically handle. But Buddy did not let it get the best of him because the best of him still remains and will live in our memories forever.
