Picking Up Our Bailey Girl!

November 4, 2014 ~ Today was an exciting day because we got to pick our Bailey Girl (as we call her) up! She had a mastectomy and several little knots removed last year and earlier this year we felt a mass in the same area so I took her back in to find that her breast cancer had come back. They recommended that we take her to the University of Missouri Vet School to find out why these little masses keep popping back up and to make sure they got things under control early.

She was so excited to get the heck outta there and come home! They had to remove 8 masses and 4 sets of lymph nodes so needless to say she was beat up pretty good. Sadly this would mean she would have to wear the "Cone of Shame" as they couldn't afford to do a 4th surgery on her mastectomy site.

She did really well but hated the cone. 

We let her come to the shop with us from this point forward so that we could keep an eye on her.

 She has so many people asking about her after a very rough year of several major surgeries and one of my friends even got her some special doggie cookies! Thank you Kathryn!

We decided that Bailey girl is going to be spoiled rotten and we were going to make sure that she enjoys life even more than before! She loves squeaker toys and will quickly work to get those things out of any toy. All you have to do is ask her where her squeaker is and she will go find it! 

Bailey sleeps a lot since her surgery. 

It's hard to know if she is sad, feeling bad or pouting. 

She doesn't go too far from me. If I get up she is watching my every move. Of course she loves Brandon and will gladly go anywhere with him but she knows her momma always has fresh water, food and lots of treats! 

It's going to be a long road as we found out the results of all the masses and lymph nodes they removed. Bailey has Metastatic Breast Cancer that has moved into her lymph nodes. The largest mammary glands are close to her groin which is where she has now had 3 surgeries for breast cancer. Metastatic Breast Cancer means a poor prognosis for Bailey. The University of Missouri Vet School wanted us to do chemo but they aren't sure this will cure her and will make her sick for a few days after an injection. This was something that Brandon and I didn't want to put her through and decided the best thing for Bailey is to spoil the heck out of her and keep a close watch on her. When we see that something needs to be addressed or is a concern we will take her to the doctor or hospital. The biggest fear right now is that it doesn't go to her lungs or bones. Those can be very painful and there isn't anything we can do except make the choice we will be faced with soon enough. 

We lost our very first dog, a Min Pin named Max at age 14 to kidney failure in 2012. He was 14 days away from turning 14 years old and after taking care of him we sadly had to put him to sleep as it wasn't fair to him to keep him any longer. 

We lost our second dog, a Min Pin named Mattie at age 16 to a cancer mass in her throat earlier this year. Her barker was broke and she has a wheezing sound she made. After taking her in to University of Missouri Vet School to do a CT Scan they called us as Mattie was under to tell us that we needed to say our goodbyes or they would have to do a tracheotomy on her. We felt the best decision was to not wake her up as it would be harder on all of us. 

Bailey is our last dog. She is a "Heinz 57" with beagle who was found on the side of the road in Fulton, MO. She was about 8 weeks old and a friend of ours stopped because he didn't want her to get hit. He tried to put her in a back yard close by but he knew that wasn't her yard. He finally just loaded her up in the truck with him and brought her home. When I saw her I knew she would be coming home with me! She has been one of the best dogs anyone could ask for and even better than our temperamental min pins! At 13 years old she still enjoys playing with her toys and she knows what you are saying when you ask her. Brandon taught her as a puppy how to go to the end of our driveway and bring the newspaper up to the house. She would do this all on her own and the newspaper was bigger than she was! 

So, for any of my friends on Facebook I will apologize now for so many Bailey pictures. She is going to get as much attention and love that we can offer her for as long as she is with us. Thinking today is a great day to get her a new squeaker toy!