Our Lovely Sweet Pea

 

Sweet Pea smiling next to her great great grand nephew, B'Zhoo in the front right of the photo

Sweet Pea doing one of the things she loves: trying to get the peanut butter out of the Kong!

Our lovely Sweet Pea will be 12 years old this year. She decided that this past winter, she would rather not run in the main team and pull a sled any longer but did decide it was alright to go on a very short puppy run on a nice sunny day. She loves puppies and if it involves puppies, she's there!

While brushing her over the weekend, we discovered a large, hard mass behind her right rib cage. A vet visit was immediately scheduled for the next day. We're very sad to say that Sweet Pea was diagnosed with an aggressive sarcoma (cancer). Of course, they were willing to operate to try to remove the mass, however, we were told it was very unlikely that, due to its placement, they would be able to remove it all which really got us no further forward. In fact, we thought this would be cruel to put Sweet Pea, at her age, through such a surgery, knowing the outcome would likely not give her a better quality of life. We chose to take her home, continue to give her love, care and support along with lots more of everything she loves until the day she tells us she's no longer happy and pain free. And when that day comes, we'll allow her to leave this earth in a gentle and peaceful way, knowing that she was indeed very loved.

Life with dogs brings so much happiness. We can't let the pain of their passing sour us from loving another furry soul. And we can't let the news of the near end of a life keep us in a place of sadness. We aren't dwelling on the sadness. Life is too short for sadness. Sweet Pea and I plan to celebrate each day.