I came home to find piles of dog puke all over my living room and kitchen.

Clearly, cleaning up dog puke was not on my list of things I wanted to do this evening.

I got some towels and cleaning products and began to scrub my rugs. Then I realized that ants decided to go after the mess Dali left on the mat in the kitchen (she always seems to hit some carpet when she does this, NEVER the much easier to clean tile or hardwood floors) so not only did I have to clean up puke, I had to try and remove ants. And just to check I went upstairs and saw she puked a few times on the bedroom carpet. So I got everything as clean as I could, sprayed the ant infested area with ant killer and threw the towels in the laundry. Then I remembered that I stopped at the grocery store to buy a few things before going home and I should probably put the milk away because milk goes bad when not refrigerated. Then I realized I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer for dinner so my original dinner plans were toast. Then I looked at the dishes in the sink and got immediately annoyed so I started cleaning them and when I was trying to find a place to put 1 of 100 plastic cups Dave refuses to throw away, a shot glass fell out of the cabinet and shattered all over the floor. And I got so angry by everything that just happened I literally SCREAMED.

And then I stopped, and told myself to get a grip.

Because it’s not that bad, seriously.

When little things happen, I tend to overreact. I’ve been trying to work on this. To slow down. To stop and really assess the situation in front of me. But old habits aren’t so easy to break. And sometimes, life can be a dirty whore.

That is why we have whiskey, friends.

Over the past 2.5 years, I’ve gotten quite attached to this old lady…

…even if she steals my favorite blanket with sleeves.

I went back and forth about writing about this, but finally just decided to go for it.

The week after Dave and I got back from Vegas, we found out Dali had cancer. Lymphoma to be exact. Dave decided he wanted to give her chemo treatments, because according to the vets, without them she would have probably died within a few weeks. Treatments could give her a few more good years.

The 12.5 years that Dave has had her, he’s never had to take her to the vet once. Up until now, she’s been healthy as a horse.

My family’s old dog died of the same thing, but by the time we found out what was wrong with her it was too late to do anything. I’m glad that we were able to catch this early with Dali and at least try to do something to help.

I’m thankful for the teaching job Dave got that is paying for her treatments. Dave would hate himself forever if he couldn’t afford to do anything to help her. I’m pretty sure he loves that dog more than me.

We don’t have kids. She’s all we got. We’re going to do everything we can. That’s what you do for family…even the furry members.

Tags: cancer, dali, doggie chemo, family, photos

“Oh, I’m sorry…did you need me to move??”

Tags: dali, photos