Happy Tuesday, folks! I know I keep marveling over how quickly time is passing, but can you believe that it’s July 14th already?!
It’s been quiet around here, and if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the photo and update I shared about our beloved English mastiff, Callie. Two weeks ago she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer. For consistency’s sake (and so I don’t drown my keyboard in tears), here’s what I posted:
Over the weekend we found out that our sweet, precious Callie girl has an aggressive form of cancer, one that gives a heartbreaking prognosis of only a few months left with us. We are, in a word, devastated. Our sweet love is only 6 years old; I took for granted how much time I would get with her, watching her & Coach grow up together, having her around when we have children someday. We are going to spend every single day making Callie feel even more loved & cherished than she already does. We don’t know for sure how much time we have left together but we are going to make every minute count.
THANK YOU to our family & friends for loving us so well, for supporting us, crying with us, bringing us meals & adult beverages & dog toys. To quote my wise friend Katelyn, people give pets a varying degree of worth, but to us, Callie has always been FAMILY, our first baby. To our people, our home team – thank you for embracing her as your family, too.
And to my Callie, I love you more than you will ever know. Thank you for allowing me the honor of being your mama. You have taught me about love, grace, and patience, and you have brought me out of the darkest of moments and celebrated alongside me during the happiest of days. Cheers to so many more adventures. I’m praying for a miracle for you, my love.
Callie underwent surgery yesterday, an amputation process that will hopefully eliminate the cancer for the time being, allowing her to be pain-free and to enjoy her remaining days (which will likely be prolonged, thanks to the procedure). It was difficult to have to make such a big decision so quickly but thanks to the support of our family & friends and to the peace we found through prayer, we truly believe that we did the right thing. Our main focus was providing Callie with a peaceful, pain-free existence; we refused to simply allow her to undergo this medical procedure just so we could enjoy her for longer. We consulted with many talented veterinarians, specialists & surgeons and ultimately decided that this route was the most humane way to go. Callie is home already and while she’ll definitely be on the mend for awhile, she is happy as can be; getting used to life post-surgery, certainly, but already gobbling up peanut butter and barking at the neighbors just like she was yesterday morning.
We are immeasurably grateful for so much – for God’s peace & grace that we’ve felt so intimately, for the consistent and generous outreach from family & friends, for the resources to be able to move forward with this procedure, and, of course, for our sweet Callie (and for Coach, too!). Thank you for continuing to keep her in your prayers as she recovers!
I know, I know – January is almost over already and I’m just now posting about 2016. Well, I finally made it just in the nick of time! There have been many reasons that the start of this new year has been so exciting that I could burst (more on that later!) and other reasons that it’s been heartbreaking and frustrating in such a way that I haven’t had the energy to post on my sweet blog. The darkest moment has been the loss of our precious, perfect Callie girl. She went to heaven just before New Year’s Eve after valiantly battling cancer for six months, and we miss her every single minute of every single day. I wish I could muster up the strength to write more but thinking about her still just makes me so sad. I did write a lengthy post on Instagram about her life and how much she meant to us, so please hop over to read it if you feel so inclined. We are so grateful for the support we’ve received from everyone ranging from our family and best friends to the loving staff at the vet and our neighbors. We are surrounded by pet-lovers and that has made this process easier in so many ways; people have related to us and commiserated with us and embraced us during this difficult time.
Coffee & Tacos 