Goodbye to Stanley

Very sad to report that on May 24, we had to put Stanley to sleep. He had been having a little harder time getting around the past couple of weeks and had gotten a little wider, but the vet thought that it was canine Cushing's disease. He was about to start treatment for that, but then he started throwing up, then stopped eating, and had gained two pounds of fluid in just a few days. The vet did an ultrasound and found tumors on his liver, and basically told us there was nothing they could do. It was clear by then that he was suffering and that it was time, but at least there was some comfort that (at least we think) he hadn't been suffering for long -- the swelling and the problems all seemed to happen quickly. Afterwards, the vet told us that she had found an eight inch tumor in his abdomen, and she was surprised he wasn't more sick earlier. She thinks it was pancreatic cancer, which can be aggressive and hard to catch before it's too late.

I was unfortunately away at a conference when we got the diagnosis, but he had taken such a turn for the worse that I knew when I left that there was a chance I might not see him again. :(

We miss him -- it's hard not to expect a puppy greeting when we come in the front door, and the house seems a little emptier.  The boys were sad (especially Matthew), but they are doing okay. (James's best friend and his mom brought over a paw-shaped stone -- sort of a headstone -- with Stanley's name on it -- very sweet of them.)

But Stanley had a good life (indeed, a really outstanding life when we lived in Philly, between the dog park and the dog walker and his general tremendous popularity in the neighborhood), and hopefully it wasn't too bad even after the kiddos came along. :)  And if there's a doggy heaven, he'll have lots of good company up there.