This morning I woke up to find Daisy, my yellow lab/pit bull mix licking her paw incessantly. Upon looking at it I found she had torn a toenail and it was barely hanging on. She's my wild girl. She loves to run like a crazy nut, hence the nickname "Crazy Daisy." She must have torn it on the ice and now the pink quick is entirely exposed. I wrapped it quickly and she was off again to play in the snow. Sometimes I feel like I should have been a veterinarian, I have so much experiance caring for animals.
My animals are near and dear to me and have kept me entertained and on my toes for years. Last May I decided to adopt another cat from the East Shore Shelter of the Humane Society. I had been at the shelter working on grants and there were so many cats in crates from the floor to ceiling, it just broke my heart. I told Kelly I wanted to adopt one, it didn't matter what it looked like, but I wanted a cat who had been in a crate, or at least at the shelter the longest. She said that would be "Jo", a 10 year old gray and white male cat who had been there for more than a year. He was an owner surrender and just wanted to spend his remaining years with a family to love him. The next day I came back with my cat carrier and brought "JoJo" (my new name for him from the Beatles song "Get Back") home to meet the rest of the crew.
JoJo adapted beautifully and we were more than happy to love and take care of him. JoJo had big beautiful green eyes, until one day in November I looked at him and noticed his left eye was brown. I did a double take because I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I took him to the vet where she gave me the bad news. It was most likely staining from cancer and the eye had to be removed before it metastisized. I was crushed. My vet recommended I take him to a veterinary opthaolmologist. After seeing the opthalmologist he confirmed the worst and said it was a 65% chance that it was cancer and the eye should be removed. My husband thought we should put him down and I just couldn't do it. I didn't know what to do because there was a 35% chance it wasn't cancer and we would be removing the eye for nothing.
After several weeks of weighing the options I made the decision to remove his eye. The surgery went well and I prepared myself for what I thought he would look like. When I picked him up the next day I realized I hadn't prepared well enough and was shocked to see a huge incision and swelling the size of a golf ball. All I could think was "what had I done?" I was beside myself and felt like an unfit mother. JoJo adapted beautifully to having only one eye and he wasn't in pain anymore. Animals are so very resilient. My vet called me later in the week with the pathology results, it was malignant melanoma. I had done the right thing and saved his life. JoJo now spends more time socializing with us and the rest of the cats than he did before. He's not in pain and is enjoying life!
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