Cheers was born January 13, 1988. He came to live with me 5 ½ weeks later. He was a sable merle with a left eye that was half blue and half brown. Hence, his registered name became My Wild-Eyed Dream. He was the third dog I started training in obedience. Cheers was a very laid back dog and loved everyone he met. During one of our trials in Northern Virginia, he also became Herding Instinct Certified. He was pretty easy to train and received his U.D. title by the time he was 4 yrs old.
In September of 1994, I found a lump on his right rear leg near the Achilles tendon. It appeared not to be attached and seemed to vary in size. The vet aspirated it and it appeared to just have fat cells. The thought at that time was it was a lipoma. The vet seemed to think it might need removal, but I wanted to wait for our dog show season to be over. Since it didn’t cause him any problems, I didn’t see any need to have it removed. Nothing was mentioned to me about it being a possible cancer problem. I never in my wildest dreams thought that he would have cancer. Basically from that time on, I didn’t question the lump and felt it periodically as he was groomed, bathed, etc.
Cheers had a fairly normal life and had no other health problems except an occurrence of Horner’s Syndrome in the right eye May of 1999. He was examined by an opthalmologist and given drops for the eye to help the third eyelid to retract into the corner of the eye. The opthomologist felt it was idiopathic in nature. It resolved within three months and I didn’t think twice about it. In January 2001 his Horner’s Syndrome reoccurred. He was examined again and we took chest x-rays to check for tumors. In February or March 2001, I noticed the lump on his leg had doubled in size and became concerned there was a problem. My current vet aspirated it and it was felt to be a mast cell tumor. We set up an appointment with NC State Teaching Hospital and went down to have tests done on April 3, 2001. About a week or so before his appointment, he developed a quarter-size lump on his neck. I thought it was another MCT. He had other lumps on his body as well, but I figured they were lipomas.
When the oncologist felt the lump the very first time, she mentioned that it probably was a Grade II or III. I was devastated. Since the Horner’s was still present, the oncologist also wanted to check him neurologically. I left him there for the day so they could run tests. When I went to get him later that day, the oncologist said that the aspirates on some of his lumps were lymphoma. They were also suspicious of a brain tumor with the Horner’s being present and he drifted to the right when walking. I had to leave him there so they could do a CAT scan in the morning. My in-laws lived about an hour away from the hospital, so I went back there for the night. It just killed me to leave Cheers in the hospital. He had never spent the night anywhere without me except in my mom’s house. The next day I went to get him and they confirmed a brain stem tumor. Devastation hit me all over again. He was expected to live, without treatment, about 1-2 months. I made an appointment to start CCNU chemo in two weeks. We went back for this first dose, but after I got home with him again, I didn’t want to pursue chemo anymore. I felt too scared to keep him on chemo with his age and was afraid of losing him due to chemo instead of the cancer. It would have made me feel terrible that my efforts of curing him could have killed him instead. He was put on Prednisone (20 mg every other day), Pepcid, and Benadryl. Although, Prednisone has it’s own set of unwanted symptoms, I felt safer using that than the CCNU chemo treatments. I also think the Prednisone kept him alive as long as it did. He lived almost 7 months after diagnosis. I didn’t change any of his diet either. I didn’t want to upset his stomach with any major changes. It was so overwhelming in the beginning, I just couldn’t handle that change on top of everything else. Towards the last few weeks of his life, he had a real hard time standing up for more than a minute at a time. He would not be able to get up on his own and he would “woof” at me for help in getting up, needing water, etc. Sometimes when he walked down the hall, he would lean on the wall for support. At first, I didn’t mind helping him get up and felt like I was doing my “mommy” job by helping him. Eventually, I knew this was not a good situation for him and the end was approaching. About 1-2 days before we helped him cross the “bridge”, he stopped eating altogether. I cooked him some chicken with his kibble (which he ate). Later that night, I just thought “this is only going to get worse”. I made the decision it was time to help him cross the “bridge” and my husband and I would go the next morning. I didn’t want to see him get any worse from that point on and felt comfortable with my decision.
Cheers was just one of those dogs that is extremely “special”. I like to use the term “forever dog” or “heart dog”. I hope I find another dog like him in my lifetime. He never caused me any trouble. People were drawn to him everywhere we went. The depth of my feelings for him is astounding. It will take a long time for my heart to stop hurting from losing such a special companion like Cheers. When it is my turn to meet him at the Rainbow Bridge, I will rejoice in being with him again.
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