Today Is Not Too Bad

Rem's red blood count is back up to 33, almost normal. I couldn't bear to wait until tomorrow to check, so I took him to the emergency clinic to get tested. I was worried because, although he seems alert and his gums seem pink to me, still he's very slow and still mostly just wants to sleep.

He's been sneezing a lot the last couple of days. Maybe he's allergic to something, but I also wonder whether it's related to his illness.

He woke me up panting heavily a couple of times during the night, and my hindbrain said "Respiratory distress!" and I woke way up, but apparently he was just dreaming about chasing squirrels.

He was eager for breakfast and ate all the chicken--not a professional-level eager or chow down, but he didn't waste any time looking around and thinking about it. On the other hand, I snuck some kibble in with some chicken water and hamburger, and he left all of that in the bowl after picking out the chicken. So his appetite isn't completely normal. It might never be again.

He's been active enough to trot outside with the other dogs and help taunt a cat they've had up a tree all morning. And he did go and look out the front window for a couple of minutes, which used to be one of his full-time job responsibilities and which he hasn't done in a while.

[Side note: Someone else's pet in my yard, again, allowed loose & unsupervised, and *I* have to deal with the consequences--I kept the dogs penned up in the house for 2 hours waiting for the cat to come down & leave, but he didn't. I tried 2 different ladders but one isn't tall enough and the other one seems to be bent so it won't work properly. So now I have to periodically go out and tell the dogs to stop saying things about the cat's ancestry in such loud annoying voices. Grrr. The people to whom I think it belongs don't seem to be home, or I'd have had them trying to get the cat out of the tree.]

Went we all went for a walk, though, he was quite draggy. At the vet's office this morning, while we were waiting for the test results, he stood up for a little while, but when I suggested he sit, he shlumped all the way to the floor and over onto his side and just lay there the rest of the wait.

So if he's not bleeding, it's probably just the tumor(s) taking up too many of his body's resources.