Illness in the Family

We're interrupting the story of the diving fiasco for some less humorous news.

The last time most of you saw our dog Echo, you might remember that he was "running around in a blur," or you can click here to reexperience it.

For a couple of months, Echo has returned from his frolicking with Cooper (Elisha's quarter horse Great Dane lapdog) a little stiff and sore, but always recovered within a day or two. We figured, "Well, he's an old dog, the exercise was just a bit much for his arthritis."

However, Monday, after a very lazy weekend, he became more and more lame throughout the day. We waited Tuesday to see whether he would come back around. He didn't, so we took him to the vet first thing Wednesday.

The x-rays of one of his legs revealed an area of bone that was deteriorated and looked as though it was being eaten away. It was a classic picture of osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, or osteomyelitis, a bone infection. Both apparently look the same on x-rays. X-rays of his chest showed no tumors, so the doctor performed a needle biopsy. We hoped to see a lot of infection in the sample, but there was none, and his white blood cell count was normal, also indicating a lack of infection.

So, the cells the doctor retrieved have been sent to a lab. We are waiting, waiting, waiting for the results, which we expect Saturday or Monday.

Our king of the jungle boy Echo (before being inadvertently shaved last spring, discussed here)