Here we go again.....

It's time to say goodbye to Rocco.

We found Rocco in 1995 in a flower field. He was this little tiny puppy lost in these flowers. My husband brought him home and at the time we had 2 dogs so I said no way. When we found out where he came from and took him back we ended up keeping him. The people that owned his parents had about 15 dogs. None of them were fixed and I'm sure they'd never been to a vet. Rocco was from a litter of 6 identical boys. We ended up keeping him because I just couldn't return him to live in those conditions. We would find out later that all of his brothers had died before they reached 1 year from Parvo. Rocco was always one of a kind :)

When we got him he weighed 4 lbs. He fit in the palm of my hand. Over the months he grew rapidly. People who would only see him every couple of weeks were sure we were feeding him steroids, he grew that rapidly. At the time we lived on the beach and he was most definitely a water dog. He loved to swim and play in the water and chase sand crabs on the beach. It was a great life.

Rocco's life, kind of like any middle child's, was uneventful. The dogs we had at the time aged and started to pass away. We got Nala and Rocco and her became fast friends and bitter enemies. He never had any major problems or issues for many, many years.

Then when he was about 8 years old he developed a rapidly growing lump on his face. We took him in and had a bioposy and it was a mast cell tumor. We had the surgery and had it removed and they were confident they got it all. Then, not 6 months later, another lump that he had on his side for years, suddenly burst open. Another trip to the vet and sure enough, another mast cell tumor. Another surgery. Another assurance that they got it all. After that I became pretty obsessive about his lumps. I would check him all the time and keep tabs on all his various lumps, he was a very lumpy dog, but luckily we never had another tumor.

Rocco used to swim in the ocean everyday. We had to be careful when we opened the door because he would make a beeline into the water and be soaking wet before we knew it. Luckily he understood the command, NO SWIMMING, and would just wade in the water at those times. When we moved here 3 years ago, I could tell Rocco hated it because there was no ocean. We would take him and Nala to the beach every weekend. Then Nala developed her hip problems and had trouble negotiating the beach. Shortly after that Rocco started limping. A trip to the vet reveled spondylosis. There was not much that could be done for it. We tried drugs and acupuncture and that seemed to help for a long time. Eventually it started to get worse. He would have bouts where he couldn't walk. We would have to increase his medicine to get him back on his feet and then slowly back off it. Each episode was worse then the one before and each time he recovered he wasn't as mobile as he was before. We knew the end was coming we just didn't know when it would be.

Last month when Nala passed away he went downhill. We thought we were going to lose him too, but after a week or so he started to perk up so we had hope. Since Nala passed away I had noticed a small lump in Rocco's throat. I kept an eye on it, since I am still crazy about his lumps, and it just seemed to be there. Then on May 5th I came home to find his entire neck and lower jaw area swollen. I rushed him to the vet and they discovered all his lymph nodes were swollen. The presumptive diagnosis with no tests was lymphoma. We raised his prednisone to the absolute maximum and figured it'd be any day now. Then that Friday night I got the foster dogs. This really seemed to bring Rocco alive. The lump in his throat had gone back down. He hated the fosters so much it seemed to give him a reason to live. He would bark and try to chase them. Although it was annoying, it was also kind of nice to see. He hadn't shown that much life in months.

Then Friday his throat started to swell again. Not too big but definitely bigger. Saturday morning I woke up and it was considerably larger though still not as big as it had been. I went out for a couple of hours and by the time I came back his throat was huge and his lower jaw was big too. I talked to the vet and we thought to try some antibiotics just in case there was some kind of infection going on. I was going to pick them up today. But this morning when we got up his face and neck were even larger and his front legs were starting to swell. This is no infection. I believe that his lymph system has just shut down and fluids are starting to build up all over his body. It's very, very similar to what happened with Nala. So, after some discussion, Hubby and I have decided it's time. This afternoon around 1 pm I'll say goodbye to Rocco for the last time. My heart is breaking but I know it's the right thing to do. To delay it any longer would just make things worse for him. God I am going to miss that big lug.

Rocco 1995 - 2009

Bye Sweetie, Mama loves you....