Our Four Legged Family Member

This is Riley, he is 10 1/2 years old.  We first spotted him when he was just a fluffy little puppy about two months old.  Oh my...he was just too adorable for words.  Both Scott and I fell head over heels in love with this dog!  However, we were just getting over the loss of our beautiful Nikki girl and we both said, "No way, no way are we getting another dog...uh uh."  So we kind of talked our daughter, Dina into getting Riley so he would still be in our family!  She fell in love with him too.!  So off to her and Jamie's apartment Riley went and boy has he been the one to bring tears of joy, tears of distress, and tears of love to all of our eyes.

So I should start with the little puppy and tears of distress....Dina is standing on the couch in her living room and gives us a call, screaming for HELP cause this little puppy was attacking her ankles, feet, anything he could get his sharp little baby teeth into!  Scott and I just hooted with laughter imagining this grown woman jumping on the couch to get away from a little fluff ball!!

Now, I know quite well about those little sharp baby teeth, because you see, we brought Riley up to the Oregon City Papa Murphy's store with us every day when we were building the store at a new location.  I can so clearly recall those sharp little teeth biting into my hands and wrists.  Oh my, it hurt!  I had to wear gloves, plus drag a sweatshirt sleeve over my hands to give me some protection, I tried sitting on them so he couldn't attack, but he was ruthless!

Then there was the first Christmas with Riley!  He was outside at our house.  Dina had to go out to the car to get some Christmas presents.  Riley saw her and he was so over joyed, he started attacking her ankles again.  Dina was running from one door to another door screaming (and I do really mean screaming..) for HELP!!!  But by this time it was not funny at all for her, she was crying...remember those are sharp little puppy teeth!  Now, we really didn't mean to be laughing 'at her', but it was just one of those very comical scenes like in a movie...the door is locked, her hands are full of packages, she can't get in, she can't escape, she pounds on a window to get attention and what with Christmas and all, we just didn't catch on to her distress!  Well, finally we did and boy was she one MAD girl!  Of course, we all look back and laugh at those memories now (well, maybe not all of us * wink*!!)

Now remember, this was Dina and Jamie's dog, right?  Well, Dina did her part by taking Riley to dog training and I must admit that the trainer was very skeptical that Riley would make a good 'family' pet.  He was a little on the hyper side, a little possessive with his food etc.  So one day when Riley was outside at her house, he apparently bit a little neighbor boy....who knows, the boy may have pulled Riley's tail for all we know.  But what happened was that Riley had to be quarantined for 10 days, so we thought it was a good idea for Riley to come up to our house during the days while Dina and Jamie worked.  After all, we have 5 acres to let him roam and NO little children to bother him!  It turned out that he just stayed and he ended up being our dog after all.

And he has been a good pet, although there have been times when he growls and it scares even us...

So let's fast forward to yesterday.  We took him to the Vet because he was NOT eating.  And we thought it was possible he had teeth issues, or an absess or something, so we wanted him checked out.  Turns out his Lymph nodes were swollen in his neck and his back legs, so they ran some tests and today we got the word that he had lymphoma.  And he was to see an oncologist immediately!  (YES, he is a member of our family!!)  So we are starting a protocol with him to see if we can get him in remission.  They injected him with something that attacks and kills the cancer cells.  Then on Saturday they will begin the regimen of chemo for him.  What we are after is simply a good quality of life for him and if after one month, that is not possible then we will have to go for option B.  The doctor says that if a dog has to get cancer then this is the best kind to get. However dogs cannot be CURED (unlike humans) so we have only been given more time to share his last days with us and hopefully gather more loving memories of our Riley dog.  So we are praying that we can at least have 6 months to one year more with Riley and that he will feel well enough to do what he loves doing most, which is sit at the top of the stairs at the other house (Dina and Jamie's) and guard the houses.  He likes to sleep a lot, and he still loves to chase tennis balls, we just don't throw them far.  And most of all, he loves to greet us with such enthusiasm that we have no doubt  how happy he is to see us and that he loves us as much as we love him.


Now that he is a mature dog, he talks quite a bit to us, oh my, he just carries on such a conversation like you have never heard.  It is fine unless you happen to have a sleeping baby in the car and would prefer that the dog NOT wake the baby when you open the door, but NO, he has to let us know exactly how he feels about us returning home to him.  He is OVER JOYED!  He cannot contain himself, oh really how wonderful it is to be so loved unconditionally. No matter that he was left out in the rain, or the hot sun, he is exuberant with delight when he sees us.