James loses tooth #2! :)

The Tooth Fairy made an appearance last night for the second time!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..."

Nevermind the awkward crop... he moved. It's not like I am a pro or anything. ;) Ha.

We love you Kona!

When you adopt a pet, you go into it with the understanding that they won't live forever. Eventually they will die, it's just a matter of when and how.
We are experiencing that with our sweet Kona. We adopted him in Paso Robles, CA in 2002 when we were living in Santa Barbara. We were instantly in love with the fur-ball and he has remained a family member ever since, traveling with us to Iowa and then to Florida.
His favorite things in his life are his walks at night with Nathan and playing fetch with tennis balls. When were in Cali, going to the dog park and running on the beach and galloping in the ocean were his most treasured moments. He whined in the car the whole time we were driving there. :)
On with this story.... After we boarded him over Thanksgiving break when we went to Iowa, he started coughing. We thought he had "kennel cough" which is vaccinated against, but like the human influenza, the vaccine doesn't cover all strains. So we brought him to the vet and started treatment for it.
A week and a half or more went by and he was still coughing, but it seemed to be getting worse. One evening he didn't eat dinner and then the next morning, again, he left his food in his dish. If you know Kona, or any other Lab for that matter, they DON'T leave their food. ;)
That was it for me. I called and got him an appointment as soon as I could (side note: if you don't go to the Winter Park Vet Hospital, you should- they are awesome).
Doctor Morford was working that day, so she was helping us with Kona. She examined him and then suggested that we move forward with some blood work. If that came up clean, they x-rays would be in order. I was okay with all of that, so Kaitlyn and I left Kona there and went to the post office and then home.
A few hours later I hadn't heard from them, so I called. They had done the blood work, and it came up clean, so they did the x-rays. She said that it looked like he has nodules on his lungs and that it was either pneumonia... or... I had to suggest it... the "c" word.
We decided to send the x-rays to a place that can read the x-rays with more detail to see what they thought. Meanwhile, I took Kona home. The x-rays would take a while, maybe 48 hours at most, to be read.
When we got home, Kona was significantly fatigued (it seemed to me). He looked like he was falling asleep with his head up. I still think my frame of mind made me a bit sensitive to his actions, but I literally thought he was going to die right then. I called the vet back, and since we still thought it was pneumonia, asked them if we could start treatment for that right away. I was sure he wouldn't make it until we got the x-rays back if we didn't treat him.
As soon as I mentioned to Kona that we were going in the car, he jumped up and ran out to the car. Ah, now, I saw, it was just me and my imagination. However, since they were expecting us at the vet already, we went anyway.
Dr. Morford showed me the x-rays when we got there. Sure enough, his lungs had strings of white in them (when they should be black), and there were little spots everywhere. I really still thought pneumonia would be the culprit.
Kaitlyn and I left Kona there again to start treatment for pneumonia (IV fluids and stronger medicine) while we waited for the readings.
I got a call from Dr. Morford around 2 p.m. with the results. She told me that the doctor reading the x-rays was pretty confident that it was cancer. She told us a bit later that they don't say that unless they are sure, to cover themselves. That's understandable.
Nathan was out golfing, so when he got home, he and I went to the vet. I had called Nathan in tears and had to tell him on the phone that Kona had cancer. I was sure we were going to have to put him down that night, and even went so far as to tell the kids that Kona may not come home. I bawled all day long. You should have seen my eyes. I looked like a crack addict by the end of the day.
Nathan and I sat with Kona when we got there (he was still hooked up to the IV giving him some fluids since he hadn't been eating). We cuddled and waited for Dr. Morford to be able to chat with us for a while. She showed the x-rays to Nathan and explained everything to him as she did to me, but this time talking about how it was cancer instead of pneumonia.
Nathan and I talked with her about what we could do, and we decided to take him home. He's not in any pain, and he's okay for now. We are giving him steroids to help him be more comfortable with is breathing, but they won't work forever. Eventually they won't help anymore.
We talked with Dr. Morford about Kona's quality of life and all decided that we'd know when enough is enough. At that time, we will say goodbye to our beloved dog.
For now, we are loving him and petting him a ton, taking pictures and enjoying his presence. My clothes are covered in dog hair and that is fine with me. We have had a great 8 years with him. As far as the kids go, they don't really understand. They know that he will be going to live with God soon, but that's it. James said that God will play with tennis balls with him.

Here are some shots from the last few days....

"Can I eat, please?" He's being spoiled with canned food with his dry food... and he LOVES it. :)

At the hospital...

Snoozer... he's acting like an 8 year old dog now rather than the "puppy-hood" that lasted 8 years.

Kaitlyn loves Kona.

"Kona, do you want a treat?"

Such a handsome boy.