Rocky – Tuesday 10th January 2023

Rocky

We heard the sad news that Shadow’s brother Rocky died yesterday. He was just under a month short of his fourteenth birthday. Hopefully Shadow and his other brothers Freddy and Kai were waiting to greet him the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. Alfie was probably there too. He would be hanging back a little as he wasn’t so keen on being in big groups of dogs.

We send all our sympathy and best wishes to his humans. If it hadn’t been for them we’d never have had Shadow. We will always be very grateful to them for that. They will feel his loss as we feel Shadow’s. He was a lovely dog.

Odd but interesting

What is odd but interesting is that Rocky had a heart murmur. We are often asked about whether heart murmurs in a dog are a big problem. It’s almost impossible to answer. It depends on the cause, but very often it doesn’t affect life expectancy at all. Rocky lived the longest of his litter despite his heart murmur. Alfie lived longer than his siblings, and long than any other UK dog yet and he had a heart murmur from a young age. I have a heart murmur and it doesn’t affect what I do and I’ve been told I don’t even need regular checks now as there is no change. Of course, in some situations they can be a problem, but most of the time they aren’t anything to worry about.

What does worry me…

Having said all that, I am a little worried at the moment. The vet rang me yesterday with the results of the fine needle aspiration they did on the lump I found under my front leg. It seems to be a soft tissue sarcoma and needs to be removed. They won’t know what grade of tumour it is until it has been taken out and sent off to the lab for further investigation. Obviously we’re hoping that it will be at the least serious end of the scale and that all will be well. I’m putting on a brave face because Mum is struggling, but I guess I am a little worried. I’m booked in for my operation in a couple of weeks time.

Love

Wilma