September 26, 2011 - Facial changes and a day of panick

It’s been a while since I have updated. Her face has really changed. She has a lump under her right eye and her left eye seems to be bulging out. BUT she has reached the 8 month mark and still enjoys playing and getting scratched, although she has definitely slowed down. Sleeping has become more difficult. I think she can breathe better standing up because she tries to sleep standing up. I will hear her stumble and fall over during the night. That is hard to listen to! I will tell her to lay down and that works for a short time and she is back up.

I actually think her cancer saved her yesterday. I will never know the true story but I think someone tried to take her. She was in our camper at Cook Lake with the screen door closed and she can’t open it. When we got back she was gone and the door was closed again. I am 110% sure she was in it because Avri and I waved to her as we left. The people camping next to us said she was hanging out with some guy all day on the dock. I’m wondering if he didn’t plan to take her until he saw she wasn’t healthy. I don’t know why anyone else would let her out but that had to be what happened. God was definitely with her yesterday because she was playing with a family on the other side of the lake when we got back from 4-wheeling (late). I felt horrible/panicked because she could have been anywhere. I learned a few lessons though. Keep her tags on (they were off), close and lock all doors because people can’t be trusted and appreciate her as much as I can because she will be gone some day. She is very tired today, she had cockal burs ALL over her, a fishing lure in her tail and blisters on her front pads. I actually think she had a fun day. 

I will never forget this day because this was the closest she has ever been to being "lost".  I had so many emotions in such a short amount of time (it was probably 20 minutes that I drove around calling her and whistling for her). I will never forget how relieved I was when I saw her. The people she was with were really concerned that something happened to her because her face looked so bad.

 This picture was taken August 27, 2011.

This picture was taken October 18, 2011
You can really see the lump on her left side and eye on her right side was starting to bulge.