Next round

So after the steak incident, Leo was fine and we resumed treatment. He's been great - dragging me to the pet store for pig ears, going out for walks, generally being good at home.

Bad Daddy

This is what I get for trying to be nice.

For NYE, since boozing it up was out of the question because of 1) antibiotics and 2) being old, I decided instead for some quality food.  Of course this is going to get shared with Leo, and he thoroughly enjoyed it :

Here's the steak. Don't let the color fool you, it's almost raw

So cute! Look, he's going to grab a piece...

Or maybe the whole thing

Good thing it wasn't cut up, or else it would be gone. He gave it back to me.

Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?

Waiting for the cut up version.

He ate this down to nothing save for a shard of the bone that was left. Delicious!

Fast forward to the 6AM next morning and someone with black fur and big brown eyes desperately needed to go out. And then at 9. And 1. And 5. It was not good.

Poor Leo had a bit of the bad belly from his NYE celebration, and it was my fault. Of course, it didn't slow him down - he still wanted to eat and grub and do everything else, just, well, sometimes ya gotta go!

New Year, New Ears

So I get to have NYE with EO, which is nice. It will certainly be low-key, since neither of us are feeling particularly great.

That's not good

It's back.

It got through and it came back.

I noticed before the latest checkup that his popliteal nodes were big. Others were, too. We're out of remission (again), it's multiple nodes, and it broke through.

Our options are
Do nothing - nope
Do rescue therapy - can't give up yet
Do COP - I guess we'll see.

Wish he was here

My friend W and I did a hike up to Oyster Dome. First, getting there was amazing. We came from Vancouver (having spent the night watching a Rangers game, then eating Mexican food. In Canada. Because you do.) so the vistas on the way there were pretty cool. Some coastal plains, some major mountains in the distance, and then an amazing drive through the Temperate Rainforest. Stunning!

But the hike was great - starting off in the damp and green of the rainforest, then climbing up over 2000 feet over the course of 3 or 4 miles. It's effectively like either walking up a really steep ramp or walking up stairs. It's challenging, I won't lie, and it is hard on the knees. But the payoff was pretty good.

Wow.

Geologist, for scale

The only thing missing

What's awesome is that you reach what seems like the top, and then the trail splits off into a bunch of little trails that lead to the vista above. You're in the trees and the woods and you've just climbed up this thing and you feel so proud of yourself... and there's like 25 other people up there, in various states of fitness. 

But the dogs - oh my, the dogs! Seems like every other hiking group had a dog. Lots of labs and young dogs. I think Leo could have made it, but he would have needed some serious couch time afterwards.

I know I did.

So far so good

Things are going well - he's responding well to treatment

The bad news is that it's so damn expensive, and every week.

The good news is that it's working.

I'm going to AGU to present my work, see him when I get back.

Panther Mountain

I recently had a birthday, and despite being far too busy for a real hiking trip with Leo, I wanted to do something special. Two of my favorite pictures are me and Leo on this ledge in the Catskills (in younger, less-lymphoma-y times) and then all of my friends and Leo on the same ledge.  In one of my favorite facebook comments every (yeah, I know), someone asks my friend "who won the king of the mountain?". The reply: "The dog won."