From Maddie’s perspective she has 2 jobs. One is to get as many be-bys (as in be by me. be-bys) as possible with me and to keep me safe. She guards me, she puts herself between me and the world and she does an excellent job. She has earned many peanut butter biscuits for her efforts. And this is what I see…

I see her little piggo tail, it’s how I know I am safe.

This is what I see when I build a blanket fort in the living room

This is what I see when I am cleaning the kitchen

This is what I see when I am cooking dinner

This is what I see when Maddie isn’t quite sure about what’s going on

This is what I see when I am peeing

This is what I see a year later when Maddie suddenly got old and her skin super rumpled

This is what I see when I take too long in the bathroom

This is what I see when I go camping

This is what I see when I am spinning yarn on Kristen’s back porch

This is what I see when we go on a picnic

This is what I see when we move into a brand new apartment

This is what David sees when I take a shower

This is what David sees when I take a shower while on vacation

A year ago we found out Maddie has cancer in her bladder. I expected it would happen sooner or later, she’s an old dog. We took her off the prednisone put her on piroxicam because it’s good at reducing inflammation. The tumor in her bladder was causing constant bladder infections and piroxicam can sometimes reduce the size of the tumor. I read up on it, it seemed like a 50/50 thing for shrinking the tumor and it would be good with her arthritis. Much to everyone’s surprise the piroxicam didn’t reduce the tumor, it got rid of it. She still has the cancer in the walls of her bladder but the tumor is gone.

I AM NOT in any way touting piroxicam as a miracle drug. It had a 50/50 chance and it worked out for us. I did a lot of research and I tried to be very realistic about what might happen on the piroxicam. I was not keen on switching her off the prednisone, which had kept her healthy for many years, and putting her on a new drug. I did a lot of research and worrying. But it worked and I am grateful.

Maddie is 14 years old. She’s headed to 15 years. She is 14 years old and she has cancer in her bladder, she is losing some control over her back legs, she a little noodly in the head sometimes. She is Maddie