Unfortunately, when we arrived back in town last week, we took our 9 year old dog, Mattie, to the vet for a bad cough. We found out last Monday she had lymphoma and would have 1 - 4 weeks to live without treatment. Shawn and I decided we couldn't put her through chemo and we (and our vet) had a feeling she would not even be a good candidate. If she were extremely lucky and the chemo was successful, the remission would most likely only last 7 months - 1 year. We decided we wanted her last days or weeks spent home with us instead of in a vet school.
We made the trip to our hometown of Auburn, AL last Friday and she was well enough to come with us. We wanted her to have one last trip here and some last days of running off her leash in "her" woods. She was able to do that during the weekend and she had a good day Sunday. Our whole family went down to the woods and she ran one last time. Her condition had gone downhill since that diagnosis. We had to put her to sleep yesterday - one week from receiving her diagnosis. It's been an extremely tough time for us all. I had my Mattie since I was in college and Shawn helped me pick her out as a teeny puppy at the Montgomery Humane Society in 1999. She was an amazing dog and full of energy! We miss her tremendously.
Anyway, due to all that's gone on with our family these past few weeks, I have not had much time for my camera. I promise to get back to posting very soon! My schedule may be very chaotic for the next few months while we continue to handle Shawn's mother's affairs, but please contact me if you'd like to arrange a session. I know photography will be a great source of healing for me!
In the meantime, I'd like to share one of my last pictures of Mattie. Harrison had just gotten out of the tub and was wearing his dog hooded bath towel. We saw Mattie sitting at the top of the stairs and I had him run sit with her. I knew my days of pictures with her were limited and I'm so thankful I got a few snapshots! They are so very wrong technically, but they're just perfect to me :-) Oh - and you can see Mattie's eyes may look funny. About 4 years ago, she lost her eyes due to a terrible case of glaucoma. She adapted so quickly and got around as well as any dog with sight did. Truly amazing! Enjoy this sweet snapshot of my two "babies" - she will be so missed.
