My Dog is a Fighter
His fight against medical challenges, A Tribute
My 9 year old Labrador retriever, Dexter has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Biopsy report from his wound says “Features are suggestive of malignant round cell tumor with frequent mitosis”. In other words, we are all destroyed from within.
A wound in his left paw which he had been struggling with for the past 1.5 year eventually developed into malignant tumor which has moved past the limb towards his lungs. His lung X-ray last month showed finger-like white patch partially interrupted by his rib cage stripes forming across the alveoli sacs. This has progressed into bigger patches and at two different locations in a span of only 4 weeks. We have heard the most dreaded words from the vet about his lifetime. I feel helpless, but I still want to share with you about Dexter and his never-give-up attitude.
Lumps had formed on his right arm which have been efficiently treated by the vet, at the cost of 4 different surgeries over the past 2 months. This meant he has lost 5 kilos of body weight over the last 4 weeks, is a little weak, finds it hard to walk around (like he used to do before) and prefers to sleep most of the day. However, this has not lowered his spirits and he is as happy as he has ever been, this is something, which I learn from him each day every day.
I accompanied Dexter to his last of the four surgeries to his vet along with my family. It was an emotional rollercoaster for me to see him on the operation table, anesthesia made him throw up before surgery (normal procedure), him slowly dozing off eventually to wake up 4 hours later with a plastered limb. While he was in the operation theater, just before the operation his vet made a very simple yet deep sentence. He said …
इन बच्चों की ज़िन्दगी 10–12 साल की होती है, उसमे भी ये कितना कष्ट झेलते हैं, देख के बहुत बुरा लगता है …
To translate it simply ‘These kids (dogs) have such a small life span of 10–12 years, even then they have to go through such pain, it pains to see them as such’. It was so strange to hear that from a surgeon who operates almost 5 dogs daily like clockwork, but a sentence that very well summarizes feelings of any dog lover.
Dexter’s life has been one medical challenge after another, but that never lowered his spirits. As a 3-month old pup it looked like he carried ticks from his breeding kennel and before we realized what was going on, his whole Ear Nose Throat (ENT) tract was infected. He was injected steroids to keep him alive which meant his liver got affected as a kid. Sleepless nights followed, all of us in the family took turns to guard our pup, in case something happens, doctor was put on alert that we might call him in the middle of the night. It was only later that we realized that Dexter has a medical condition in which blisters would form in his veins around the neck and ear, burst to give way to blood and pus cells. It was only Dexter's might to survive and a strong will to live through those dangerous nights that we have him today. Strange it is to see that, even in those moments of pain and suffering, not a single tear was shed through Dexter's eyes (cannot say that about us), not a single cry of angst, all we saw were his expressive eyes saying as if ‘to hold him and love him endlessly’ and so did we hold him in our warmest of hugs. While we did his dressings to clean the lost blood and pus cells and clean his wounds, all he did was lie down with legs stretched, giving all of his body to whatever medical care we could offer him, not a single bark when he was being vaccinated or wounds being dressed, only he would lick our hands when we held his face in our lap and he would say with his eyes ‘Thank you’.
Dexter, I feel has over the years found his own way of dealing with stress and pain due to medical procedures. He follows which I call the three Fs in his life — Father, Family and Food. My dad is his best friend, philosopher and guide. At home he waits for my dad when he goes to office, in his absence he will not behave as he does in front of my dad, coz around my dad he can throw all his tantrums. At home when dad is around, he has to always be in Dexter's sight, else Dexter is uneasy. Family for him is foremost as he enjoys the company of his loved ones. When all of us would meet for someone’s birthday or for Christmas or new year he would be very active no-matter how much of his body was bandaged or how much of a limp he had in his gait. If ever there came a moment in the day when for a couple of hours we were not around he would grow restless, start panting or even bark (which he hardly does). As the famous English saying from George Bernard Shaw goes…
There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
Dexter, brought this quotation to life in the way he goes about living. He needs biscuits, carrots, cucumber, calcium bones, vanilla ice cream just anything and everything that you wanna name. Bring the food out and he can just forget his pain. We would use this as a leverage for him to be bandaged. when his tumor started to grow from his right leg. We would give him a small treat (a biscuit) and get him to lie down and get his bandage done which he would accept happily only because at the end of it he got his favorite gluten free biscuit. At one point in time it got so funny coz he even started to recognize that we used to refer to his favorite biscuits as ‘treat’ so he started responding to the word. Successively, on realizing this we started spelling the word T-R-E-A-T and he even started to respond to that. I had never known before that Labradors could do that, Dexter demonstrated his smartness to us. Dexter has always been an expressive dog. He makes us known his demands in his own ways- wagging his tail means something, in collaboration with a bark has another meaning, him sitting with his back turned towards us has a meaning, him giving us a high five is another story. Even when he is sleeping the way he bends his paws or arms shows his level of comfort in the surroundings where he is.
From the time we got him in Dec 2012, till today, Dexter has been a fighter, just because of his spirit. He has always had a will to live, a reason to smile and be satisfied, to keep afloat of all medical complications and most importantly ‘perseverance’, to enjoy life despite it’s hiccups. He embodies this thought in its entirety. Little does he know that his days are numbered but he enjoys every moment through food or being around his loved ones. He showers his love on us in the smallest of things. Ever since we have found out about his condition, my parents have been affected the most. My Dad even though he does not show it openly, is shaken from within, ever more so since he has taken Dexter too all of his surgeries. Holding a kid in your own arms and see him go through such pain is unbearable for any parent, Dexter is just like his son. My mom sleeps on a bed next to Dexter on the floor. Dexter instead of sleeping in his own bed crawls into my mom’s bed and sleeps with her. He adjusts himself on the mattress and makes my mom’s shin as his pillow and sleeps. Somewhere I feel he knows about his situation and wants to tell us through his actions that he is happy where he is right now and does not wanna think about tomorrow which is unknown, which may not be as bright as today, he wants us all to ‘seize the moment’ and ‘Thank God’ for the feelings we could experience in the past decade with Dexter, the love he gave us and the memories we created together.
Stay strong my Dextu, you are indeed the strongest kid I know!
Note from the author:
When I think about it, I have accepted the fact that its only a matter of months if not weeks when Dexter is not gonna be around, but all I can say is that we gave it our best shot. All I can do is pray and hope for his best.
I found my peace in the following text from The Bible
‘Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.’— Proverbs 19:21
