As I write this on Christmas Eve, we made another observation about Bailey’s condition. She is normally seen wagging her tail a lot; over the past week or so, she has almost completely stopped wagging her tail. Other than that, she has her good days and her bad days. Bailey still likes to follow us around like she always has–albeit not as agile as in the past.

This photo was taken a few days ago and shows Bailey with Nick. Bailey had been sleeping in Nick’s room. She still likes going up and hanging out with Nick.

Bailey had a noticeably worse day. Her breathing seems to be labored a bit and she continues to slow down. In the past, she would run up and down the steps after Nicholas–she still tries to do that, but just can’t keep up to her old self. She specifically had difficulty a couple times coming down the steps today; the first time, she let out a yelp when she went down the steps, which she had never down before. The second time, Bailey went down the steps a tad slower than normal, but when she got to the bottom, her legs just gave out. Clearly her strength is reduced.

Another sad milestone; Bailey normally sleeps with Nicholas and due to her weakened state, she cannot do that anymore. Nicholas is not at all happy about that, but does understand.

The good news is that Nicholas is done with finals tomorrow (good luck!) and Danielle finished her finals last week, so they can spend more time with Bailey over the Christmas break.

In the spirit of Christmas, I found some past photos and came across this one of Lynette & Bailey. This photo was taken in our Bedford, New Hampshire home in December 1999. This was Bailey’s first Christmas. We are pretty hopeful that she will make it through Christmas 2006!

As of today, Bailey continues to eat and drink fairly well, but a couple more lumps on her back have been noticed.

The oncologist called yesterday to let us know that Bailey’s biopsy results came back. Unfortunately it confirmed the bone marrow report–Bailey has lymphoma.

Bailey started on Prednisone last week. Within 24 hours, her appetite came back and she seemed to have her spunk back. The last couple of days she has started to slow down again. Not as much as prior to the Prednisone, but a definate slow down. We also noticed a lump today. It’s hard to see such a loyal family member wither away.

Needless to say, Bailey is being spoiled as much as possible during her last days.

This photo taken Nov 25, 2006, is a quick shot of Bailey supervising the traditional Christmas light installation at our home.

Nick thought she needed to be comfortable, which is why she is sitting on a chair on our driveway with a scarf around her neck.

We found out this week that our family dog, Bailey–a Sheltie–has cancer. It is stage 5 lymphoma–it’s in her bone marrow. She started out 2-3 weeks ago with a decreased appetite and became more lethargic — definitely a change for her. We took her in to our vet, who did several tests. She was referred to an oncologist who ran some additional tests and discovered the lymphoma in the bone marrow.

Given the stage of lymphoma, we made the decision to not put her through chemotherapy. Bailey is expected to have about 4 weeks left, so our family intends to keep her comfortable and enjoy her while we can. It is almost inexplicable how attached we have become to Bailey–she is really part of our family. I’ll update this blog periodically with her status and will include a few photos of good times with her.

This photo is the first time we saw Bailey at the breeder’s home south of Boston, MA in the summer of 1999.