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.