Hopeful for Shadow’s Door #3

It started with the cough. Dry, raspy yet deep and seemingly from deep within her stomach. Two episodes of not holding down dinner pretty much made the decision for me. Shadow eats everything; even things that are not meant to be eaten such as doors, trim and corn cobs. The latter resulted in surgery fewer than six weeks after we took her in nearly 3 1/2 years ago. The former resulted in some new doors and trim in my former house and some patch work in my current. As such I rarely raises an eyebrow when she gets sick but this time combined with the cough I knew something was wrong. 
As we sat in the waiting room the Vet came back in and asked us to step back into their workspace. That itself was unusual. A room full of animals, equipment and staff. She pointed out several things on the film; many attributed to her age (now 12) and really little more than noise on the screen. She then zeroed in on a single circle that she said led her to wanting to bring me back to their workspace. She said she’d send the results out to a specialist for review and that it’s likely one of a couple things: 1) inflammation due to worsening of her already diagnosed (and maintenance medicated) Valley Fever or 2) cancer. 
My heart sunk and I had little to say. She said she’d get back to me with results. That was Thursday and after some phone tag and a non-informative voice mail it’s now Monday and we’re still hopeful. Hopeful because we didn’t receive a call over the weekend. Hopeful because Shadow’s no longer getting sick and the cough seems to be less frequent. Hopeful because it’s my sister’s dog and I’d always imagined her living a long, great life with us then passing on naturally. Hopeful because we  put one critter down less than a year ago and I’m not yet ready to go through it again. 
Shadow Immediately After Stressful Vet Visit-01/26/12

AniMal