Howling for Hudson

I'll surely get back to some updates on my training and racing plans sometime soon, but my mind is occupied with other things right now. Hudson (see above), my best running buddy, is having a tough time.

I ran 4 miles with him on Monday. He had great energy, breaking into a full gallop at times and practically pulling me along through the snow. His physical condition has gone down slightly over the 5 and a half years we have had him, but he's still in great shape for nearly 12-year old large breed dog.

He thrives in cold, snowy weather, and has been known to literally herd me out the door, especially on those cold winter mornings when another cup of coffee seems like a better idea than stepping out into the elements. I fell asleep that night having told Taj repeatedly, "Hudson was feeling good today!" He had gotten sick three weeks earlier, but bounced back quickly and had seemingly returned to his old self. The worry lingered in the back of my mind, but I felt pretty confident that he had just been hit with a bad virus and that he was over it.

At about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, Sierra, one of our other two dogs, woke me up. I got up to let her out and saw that it was Hudson that was distressing her. He had thrown up many times and peed in a few places as well, which is extremely unusual for him. I let him out and he was a bit wobbly, but came back in, drank a bunch of water, and went to sleep.

When I got up two hours later, he had thrown up several more times. He went outside and lay down in the snow against the back fence. He wouldn't get up, but just stared out through the fence. It was 4 degrees outside. I was officially worried.

I brought him to the vet, and by that night we were told that the chances that he had lymphoma were extremely high, and that it was likely wide-spread. Even with chemo, should we choose to pursue it, he probably would only have 6 months to a year. He seemed to be in a lot of pain. We asked that they make him comfortable, and I guess prepared ourselves for the fact that he could go at any time, and that we would likely have to put him to sleep very soon to save him the suffering.

I did my best to remain in stoic, Minnesota male denial, but I broke down a couple of times. We adopted Hudson from the St. Paul shelter shortly after we got married, and we've been through a lot together. He's been kind of like a kid to us, I suppose, as silly as that sounds. Well, anyway he's really a good dog.

The Vet suggested an ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis. While it seemed like a pointless endeavor, it turns out that it's lucky that the test was done. We got the good news earlier today that he does not appear to have any cancer. That's the great news. The bad news is that he's still in really bad shape with what appear to be abscessed infections in his belly. Long story short...there's some hope for him. Possible surgery tomorrow if it looks like there's a way to remove the problematic tissue. Otherwise...let's not think about otherwise.

If you're a dog lover (and you must be if you've read this far!), let out a wolfish howl for Hudson, and hopefully his ears will perk up and he'll live to run another mile.