Mo'i update...

Mo'i update...  He's still hanging in there, and we're cherishing every day we're lucky enough to have with him.  You may remember that back in January he developed an odd excessive drinking (and subsequent urination) behavior that the vet could find no cause for.  We started using diapers with him as a defensive maneuver, and we also keep him on tiled floor when he's in the house.  Mostly this was not a problem, except that he would start barking around 2 am every morning to wake us up and take him for a walk.  That was a challenge, even for early risers like us :)

The past couple of weeks, he seems to be drinking (and urinating) less often.  We have no idea why, but we're not complaining – because now he isn't barking to wake us up before we would normally get up (around 4 am, most mornings).  That's quite ok by us :)

Otherwise, for a 16 year old dog with cancer he's doing really well.  He can still walk just fine (though the stairs present a more serious challenge these days).  He's walking around a half mile a day, on three separate walks.  With his hearing completely gone and his vision pretty much shot, you might think he'd not get much from the walk – but his nose seems to be working just fine, and he explores the world with that.  Yesterday during one walk he met up with our neighbor's dog (Annie), and that nose of his was working overtime – he smelled her carefully and deeply from head to toe, while Annie stood perfectly still to let him.  His tail was going a mile a minute the whole time...

The cancer in his muzzle was supposed to have overwhelmed him by about six months ago.  That was the assessment of a veterinary oncologist early last year.  Later in the year, the oncologist could see no particular growth.  We have no explanation, but his cancer doesn't seem to be expanding at all – we can see no change.  He has a couple of fatty tumors, non-malignant, that are growing – but those aren't life-threatening.

So Mo'i just keeps right on trucking, a little bit more slow-mo than before, but still hanging in there...