Gail here:
I know that some of Bertie's friends will be wondering how he is really doing, given his late September diagnosis of cancer of the bladder.
Well the recent blog posts do not lie. The dear little fellow has been relishing his autumnal walks, lively as ever, and at home he is calm and content as in the picture above. His appetite is good, the 'accidents' in the house have, for the moment, ceased and he is not obviously straining to pee. The anti-inflammatory tablets, 'Previcox', appear to be doing their job of easing his symptoms.
And yet.... sadly that is not the whole story. Yesterday, for the first time, I clearly observed blood in Bertie's urine, something I had been warned to look out for, and a sure sign that the cancer has progressed.
So we continue to live in the moment. In a week when in the wider world, to quote Heaney via Biden, "hope and history rhyme", I'm made aware again of the dark cloud on the local horizon (though thankfully Bertie is not) and I try to savour each day that my beloved pup remains comfortable, with his zest for life undimmed.
