My Chow Chow, Chowder just passed away

So yesterday our 12 year old Chow Chow, Chowder had surgery to remove what turned out to be a 9 pound splenic tumor. He seemed to recover well and his blood work looked great this morning, but about an hour after I visited him this afternoon, he passed away. I saw him at 5 o'clock and he slowly got up to greet me and tried mournfully to howl as I left him. I really, truly believe he waited to see me one last time before he passed away. I had no idea it would be the last time I saw him. My heart is incredibly sad that he died and I miss him.

The boys went to the pediatrician today and he was very pleased with how well they look and behave. We are still waiting for bloodwork to come back and we need to provide stool samples, which is a major gross yuck!, but all in all, they look good. We will begin vaccinations in about month as he doesn;t want to traumatize them anymore since yesterday they had blood draws. Even my teeny tiny Jerome, is on the growth chart for a six year old. Rich is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. ROCK ON! He also feels that since they had Mantoux TB tests that were within acceptable ranges, that he does not want to treat for TB. ROCK ON!! Jerome has a fairly good sized umbilial hernia and he wants to see what happens with increased nutrition and muscle mass before he deems surgery necessary. He sees an opthamologist next week for his crossed-eyes and we do anticipate surgery for that.

In the food department, we have now consumed 5 mangoes today, 1 honeydew, about 12 bananas, and 5 mandarin oranges. They love fruit. Oh, and speaking of fruit juices, their teeth also look pretty darn good too. Who can complain if they are eating good food? But at the store today, they ran for the candy aisle and threw in a huge bag of M&M's and three muskateers. Thank God they have good taste in candy.