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From AJ's family:
I'm sad to tell you that AJ died this summer. We found some small lumps under his ears - and got the bad news that it was lymphoma. The nice part of the story is that he was very comfortable, right up to the very last day. He stayed his sweet, silly self, full of energy and affection. Then, one afternoon, following his breakfast and morning walk and nap, he started to weaken. The vet told us that, with lymphoma, this sometimes occurs, where the dog remains symptom free until suddenly the kidneys, liver, lungs, etc. fail - some kind of a sudden, systemic failure. What a blessing for good, ole AJ!!! We had opted not to put him through chemo, as we were told that it would only buy him about four months and that there would not, ultimately, be a cure, just a delay of death for four months and the possibility of bad reactions to the drugs. We just couldn't put him through that, good little guy that he was. He was already being treated for some kidney issues, so we didn't want him to have to go through the stress of all those toxic drugs. So... we opted for a lower dose steroid treatment to keep the lumps from growing uncomfortable - and it really worked for the three months we kept him past his diagnosis.
Needless to say, we miss him a ton (and so does Buster!!).
Thanks again, so much, for saving AJ and giving us the chance to have such a lovable little guy to share our home with!!! If you ever need someone to sing the praises of adopting a senior dog (even into a house with a high energy younger dog) please don't hesitate to ask!!
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