In March 2016, Rory was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Treatments for bladder cancer in dogs right now are only palliative - they lessen the symptoms, maybe slow down growth, but very, very rarely put a dog in remission.
Rory's treatment was the best last few months on earth we could give her. We took a weekend, away from Zoey, and went to Provincetown where she stayed in a hotel, walked as far as she possibly could into the ocean, fished seaweed from the waves, went to a restaurant, made lots of new friends, and laid in the water, letting the ocean waves wash over her.
We went to old favorites: Blue Hills, Arnold Arboretum (with JP Licks after), Delaney (her favorite place to swim as a puppy - even breaking through the ice in the middle of winter), Habitat, the Nature Trail in Skaneateles, Rock Meadow, Fresh Pond, Mount Holyoke (the physical mountain) and Mount Holyoke (the college - where she swam in Upper Lake where she learned to swim and fell in love with the water). We discovered new places, too: Breakheart, Punkatasset in Concord where she almost squashed a snake, more places on Cape Cod, and Cat Rock Park.
She ate lots of ice cream and came to work with me when she could. She saw most of her favorite people and I think she personally tried to greet every human she came in contact with her last few weeks.
In the end, we got 6 months after learning her diagnosis - we could call it 8 from when we started seeking vet care for her symptoms. No time would ever have been enough with her, but maybe for another dog in another time, there will be a treatment option that could give someone else more time with their dog - or even the hope of remission.
