Her Heart is Hanging Out

Daisy is my old dog. She's sixteen, has arthritis and is pretty much incontinent, but she's a good dog and we love her, so we deal with her troubles as best we can. She has a benign tumor on her chest, about the size of a plum. She's not in the best of health, and the tumor didn't seem to bother her, so along with the veterinarian, I determined to just let it be.

Well, I couldn't sleep last night, so it was very late when I let Daisy out to potty before bed. She was taking longer than usual, so I went to retrieve her. It was cold and dark so when I reached down and patted her side, I couldn't see what was making her feel so sticky.

When I got her in the house, I screamed. The tumor that had been growing on her chest was HANGING OUT of her, and blood was just pouring from the wound onto my carpet, which made the matter all the worse.

I wrapped myself around Daisy and screamed for my girls to come help me. They all four came tumbling downstairs. I frantically shouted at Courtney, "Get me a towel!" She did and I released Daisy long enough to wrap the towel around her, but Annie caught a glimpse of the dangling tumor and screamed in terror, "HER HEART IS HANGING OUT!"

It was worse than a nightmare. While Courtney held the towel to Daisy's chest, I grabbed a soft, clean dishcloth and several long ace bandages that I'd used after my recent surgery. I used them to patch her temporarily together, hopped in the van, and drove Daisy to the nearest Animal Emergency Clinic, where they snipped off the tumor and sewed her up, good as new.

Turns out she'd either chewed it off or it ripped open because she caught herself on something in the yard. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it was simply terrifying seeing all that blood and the tumor hanging from sweet Daisy's chest. Poor Annie thought it was her heart.

No one got any sleep last night at my house, but the good news is that Daisy seems to feel great. She's even giving Tarzan a hard time this morning.

Here's Daisy in her "Prayer Cone" as Madeline calls it, because Daisy is alive and well and Maddie's prayers were answered:



Tired,

KA