The Mysterious Bump.

This is the bump that led to the vet visit, and tomorrow's surgery:

I considered not sharing a picture, but then realized that there may be another dog out there with a similar growth whose owner doesn't realize that it could be something serious. Some dogs are prone to lumps and bumps as they age, and though I'd heard of mast cell tumors, I had never seen one.

Dudley is wondering why everyone is suddenly taking such an interest in his butt, when his face is so handsome.

Ohmygawsh, y'all.

THANK YOU!!

I had very mixed feelings about putting a donation button here. I didn't want anyone to feel pressured to donate to not just a stranger's dog, but a stranger's daughter's dog! When donations started coming in and I got a notice in my email, and then another, and another... I stared at the screen, somewhat dumbstruck. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Seriously, my daughter and I are almost without words. Thank you, very, very much. There is a long way to go, but honestly, as small as this blog is in the great Blogiverse, I'm just so touched that anyone clicked the button. I've never asked for financial help before, and felt quite squicky about doing this. My mind is racing, trying to figure out some way to adequately thank the people who have contributed.

I jokingly refer to my readers as The Few and The Loyal, but if I don't have a million readers like the Bigtime Bloggers, I definitely make up for it in Quality. I love you guys!

Dudley's surgery is Monday, the 20th. I don't know how long it will take for the full pathology report to come back, when we should find out if the surgery got all of the tumor. I had heard of mast cell tumors in dogs before, but honestly, I never paid any attention, because it wasn't anything I'd ever encountered before. Apparently they are sneaky, nasty little buggers, so let's hope that this was caught early, and this surgery is the end of the drama. We've done Drama too much already.

Again, thank you, thank you, a million times thank you.

Oh, Dudleydog.

My granddog Dudley had developed a lump in the last couple of weeks, and my daughter, an observant and cautious dogmom, didn't like the look of it. He saw the vet today. It's a mast cell tumor. Shit. Damn.

The good news: It was spotted very early, and fingers are crossed that it can be removed with clean margins and not return.

The bad news: The surgery will cost as much as $750, and that doesn't even include any needed follow-up care. My daughter and son-in-law work with autistic kids full time, and are paid peanuts for the hard work they do. She's in her last semester of grad school, after which she hopes to see a significant improvement in her income, but that won't happen until summer, at best. Letting this tumor go until they can afford it is not an option, so I've told her I'd lend her half the surgery cost, which is a hardship for me, too.

But, DAMN. I still have to deal with the freaking bathroom in the house they rent from me, and I don't even have a price on that little problem yet.

Note: if you are new around these parts, you may think I'm a landlady by choice and I make money off their renting the house. Um, no. The house is mortgaged and they barely cover the mortgage payment for me. We are all barely squeaking by until she graduates and gets a higher-paying job and I can sell that house. I am currently earning secretary pay at my job (and that's a totally different source of dismay and a subject for another day) and have little to spare. $750 for Dudley's cancer surgery is huge, for all of us.

So, though I'm a very little nobody blogger I'm thinking of starting a crowd funding thing for Dudley, here on the blog and elsewhere. After I figure out how to do it I'll stick a Paypal button in my sidebar, and maybe even make a Dudley page. I feel weird about doing this, but I know people do it. He's a happy, lovable dog, and only 8 years old, in the prime of his life. One way or another, we'll figure out a way to do this.

UPDATE: I've created the button and put it in my sidebar. Please don't feel obligated in any way to contribute, but if you do, we will be eternally grateful. I will provide full disclosure of any contributions and expenditures; not the donor names and amounts but money in and out, we are not going to secretly use any money raised for anything else. Right now, the balance in my Paypal account is a big $15.60, and and that, too, will go toward his medical bills.

My First Grandbaby.