So sweet Husband is seeing the new Star Trek Movie twice today.  It was about to be three, once with his developers, once with BFJ and myself, and then this evening with our nice friends from Unwired Nation at the Bob Bullock History Museum shindig.  Instead, I decided to work today and just go this evening,  and BFJ decided to go with Hubby and the developers, so now he is going only twice.

I am excited about seeing the movie today, and the party going on tonight at the Bob Bullock History Museum sounds like fun.  Yay Star Trek!

Yesterday was a LONG day!  It started with Emma Lou rolling in something disgusting in the backyard, and needing a bath.  Her bath culminated in all the dogs getting baths, which was not part of their Sunday plan, but it’d been a while.  Once all the dogs were bathed and glaring at me from under the covers of the bed, I started some dog laundry and ran to the grocery store to grab stuff for dinner.

Let me just tell you, 4 dogs, a bunny and a bird, means lots of laundry.  I washed all the dog beds, bunny beds, the birds bedding, and the cover that goes over the bird cage at night.  Then I lugged all the dog crates outside for a good scrub and air dry.  In between, I was running into the garage and bagging up the 20 pounds of duck necks I’d bought for the dogs as it was thawing out. (Can I just tell you I hate big frozen blocks of animals parts that I have to thaw and dig through?  YUCK!)  Once the crates were drying and most of the bedding was finished, I scrubbed out the bunny condo, collapsed it down, and moved it into the garage.  Then the dining room got vacuumed and mopped, all the dog beds were put back together, and the crates brought in from outside and put back.  Once that was done, my office where Norbert is now living, was vacuumed and his litter box cleaned, plus, I got him fed and medicated with both his antibiotic and pain meds.

Besides duck necks, I made veggie slop and thawed out a tube of beef organ blend, and got them partitioned into ice cube trays for easy small dog portioning day to day.  I thawed out a 20 pound tube of ground turkey, and got that reorganized into smaller portions, while also roasting a chicken for dinner, with spaghetti and a salad. I cleaned up the dinner mess, then fed the dogs, cleaned THAT mess up, and then FINALLY got a chance to read some of my new book.  Whew!

The good news?  All the dogs are clean and have clean beds to sleep in, my kitchen is clean, there is lots of frozen dog supplies accessible and ready for feeding, and I feel good that it’s all done.  Hopefully, next Sunday won’t be quite as busy.  Tonight?  The master bedroom and bathroom, and a continuation of laundry, except now it will be human laundry.

So, I’ve been having guilt about Norbert.  He was diagnosed with the big “C” in January of this year.  The cancer is located in his shoulder area around his left front leg, and has become a rather large lump.  When he was diagnosed, after 4 days of talking with the rabbit Vet I decided to not amputate his front leg.  Since Norbert is so small, only 2.5 pounds, he felt the cancer was probably already in his chest cavity, and amputating his leg would not gain him any time, but probably cause him a lot of pain and time recuperating, when he could be living the good life eating his veggies and being spoiled until the end.  The vet and I decided to put him on pain meds (which helped) and evaluate and change his pain meds as time went on.  We honestly didn’t think Norbert would live that long.

Well, it’s been 3 months, Lilly has passed on, and Norbert is now living free in my home office.  He is slower than he used to be, but he’s also 8 years old, which is senior for a bunny, and has one front leg he doesn’t use.  He is still eating good, and can get his move on quickly when I come in with his meals.  So now I’m beginning to have guilt.  I feel like I should have had his leg amputated.  It’s been three months and he’s still doing as well as he was in January.  Which is pretty good for an old bunny.  If I’d had it done, he would be recovered and and his fur would be growing in.

I talked to JH yesterday to get his thoughts since he tends to be my sounding board for things like this.  He doesn’t judge me about spending lots of money on what most people feel is “just a bunny”, but is honest if he thinks I should move forward or not based on the quality of life the animal in question will have.  I think I have decided to take Norbert to the vet when I get back from my business trip, and talk to the vet again and make a decision.  Right now, I’m leaning towards having the amputation done.  I think it will give him more room to move around, get rid of what is basically a useles leg, and get rid of that lump growing on his side.  Then, once the vet is in there, we can tell what the status of his cancer actually is, and get a better idea of time frames.

However, I’m still hesitating because am I doing this for him, or because I just lost Lilly, and thought of losing him so close behind her is terrifying?  Am I contemplating throwing all this medicine at him hoping for some kind of miracle, when really I should leave him in peace?  My biggest fear when I make these types of decisions for any of my animals, is am I doing it for them, or am I doing it because I’m a selfish human and can’t bear to let them go?

Thoughts?  Comments?

UPDATE:

The Vet agrees with the decision I made three months ago to not ampute Norberts front leg.  So we are going to leave him be.  On another note, since he has been so sneezy, and then got snotty while I was in Peru, we did a culture and started him on some antibiotics which seems to be helping.