Favorite Fruit

There’s no good way to say this, so I’m just going to do it: Clementine passed away last week. At the beginning of January she had been diagnosed with aggressive mammary cancer and an enlarged heart. The vet said to hope for the best but cherish all the moments, so that’s exactly what we did. We walked, she had whipped cream for dessert after every meal, we snuggled.

The Wednesday before she passed, she skipped a meal. By Friday she had completely stopped eating and would barely move – that’s how we knew. We spent the next two days snuggled up quietly, and she passed peacefully that Sunday morning, surrounded by her family in her home. She was around 18 years old.

Clementine was my first senior rescue, my first NYACC pull, and the driving force behind much of what I do rescue-wise now. Without Clementine, there would be no Eddie. We wouldn’t have met the ladies of Beastly Rescue Inc., or fostered Matty, Brandy, or Dean. I wouldn’t have re-directed the Draper Therapies Draped in Health Blanket project and named a blanket after (you guessed it) Clementine. She was a best friend to Bella after Joe passed (and Bella so desperately needed the friendship), a sister to Roo Frank when he needed someone small to tumble with, and a baby sitter for Sioux when she was learning to be out of her crate.

She was everyone’s favorite fruit. A sassy old broad, a kind soul, a best friend. Our house seems very empty without her, as quiet as she was. We will miss our toothless little piglet very much. I am so grateful that we were the last stop on her life’s journey, although no time ever would have been enough.

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Fat bottomed girls, you make the rockin’ world go ‘round. 🍑 The news wasn’t good on Friday. Clem’s lump is indeed mammary cancer. It’s probably fast-growing and to remove it would mean a massive abdominal resection (basically a mastectomy) with no guarantee that the margins could be clean enough for her to be deemed cancer-free. A slightly enlarged heart complicates things further, as does the fact that we have no real way of knowing for sure if she’s spayed (this becomes a problem because if hormones are feeding the tumor, it will just keep coming back). The good news, if any could be had, is that it has not spread to her lungs and she is in no pain or discomfort. The plan is to recheck the lump and her heart in 4 weeks and revisit surgery (we don’t want to put her through the drama/pain of surgery and healing if the odds aren’t good, thus robbing her of valuable feeling-good time). There’s also a chance the tumor could grow slowly and nothing happens and we get our girl for a year or more without any intervention. Needless to say, continued good thoughts for the piglet. 🐷 #rescuedogs #cancersucks #spayandneuter #seniordog #nyaccsurvivor #queen #freddiemercury #rescuedogsofinstagram #seniordogsrule #beastlynyc

A post shared by Roo Frank (@the_official_roo_frank) on Jan 6, 2020 at 9:26am PST