The Beginning of the beginning

This is the beginning of Ernie's journey...  His journey with Lymphoma.  Ernie is a approximately 13 1/2 year old mixed breed dog.  I say approximately because I got him from a rescue shelter 12 years ago.  Well... August of 2012 to be exact.  Anyways....  I thought if i wrote about the next path in his journey it might help me to cope and handle the situation in the most positive way possible.

It really started with me noticing that Ernie was getting a bit picky about his food.  I thought maybe it was the supplement that i had been adding for months, or because he was a senior.  So I tried removing the supplement (that helped) and adding more canned.  both seemed to make a bit of difference.  And then his breathing changed.  He was on the bed one night and he was breathing very loudly.  In fact, it kind of annoyed me, but I thought - hey he's older maybe his joints are aching.  I can deal, no problem.  I felt a little guilty, but I couldn't get to sleep.  Maybe you know how that goes.  Anywys,  he ended up getting up (he doesn't really sleep on the bed all night anyway and hasn't for a long time). But that night he seemed very restless.  I heard him get up a bunch of times, and the loud breathing continued.  Kind of like he was taking sniffs.  The next morning when I gave him breakfast he looked at me as if so say 'hey, i really don't feel well!'.  I decided he needed to go to the vet.  He was still doing all his normal things.  Getting up to go outside, visiting w/ the neighbors, etc.  But i could tell something was off.  In fact I had been at my friends on Saturday and he just seemed restless ...  Just not so sure what it was.  

I was planning on going to Pinetop, AZ with a friend who was coming from MI.  So I absolutely wanted to be sure that he was okay.  I guess I kind of thought that we would discuss his diet and his finicky attitude (in denial, of course it couldn't be lack of appetite).

So I made an appointment for the next day - the 25th of September.