Update on Dende

Dende and the kiddos

Many of you are probably wondering how our dear dog Dende is doing these days.

If you recall one year ago (on Valentine’s Day) Dende was diagnosed with Lymphoma.  Here’s my initial post from last February:  http://amadeusacademy.com/family/?p=2702

We decided that since he seems to pretty much have plateaued that if he made it a year we would take him back in to get checked.  So that’s what we did.  And wouldn’t you know, the vet said he can’t find any evidence that he still has Lymphoma.  No more lumps.  But he also recommended that we keep him on his steroids since they appear to be working!

The medicine still makes him unbelievably hungry and thirsty, but we’re getting used to that now.  The one thing that we just can’t get used to is his incredible stinky-ness.  He is SO gassy it’s literally suffocating.  (Kylene and Justin can vouch from when they stayed here over Christmas!) So, we’re trying to figure out how to help.  We’ve switched his food, smashed up his food, added water to his food, tried taking long walks with him and even giving him Beano!  All to no avail…

But it’s still nice to have him around.  And Josiah just loves him.  I’m glad we’ll have pictures of them together.  If Josiah is on the floor he’ll roll to where Dende is and try to “love him” (a.k.a. pull his hair/tail/ears/whatever he can reach).  And he just laughs and laughs when Tim does tricks with Dende.

So, here’s to hoping we’ll have him around for a while longer yet.  Oh and also that we can figure out how to make him less stinky.  Ideas anyone?