At the beginning of the month, the Cane Corso breed became fully recognized by the American Kennel Club. While it's a highly debated issue for Corso owners and enthusiasts, I think it'll be kinda cool to see them on Animal Planet in the big-time dog shows. Here's an issue of the AKC Gazette with a story on the breed.
I already posted about our 4th of July and my quick weekend trip down to Southern California to visit my traveling husband.
When he got back, I had one week to spend with him. Woo hoo!! We spent that weekend celebrating my dad's 61st birthday. Unfortunately, Josh was working the day of Legion's second dog show. I got horrible pictures from this one because he was freaking out just a bit. He'd calm down after a minute with the show handler but as soon as he'd see me, he wanted to G-O.
This time, he was up against three other Corso's and he ended up winning Best Male and Best of Winners. I still don't really have any idea what those mean though... But the judge absolutely LOVED him. In talking with our breeder and other "show people," we'll probably enter him into just a handful of shows for another year or so and then we'll hit the circuit hard. He's the equivilent of a 9-year old right now and has a whole lotta growing to do between now and then. We were only able to enter him into one show, on just one day out of a three-day event, and we were told that we probably could've Championed him if we'd entered him into all of the shows on all three days. Darn it...
Here are the not-so-great show pics:
A Presa Canario was also entered into Legion's same group. Josh and I recently had the opportunity to talk with a breeder of this dog and have put it on our "wish list" of dogs we'd like to sometime own. It looks similar to the Corso, just with a tail.
And then Josh left again for a two-week trip to Burbank... :(
While he was gone, I found a small lump on Hayden. This one was different than any that he or Abbi had had before so I watched it to make sure it went away or didn't grow in size. Well, it didn't go away but it didn't seem to grow. After making sure I wasn't just being paranoid or over-obsessive (yeah, like that even sounds like me!!) and checking with Josh, Hayden gets an appointment at the vet. It's a new vet for us and this is an important appointment so I'm nervous on both counts. Since Boxers are prone to all sorts of lumps and bumps, the vet did an aspiration to determine if it was a benign hystiocytoma or possibly a malignant mast cell tumor. A couple days, some Prednisone for Hayden, and 10 chewed-down fingernails later, the vet confirmed that it was, in fact, a cancerous tumor. An appointment was made for him to have it removed and I was a wreck. Josh was gone and Hayden had no idea that anything was wrong with him!!
The vet did the surgery and was very pleased with the results of the chest x-rays that were done to determine if the cancer had spread to his lungs. YIKES! His lungs were clear but the tumor that was removed had to be sent out to a lab to determine what grade the tumor was (grade 1-5) and if the margins were clear. The vet wasn't certain he'd be able to obtain clear margins because of where the tumor was located: on the side of Hayden's ribcage, right under his armpit, and because Hayden doesn't have an ounce of fat or extra skin on him! When I picked Hayden up that afternoon, he was the same bouncy, happy, silly boy that he always is. Which made me so sad to think that he might be really sick... I tried to give him special attention and love on him a little more but he was having none of it. He just wanted to play!! He's got about a 4-inch stitched incision on the side of his chest right now but seems none the worse for wear. I want his attitude!
We heard back yesterday from the vet and received the most awesome news: the tumor was completely removed and it was only a Grade 1. He said that it was most likely because we'd caught it so early. See, Josh, my paranoia and always checking over the dogs paid off!! We have to wean him off of the Predisone for the next week and constantly keep checking him for any more lumps for the rest of his life. The unfortunate thing with mast cell tumors is that once they get one, they'll get another, and another, and another, etc.
Another good thing is that I'll have my husband back for most of the weekend. But with the good, comes the bad: he leaves again on Monday for at least two weeks. But with the bad, comes the kinda good: he'll only be in the Bay Area so I'll be able to see him this time.
So far, the only highlight for August is that Dan, Tami, and the kids will be here!!! We'll see how the rest of the month shapes up.
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