Ho Ho Ho!

  Last Saturday, Dec 13th, I trucked myself, ( literally, I drove
my 2002 Ford Ranger), out to the Keene, NH Petco so that I
could put on the Santa suit and pose for pictures with peoples
pets. All in the spirit of Christmas and raising money for the
Ferretwise shelter. There was supposed to be several of us
there, I volunteered to be Santa, and I was supposed to have
2 or 3 elves, but due to the nasty ice storm the previous day,
some helpers had to stay home. It ended up being, Dino,
Alicia, and I and a petco employee to man the printer.

  There were actually people lined up and waiting with their
pets when I came out of the changing room so we got right
to business. I haven't got a final count from Alicia, but we
must have taken at least 30 photo's. There were a whole
bunch of dogs of various breeds, 3 cats, and a bunny. There
were also a couple of children thrown in for good measure.
A couple of families did family photo's with their pet and
Santa. Alicia got to be a better photographer as the day went
on. We were there from 11 am until 5 pm. I took the beard
off in between, with Alicia keeping a watch out for children
going by. I wasn't going to be the one to dash beliefs about
Santa.
  I really enjoyed the day being the big man. I know it
was to take pet pictures, but the smiles I got from little
children when they walked by made me feel really good. One
little guy kept steering his father around the store to come by
me again, and he had a big smile on his face. I really liked
that. One nice lady told me I was too young and too skinny
to be Santa, I thanked her. I am happy I was able to make
a few peoples day and maybe Christmas a little brighter.

In which JJ gets better

  When we were at the Children's Museum in October, I found
fairly good sized lump on JJ's neck that I hadn't noticed
before. It most definitely was not a good thing. So after
the day of fun, ( read previous post ), we went home and
I made an appointment to see Dr Guerino. Actually, it was
an appointment I had for Ozzie and Lizbeth that I switched
to JJ. They couldn't all go together cuz JJ is a ferret that
only likes people, with a very select few ferret exceptions.
We went on down at the assigned time and JJ got a strange
room to explore, rapture! He was so excited he was war
dancing all over the room, stopping in a corner to leave
the requisite present. I never have to bring a stool sample
in a bag, I just bring it in the ferret, it's easier that way.

  After a while Dr G came in and we got down to business
after the obligatory hello's. JJ was pocked, prodded, and
examined for a while. The doctor did not like the look or
feel of the new addition to JJ's neck. He took JJ to get a
sample for biopsy. So a few days needed to be waited for
to get the results, in the meantime we had JJ on some
antibiotics just in case. When the results came back,
they were of course bad, it was lymphoma, which was
not really a surprise, but I had hoped not.

  This left a couple of options open, chemo therapy, which
I didn't really like the idea of. It would just make his
quality of life not to good and for the moment, JJ didn't
know he was sick. He was the same happy boy he had
always been. The other option was a course of prednisone,
Which would possibly give him ulcers after a while if
He got some on an empty stomach. But I had talked to a
couple of people who had had luck with it. The other
option was to do nothing, but I went for the prednisone.
I just make sure he has eaten something before he gets
it. He loves the fact he gets all the stuff to eat. The
easiest is right after the morning soup. It is also made
easy by the fact that they compound the medicine with
a watermelon flavor that JJ loves, so getting it in him is
no chore.

  The dosage was .5ml twice a day for 2 weeks, then .5ml
once a day for 2 weeks. I was so pleased when after just
4 or 5 days the lump was mostly gone! Now after 4 weeks
it's like it was never there. I know the cancer is still in there
somewhere, but I think it is in recession for a while at least.
So with any luck JJ will be around for a good long while,
war dancing, eating treats and Greg's special blend soup!