Sometimes its best to wait before passing on the bad news.

I wrote a few weeks ago that our old man Rottweiler Axl had surgery to remove an oral melanoma tumor from his lip and another growth from inside his thigh. The tumor was sent out to a lab for testing and a few days later I was told by our Vet that it was malignant. Malignant meant Cancer and my first thoughts were to panic because cancer is often and usually deadly and at the age of 13, even considering the available treatments would not be good for this old boy. 

Well, today I brought Axl back to the Vet to have the stitches removed from his leg (the stitches in his lip were self-dissolving). The Vet explained that if the cancer had started to spread it would move first into his lymph nodes then to his lungs. After a close examination the Vet said that Axl's lymph nodes are not at all swollen so it looks like we got him treated before it began to spread and it looked like the Vet did a good job removing all of the tumor.

We will be keeping a close eye on Mr. Axl in the coming weeks and months and he will see the Vet if anything unusual appears. I looked up what they symptoms were, an Axl has none of them and hopefully never will. The symptoms include loss of weight, mouth odor, frequent salivation, problems with eating, blood discharge or loose teeth.

Well, that's the good news and I'm glad I did not write about the initial lab results when I got it. Now to take care of some holiday duties I have to go back to working on our new Rottie Christmas Card. I just took a few pictures and here is a sneak peek. It is unedited so some things that show will be removed, including the chin straps. I will also be taking several more pictures later this afternoon.

Hey, the kiss was a bonus.