I'm not sure when her symptoms began, but she began slowing down in the last year. I attributed this to her age and took her for shorter, more frequent walks. She began having diarrhea in November 2005. At first, I tried the usual home remedies: changing food, bland diet, otc medications. When none of these helped, I took her to the vet. Her stool sample was negative for parasites and her blood work came back normal. He prescribed a medication to kill bacteria that might be present in her digestive system. After this did not work and the diarrhea persisted, I took her to a specialist. An ultrasound and needle aspirate confirmed that she had lymphoma. She was considered to be in Stage 4A with the primary site being her small intestine. She had several tumors and the prognosis was not good.

The choice of treatments was a difficult choice for me. But because of her age, I decided not to give her chemotherapy. Instead, she was treated with a regimen of Prednisone. Almost immediately, her stool returned to normal. She kept her appetite but occasionally vomited. For some reason, she began eating strange things, like debris on the sidewalk or toilet paper. The vomiting became more frequent and her energy level varied from day to day. I began feeding her Hill's Canine N/D and eliminated dry food altogether.

In the short time that the cancer was in remission, I took her to parks and beaches that she always enjoyed. I spent as much time with her as I could and took pictures. As the prednisone doses were tapering down, her condition declined. The vet suggested increasing the doses again which helped for a short time. However, the cancer was too advanced. Magen fought as hard as she could until she couldn't fight any more.

On February 14, she stopped being able to eat and keep food down. She refused her food and would only drink water. For the remainder of that week, it was a struggle to get her to eat baby food or chicken broth.  It was not enough to sustain her and her weight plummeted. It was difficult to watch her become visibly thinner.

Finally, on Saturday February 18, she was put to sleep. At that time, she weighed 66 pounds and I could not let her starve any more. Even in her last moments she was sweet, giving me kisses at the vet's office. She never showed any signs that she was in pain but I know she had to be.

Losing Magen was extremely difficult for me. But now I know that she lived a full, happy life, and now is in a better place. It was helpful to me to read these testimonials when I was dealing with her disease. My advice to anyone going through this is to make choices based on what you think is best for your dog. The quality time that you spend with your companion in those last days is priceless.

In the days since her death, I've learned that there are many websites out there where you can go to get beautiful pet memorials and urns. It's a great way to have a keepsake along with all of your pictures and great memories.