We picked Henry up about an hour ago. We expected him to want to sleep. Instead, he hopped out of his carrier (doing a face plant into the carpet), awkwardly scrambled to the kitchen, and ate some food. All of that made me feel wonderful! Here’s a picture of him, chilling on the loveseat. Which, by the way, he jumped onto himself.
We have had Henry for about 12 years. We can only guess his age because he was homeless and underweight when we got him. This summer we noticed his foot was swelling up near his dew claw. It grew to about the size of a marble. It didn’t seem to pain him, and he didn’t limp. When it began bleeding, we took him in to the vet. When we had first found Henry he had been declawed. The vet said it looked like it was a botched declaw on the dew claw, and we agreed to have the growth along with 2/3 of his toe removed. The surgery went fine, and the vet said they found what looked like a warped little nail in the tissue. She also said they kept a biopsy of tissue that they could send out in the future if we should choose to do that.
Henry’s foot healed up nicely, and we were thrilled. For about 3 weeks. Then, we noticed it looked like the growth might be growing back. We decided to wait and watch it. A week later it began to bleed. We took him back to the vet who said it was probably cancer. We paid to have the biopsy sent off and proceeded to wait. Four days later, which was last Friday, the vet called to tell us to tell us it was soft tissue sarcoma. His leg would need to come off. My husband and I made the appointment for Monday, which is today.
As of tonight, Henry made it through surgery, and they say he is doing well. The vet says we should be able to bring him home tomorrow afternoon. I am nervous about seeing him, and about seeing the incision site. I am also worried about his age and how well he will be able to return to “his old self”. Our fingers are crossed for a speedy recovery, but we know there are no guarantees