Sad news

On Monday, we got some sad news - the reason our beloved Elwood hasn't been eating is that he has a large tumor in his stomach. Our new vet is wonderful - we dearly miss Paula, our good friend who cared for Elwood before she moved to Mississippi, and we feel lucky to have found another great veterinarian, in our neighborhood no less, that has been so sweet to Elwood. We've seen her lots in the last couple of months because nobody could figure out exactly why Elwood was losing weight. She called me on Monday to check on him, and when I told her he still wasn't eating but I had a work deadline and couldn't get in for an afternoon appointment, she said she'd see him at 6:30, which I assume is when she was supposed to go home. But instead, she stayed to check him out and took some x-rays... and when she came back in with the results, I could tell by her face that it wasn't good. She showed me that he had a mass in his stomach about the size of a golf ball. No wonder he isn't eating. She prescribed some steroids to give him an appetite and let him live a few weeks longer, but didn't make any promises. So at this point, we're just waiting to see how it goes, and will say goodbye when we feel he's in pain or not eating again.

Interestingly enough, just before we went to the vet on Monday, Elwood decided to get chummy with Charlie for the first time totally on his own, without me coaxing him:

On a brighter note, we had a wonderful time with cousins Jacob and Patrick and Aunt Devdra and Uncle John last weekend. It was so fun to have them and to let Charlie meet new family, and see Uncle John again. We spent a nice afternoon at Mt. Vernon and then cooked out at the house, which was really nice since the weather was perfect. I'm hoping Charlie takes some manners cues from his cousins, who are so well-behaved! He has lots of good role models to learn from in all his cousins. I stupidly forgot to charge my camera for the weekend, but hopefully Aunt Dev will share the photos she got of Charlie and the boys.

Here are some very recent (i.e., today) of our boy. Check out those eyelashes! They get longer every day.

Not to mention the chubby cheeks...