Asheville Blue Ridge Runner: Our First Run Together In 5 Weeks

Mural on exam room wall at REACH Emergency Animal Hospital

We were finally able to get out for a run together for the first time in over 5 weeks. We've been busy with sharing the responsibilities of being full time care givers to our furry family member Shadow since having surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his leg. This has meant putting our running on the back burner for a while ...way back on the very back burner, not that we've minded...

We noticed a lump on Shadow's hind leg that went through several cycles of increasing and decreasing in size. Our vet told us to keep an eye on it, and when it got enlarged again, she would take a sample of the tissue to find out what it is. So that's what we did, and the results came back as a cancerous Mast Cell Tumor.

The tumor itself was fairly small, maybe the size of a quarter, but because this type of cancer grows out "shoots", the surgeon had to remove as wide of an area around it as he possibly could to get it all.

The surgery was successful; however, the recovery was a long and slow process which the vet warned us about ahead of time. The task was assigned to us to keep the stitches from coming out, keep the wound clean and keep Shadow from running, jumping and going up and down stairs. Shadow's used to running about 5 miles a day. So, long story short and skipping all the gory details, we are happy to say now after hours of sleepless nights, multiple rounds of antibiotics, pain medication, sedation, benadryl, and upset tummy medicine, Shadow is well on the road to recovery and feeling like his old self again.

We are so happy everything has turned out so well. We want to make every moment with him special and filled with as many belly rubs as he wants!