Ellen M., the board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist who adopted Snuggles from us last fall, emailed us at the end of March with some disturbing news: Snuggles had a melanoma cancer in her jaw and would be undergoing surgery in a few days. A board-certified veterinary surgeon trained in oncology was going to do the surgery, which Ellen said would mean "losing part of her upper jaw … from the right canine tooth back to the right 3rd premolar (the big tooth on the upper jaw)."
Of course, as upsetting as that was for us to hear, we were also relieved that if this were going to happen to Snuggles, at least her Mom was a veterinary specialist who handles these kinds of medical crises on a routine basis!
A couple of days later, Ellen emailed to say the surgery had gone well and there had been no issues with anesthesia. Ellen wrote, "She has a permanent snarl on the right side of her face. I'm sure when the swelling goes down and her hair grows back, she will look better. And she doesn't care about her looks so I won't either. I am googling famous women pirates (if there are any) for her new nickname. She has had this little growl that she does when she's excited that sounds like a pirate saying 'AARRGH'. With her missing eye and now her new scar, she seems to be transforming into a pirate."
I replied to Ellen, saying "We applied the pirate theme to blind Widget, too … who also has a growl that sounds like 'aarrghhh!' We’ve been calling her a pirate for years, ever since she lost her other eye, and she acts like one, too — 'what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.' Snuggles and Widget have more in common than you’d think!"
Well, now that Snuggles' hair has grown back over the surgery site — she's recovered completely and is doing great — Ellen dressed her up in a pirate outfit and sent us that adorable photo this past Sunday. The only problem now is that Widget wants an outfit like that too!
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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
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