Renee
Just caught up with this thread. I am so sorry to hear about your loss, however it is cool that you have a new friend.
Last weekend, our family 5 year old beagle named Aggie was hanging out with us. We noticed that one of her toes on her front paw was bigger than the others. On Monday, we took her to the vet expecting that she had stepped on something and made it swollen. The vet looked and determined it was a Mast Cell Tumor (Cancer). She also went to see a cancer doctor on Weds and confirmed that was what it was. On Friday, the Aggie underwent surgery to remove the tumor and the toe. We made it through the this past weekend as pretty busy folks taking care of our friend. We will get the results back from the pathologist late this week to determine how far along the tumor was. We are very hopeful that we caught it early and that this is the end of it.
A friend once told me that "if I was half the man my dog thinks I am - I would be doing very well". I think of that often.
Best of luck with your new friend and best of luck to all those who have lost a family friend!!
Paul