21/10/2026
This picture was taken right before Kona went into emergency surgery earlier this afternoon.
Dear Dog Mums,
Life is short. Hug your dogs. Don’t let the less-than-perfect recalls, the less-than-perfect manners, or the big emotions in public take away from the joy of having your dog beside you.
Work on those things, yes. But don’t put off enjoying your life together until everything is perfect. Because it will never, ever be perfect.
And being here, together, healthy enough to enjoy another ordinary day? That matters so much more.
While I was trying to make sense of what was happening, the very dedicated team at Daisy Vet here in Bucharest gave me something to hold on to. They told me to think of it this way: perhaps a stomach infection had caused her to vomit, and perhaps, in the process, her spleen had ruptured - leading them to discover a tumour we otherwise wouldn’t have known was there. Maybe this was how we got the chance to find it and remove it before it had spread. “So you think about that while we go into surgery.”
They couldn’t know exactly what they would find until they operated. There was a possibility it had spread to her liver. I was terrified of what that might mean.
BUT.
The doctor has just told me that the tumour was confined to her spleen, with no visible spread to the other organs. They were able to remove her spleen along with the entire tumour.
We’ll be sending it to the lab to find out whether it’s benign. There are still answers we’re waiting for. But tonight, this is the news I’m holding on to.
Kona is still in post-op and is expected to come home for the night.
So… hug your dogs. Enjoy them as they are, in this most imperfect moment. Don’t let everything you’re still working on together become all you see.
Tomorrow is never guaranteed. And today, with them beside us, is so very precious.
P.S.: To the entire team at Daisy Vet , and to the doctors who stayed after hours to perform emergency surgery on Monster Kona: thank you for your skill, your care, and for giving her your time when she needed it most. She is such a huge part of my world. Thank you for taking care of her and for holding the hope for me when I was losing it.
