Just a couple weeks ago Chester the Dalmatian went to the vet, and we really thought he wasn’t going to come back home. He had a bad cough, so bad he couldn’t sleep, he just coughed and gagged all the time. The vet had tried giving him some medicine, even kept him for a week while we were on vacation, but he just got worse and worse. Finally after a miserable night where he had choked and gagged into exhaustion, we took him in again, thinking if they couldn’t help him, that was the end.

The vet x-rayed him and saw congestion in his lungs, and a possible tumor. He kept him all day and treated him with a bunch of stuff, and sent him home with a slew of medicine to continue taking. Within the week he was doing much better. When he went back for another x-ray a week later, he was noticeably improved. Now it’s been a few weeks. The vet is keeping him on some of the medicines permanently, but there has been no coughing. So Chester seems to have dodged the bullet once again. He is very old, and his legs barely work right. Last week he fell down in the driveway because he couldn’t get his footing in the gravel, and I had to pick him up and carry him back up to the porch. But he’s still going, hobbling around, and he still LOVES playing with Barclay. So go Chester, go! Keep hanging in there boy!