Stacy Horn

The results of the second biopsy came back and his tumor has been upgraded to Grade III, the worst. We have an appointment with the oncologist on Wednesday. I’m feeling very discouraged. I posted a rant about the place I’m taking him to, but I took it down. I’m going to wait until this is all over before posting about the service and care they provided.

But here is the picture I included with that post. I walked crosstown yesterday and noticed that no other neighborhood I passed through decorates for Halloween the way the West Village does. Yay us!! (Although I can’t take any credit, of course.)

Finney is still doing very well. The incision seems to be healing nicely, no redness or swelling, and he continues to eat well, and shows no signs of pain or discomfort, except when he goes to lay down. He’s clearly careful about which side he lays down on.

You can see how much they shaved him, and how naked he looks. He’s like a cat with his pants off. That’s a fentanyl patch on his hind leg. The other shaved spots are for iv’s.

I’m getting nervous, because the building that always has a mind-blowingly great Halloween tableau in their front yard does not have one this year (the corner of 11th Street and West 4th). I’m hoping that they’re just waiting until this last week to put it up. I’m really hoping the person responsible for them hasn’t died or moved away.

I loved this Halloween display in the window of a hair salon.

He seems relatively okay. He’s got a great big, mother of a long incision, and he’s very wobbly on his feet, but he’s eating and drinking, and if he was in a lot of pain he would be hiding out somewhere, not eating. I’m very stressed however, and I’m trying to relax. The box that I put out to give Finney a place to get away from Bleecker has been appropriated by the tormenter himself (scroll down to see).

Finney’s tumor is relatively small, and hasn’t progressed. Given his age, and his arthritis, and his weird collapsed foot, the vet thinks his best outcome would be from removing the tumor as best they can, and he thinks they have a good shot a removing all of it cleanly, and not doing an amputation.

I’m not saving money, but this is the best possible news except, “We were wrong, he doesn’t have cancer!” Now all I have to do is schedule the surgery. I could do it as early as Thursday, but I kinda want to give him a break and the vet said it would be okay to wait until next week. Still, I have to believe the sooner this is done the better.

Update: We’re doing this on Thursday.

More Halloween decorations in the neighborhood.