This colorful tiny lizard was at the foot of the tree where I toss food out for the birds this morning. When I first saw him I thought he was a plastic toy, as those kinds of things pop up in my yard on a regular basis from the kids that lived here years and years ago. But he was real enough and very pretty. I've never seen one like him before.

First off is an update on Alex. I'm glad I had that moment swimming on Saturday night because the past two days have pretty much been hell. Alex had a bad reaction to the chemo treatment and spent two miserable days not eating, having diarrhea, and basically lying around feeling crappy. It was scary. We plied him with anti-nausea meds and anti-diarrheal meds. Last week he had one off day; this week he had two. The vet said this is not uncommon at all and we just have to ride it through. Thank goodness today he is much better, eating a little and barking and wagging his tail again. He's not on the top of his game, but way better than he was. I try to let it not affect my life but it does. My stomach churns and I worry that we are doing the right thing. After all, Alex can't tell us if it's all worth it or not. It weighs on me. Heavily.

The vet visit last Friday went well and he declared Alex in partial remission from the lymphoma. He said that one set of lymph nodes on the front of his chest were still a little more enlarged than they should be but not by much. He was thrilled with his progress! Yeah! Now I can't even feel his nodes they are so far down. So, that's the good news. As long as he has more good days than bad ones I think he'd agree it's worth it.

We have a bear in the neighborhood. A big one if the information coming from two of neighbors is correct. Aileen said he looked like a big black refrigerator. Kim has seen it too, but not me. Not yet.

The fox (or a fox) is still living under the deck. I saw it just the other day and it looks bushy-tailed and healthy. It has not been a problem at all except for the turkey foot I found in the yard. I was wondering why I hadn't seen any turkeys in a very long time. I'm afraid the fox is dining rather well. I can't do anything about that. It's nature at work. 

I have to fish a frog out of the pool quite frequently in the morning. 

Not much is going on right now. I am in the role of care giver and there isn't much space for me. I don't like it, but there it is.

Hang in there. Sorry you’re going through this experience. I have never treated a dog with cancer but I can understand why you’d struggle with it. It seems like the treatments are working well, which is great—imagine how conflicted you would be if the outcome weren’t so apparently positive.

What on earth kind of lizard is that?! I never saw anything that colorful while living in New Jersey! I wonder if you found something really special…?

Thanks, Steve. Yes, I imagine if the treatments weren’t working and he was miserable it would be much worse. It’s just hard to watch him feeling so poorly.

I did more research and put up another blog post about the lizard that isn’t a lizard.

You said that the vet uses different drugs for the chemo.  Hopefully, the drugs he used on this last treatment won’t be used again??  Chemo is tough stuff and kills off the bad cells so a little rough going would be expected.  Hang in there!!  You can get through this - and Alex will be the better for it.

C, yes, a different drug each time. I don’t know if it will be used again or not, but I know they did say it can cause and has been known to cause GI problems. The first drug they used was the mildest.  I’m hanging, but it’s hard to watch. Alex is tough, I know he can do this. In all other respects he’s a very healthy dog!!