Then the week before Christmas I noticed his gums had just suddenly turned chalk white.  Which is a very bad sign when you are dealing with any kind of anemia.  Took him into the vet right away.  His blood count had dropped dangerously low.  We took him home and tried to make him comfortable but by Friday we knew it was time to let him go.  It was such a shock despite knowing about his illness because his bloodwork just a few months prior had been the best ever since he had been diagnosed.  And I have a lot of guilt thinking maybe we should have done something different or wishing I had spent more time with him (the week prior to him dying we had company and I had spent a lot of time with them and the very last week of his life I was working a lot of OT).  I just try to remember all the other time I spent with him and hope he knows how much he was loved by us and just how much we miss him.

It was a rough year for us as in just over a 13 month period we lost our 13 yr old rescue german shepherd mix to cancer, our 16 yr old Persian cat due to old age, our 16 yr old Brittany to old age, and then Tanner who was only 5 ½.