This is supposed to be a notification post that the second Joshsmut, The Dinosaur Heist, came out today. The first book in the series, The Russians Came Knocking, is currently free on Amazon Kindle.
But it’s not just about that, as I’m pretty stressed out, and I’m a writer, and stressed-out writers tend to write about the causes of stress and stress-adjacent issues.
About a month ago, the dogs started powerbarfing. Turned out to be a stomach flu. But while I had Dog at the vet’s, I had them take an x-ray of a lump we found on his foreleg the night before when we were trying to figure out if they had gotten bitten by something venomous. It was a small lump, and the vet assured me that it was most likely a bruise.
It wasn’t.
The vet called me into the room, and showed me that one of the bones in Dog’s foreleg was…gone. Just gone. Bone cancer is pretty common in Rotties, which is why we took the x-ray to be sure, but everybody in the room was still blindsided by this. Over the past month, we’ve taken all the necessary steps to make sure the cancer is isolated to that location, the ultrasounds and bloodwork and whatnot. By now, we’re confident that amputation and chemo are the best methods to prolong Dog’s life, and ensure he’ll have improved overall quality-of-life until he finally drops dead from eating too many bees.
So, on Monday…well. Chop-chop, and all that.
I’m having a hell of a hard time with the concept of maiming and poisoning him for his own good. That’s my thing to manage. Lots of dogs do great as tripods, and as a friend told me, he’ll be inadvertently hilarious for about a month until he gets the hang of it. He will be fine: I honestly, truly don’t need alternative suggestions for care or treatment. I’m just extremely anxious, and I’ve decided to share that, and now please go buy some books so we can cut off Dog’s leg and get back to a rather wobbly normal.
(Yes, of course I’ll post photos of Captain Hippity-Hop, but most of these will be on Twitter.)
K.B. SPANGLER 
Love and hugs to everyone and speedy recovery wishes to the new tripod! ❤️
I’d dearly love to buy the latest Joshsmut and by doing so give you money, but I shall never do business with Bezos’ bloated box of exploited employees.
When you have the spoons, and only then, could you pretty please set up an alternative?
Meanwhile, best healing thoughts to Dog and virtual hugs on offer, should you wish to accept them.
I think one of the alternatives is ‘sponsor her on patreon’.
…which is a thing I cannot do, because reasons 😦
So click on the button at the top of the comic that says “store” and buy something through bigcartel instead.
Loved the book.
I hope everything goes well for you.
If Dog and you wouldn’t be opposed to it, please smother him with hugs and kisses from me!
Bone cancer is the worst – you’re doing the right thing by your dog. Best of luck to Dog with the healing and the wobbling.
In Sept 2017 I was given the choice between giving up a sick eye that was not currently working, or enduring months of painful treatment with a pessimistic prognosis. The next afternoon I went from blinding pain, to near normalcy – with less depth perception.
These are terribly difficult decisions to make, but can change life for the better.
And yes, with my own brand of “wobbly”, I have bumped into things and had to guess, reach, repeat many times.