I had mixed feelings about writing this post. Who wants to pull up a post on Golden Kali and see sad news. Right?! But then, Kali came to mind. I “heard” her “voice” reminding me that when we started this blog over 12 years ago it was to chronicle her new life in America. On the initial post I wrote”:

“This is Kali’s story, and to some degree mine, from the time she arrived in America and joined our family.”

From there we moved to the Sierra Nevada Foothills and added two more Goldens, Kloe and Koda, to our pack. During the years the tagline of the Golden Kali blog evolved from “Kali’s New Life in America”, to “Kali’s New Life In The Mountains”. Then more recently “Life Without Kali”, and currently”Life With The Red Girls”.

As I reflect on those taglines they invoke many memories and emotions. The thrill of adopting Kali straight from Taiwan. Two years later Holly and I undertook a major life change by moving to the the mountains; and added puppy Kloe to the pack just weeks before we moved! A couple of years later we adopted our wild child Koda. And then of course Kali’s passing on New Years Day 2022 and life with just two pups – the Red Girls.

The bog evolved from there, and we did too. But that was always the baseline. To chronicle my life with our pups. The good, the bad, and the sad.

The sad: We recently learned that Koda has a large mass in her chest.

There were some complicating circumstances shortly before we learned of her condition where she wasn’t eating and/or throwing up what she did eat. For several weeks before that she was displaying a coughing and gagging sound off and on. Our vet suggested blood work. The results showed elevated calcium levels. The obvious next step was X-Rays which clearly showed the large mass in her chest. A complication from the mass was an dilated esophagus making it less effective to move food to the stomach. The mass also interacted with a nerve which caused Horners Syndrome. Geesh!

The good news, at least for now, is that she is still experiencing good quality of life.

Our vet and trusted friend prescribed a steroid and cancer medication hoping to target the mass and slow down the growth and perhaps even cause it to shrink. It should also help with the dilated esophagus. So far so good. She is doing well. I have not heard her gag in many days. So our wild child is mostly back to her normal self, albeit a little less wild than she used to be. But some of that we attribute to her age. At eight she is finally growing out of puppyhood! 😅

The hope and goal is that for some period of time she can maintain good quality of life with no pain or discomfort. When that changes we’ll cross that bridge (no pun intended) when the time comes. It’s funny that some of Koda’s behaviors that used to annoy me are now precious and a sign that she is mostly her old self. The high pitched “Roo Roo Roo’s” when excited or to tell us she is not happy about something. Stealing socks. Bullying her big sister Kloe. Always having to be first in or out of the door.

Days, months, hopefully longer…

From here we will take our cues from Koda. We know the day will come when she tells us it’s time. But that’s how it is anyway, right? When we sign up we know that we will outlive our pups. Whether it is from illness, disease, or just old age we know the day will come.

But that day is not today. It could be tomorrow, but not today.