This is Scout.
She's possibly the best dog on earth. She's terrifyingly smart. She lets the boys climb on her and pull her ears. She watches them carefully when they are outside. She sits and lies (lays?) and goes into her box on command. (Sadly, she doesn't stay on command.) Unfortunately for Scout, she has really crappy owners. We love her and we feed her. She has a nice big fenced yard and little kids to chase and sometimes we throw a ball for her. We don't take her on a ton of walks (have you ever walked a 70lb dog with a stroller and little kids? It's too much for me.)
And somehow we miss it when our solid black, long haired dog gets a tumor on her leg. Over the weekend we discovered a swollen lump the size of both my fists on her leg, on what would be her thigh, were she human. It doesn't seem to distress her in any way. She doesn't mind when the kids climb on her, she still acts like her normal self. It's almost easy to see how we missed it.
On Monday I took her in to the vet. The Bug, the Princess and I took her to the vet. That in itself was crazy. Scout, of course, was perfectly behaved (once she'd greeted the vet's cat.) She sat as requested. She let the Bug "walk" her up and down the room on the leash. They aspirated the lump, and came back with a diagnoses of a lipoma- a fatty tumor. It is benign. So long as it does not bother her, it can stay. We'll probably have it removed in the spring, when things calm down for us, but for now, it can stay.
I did not realize how much I loved that dog until right then.
PS It's really hard to get a good picture of her.
