Today we celebrated a very important anniversary. A year ago today Renki’s underwent surgery to halt the spread of his cancer. This involved the amputation of his forelimb. It was not something we’d ever tried before, but we trusted Renki’s positive attitude would be a boon to his recovery. This proved true. He was walking on three legs before the anesthesia had even worn off, and adapted rapidly to his new gait.
At the time, we weren’t sure how much time we’d bought him, if any. There were many murmurs about ‘Renki’s last Christmas’ and such as holidays came and went. We rejoiced with every milestone he passed and wondered how many more he would see.
Today we can say proudly that Renki is a survivor. As near as we can tell, he is cancer free. It is a joy to see him still enjoying walks, food, playing with his sister, and loving the human attention. We don’t know how long we have with him, but we’ll consider every day with him a blessing.
To celebrate the day, Renki received a gathering of friends who brought him eggs and gelatos. Two favorite foods for a wolf whose favorite food is ‘food’. He and Ayla enjoyed the party, although Ayla preferred eggs to gelato.
Renki, Ayla and friends celebrate a milestone. Photo by Monty Sloan
Meanwhile, one of the interns took this really cute photo of Khewa.
Really cute Khewa. Photo by Natalie Risser
