Riley, Part 1

Last summer, I wrote about when my family got our sweet puppies, Max and Riley almost 12 years ago. Last fall, I also wrote about Max's cancer and his passing.

The holidays and every day are still hard without all his enthusiasm and love. We are continually grateful to still have our sweet Riley.

Riley has also taken Max's passing hard. They spent every day of their lives side by side. Riley often seems lost without Max as the leader. We've worked to keep him happy and give him extra attention and love.

He's seemed more unsettled in the last month; he wakes up startled, he's up often in the night, and he just looks miserable. We definitely wish dogs could talk. My mom got him into to his vet and there we learned the cause of his issues. Riley's heart is massively enlarged. In fact, his vet had never seen a heart so enlarged. It's also not beating correctly. We were devastated to learn of Riley's serious heart issues and were told he could die at any minute. It's been so hard to process everything that happened with Max that I can't even begin to think about Riley going down that road too. So, we've made him an appointment at K-State's Veterinary Center, with their heart specialists for next week. We are praying, they can help our Riley and that he won't suffer. :(

Riley on Christmas Day.