My sweet girl Cali

If you know Tim and I, you know we’ve had our dogs most of our relationship. We got Brooklyn in 2013 and adopted Cali 3 years later in hopes the two would get along. Not only did they get along, but they became inseparable. She is the sweetest, most loyal, and gentlest dog we’ve ever encountered. She’s been our “Cali girl” and M+K’s “sissy girl” for their entire life.

Cali LOVES her people, occasionally chewing up the kids toys and chasing Brooklyn outside. Last Saturday we were outside when she had a case of the “zoomies” which followed by her and Brooklyn chasing each other. Shortly after we went inside, and she was perfectly fine.

Later that day our daughter noticed Cali was shaking. Sometimes she does this if she’s scared (usually from a loud noise) so I didn’t think much of it at the time. When Tim came home from work later that night, he noticed that Cali didn’t greet him at the door like she normally does. On Sunday she laid on the couch most of the day and the following day we noticed 2 lumps on her back and front leg which were tender to the touch. She was limping, shaking, and panting like she was hot. We called our vet and told them her symptoms but since she was still drinking, eating, and having bowel movements, they didn’t feel like it was an emergency to see her and suggested rest until she could be seen in December in case it was an injury.

We called again on Wednesday because Cali’s symptoms were getting worse. She had blood work done, was checked for injuries and Limes Disease (came back negative). Her white blood cells were a little high but they thought she could have a possible infection or injury they couldn’t see. She was prescribed antibiotics (clindamycin) and pain medication (galliprant).

On Friday night, Cali could barely walk. More lumps appeared, she was losing a ton of hair, barely left the couch and felt like she had a fever. We brought her to the vet again Saturday morning where they tested her lumps for cancer and infection. There was nothing suspicious that indicated cancer, but it appeared she had an infection and a fever of 105.7. The vet changed her antibiotics to Chloramphenicol and continued her on the pain medication.

We were advised that after 3 full days of the new antibiotics that we should see some improvement and we did, but very little. On Monday we were able to get her to walk around a little more and we noticed her lumps went down but new pea sized lumps formed all over her body. Our vet called us to check up on her and advised if she wasn’t showing more improvement by Tuesday morning then we would have to bring her back in to do a biopsy of her lumps. This morning (Tuesday, 11/8), Cali started getting up by herself and walking around much better but within 2 hours we noticed her breathing heavier/faster than normal. We brought her back where she needs to stay overnight to give her IVs, get more testing and an X-ray.

Cali’s X-rays of her chest came back looking very speckled which would be something like pneumonia or lung cancer. She is currently being treated with antibiotics in case she’s fighting an infection. In the meantime, we decided to expedite her chest x-ray to a radiology specialist to determine if she has lung cancer and should find out later today. If it’s lung cancer, she has approximately 1 month to live. They are also taking a culture sample from the lumps in case this is an infection.

Cali has never been alone before. She has never been a day without Brooklyn in her entire life. I can’t begin to describe the heartache our family is currently feeling and cannot imagine life without our sweet girl. Neither of us are the type of people to ask for help and it honestly kills us to have to ask but here we are. With the extra monthly expenses of daycare and preschool, we know that any little bit will help us. If you choose to give anything, it will mean the world to our family. Anything we can raise will go towards this upcoming vet bill. If you cannot donate, please pray for our Cali girl.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

- The Knoble Family