Sick dog

My big brown dog is sick. He has cancer in one of his anal glands. Sounds fun, doesn't it? He just had some imaging tests done today to see if it had metastasized, and it appears to be in just that spot. His blood work was also good. The vet is fairly optimistic about his treatment and thinks that his quality of life will be about the same as it has ever been.

I know that Brown is getting old (almost 10), but I think he's got another 4 or 5 years in him where his quality of life is good (okay, 3 or 4, he's big). His treatment is expensive, but we'll deal with it. I would be pushing back pretty hard if he was going to be miserable or if he could only reasonably be expected to live a healthy year to 18 months, but I feel like he's got more in him than that. He still acts young, and doesn't display any "old dog" symptoms (arthritis, impaired vision or hearing, a lot like old humans). Okay, his sense of smell isn't what it used to be, but I think that's it!