Henry fka Moki
October 25, 2004 – June 26, 2009




I adopted Henry when he was about 3 ½ years old. Shortly after Henry entered my life he developed mast cell tumors. Initially they presented like fatty growths that many dogs, including Vizslas, tend to get as they age. After we took the first one out - it was in a spot that was hindering his mobility and also my vet wanted to err on the safe side in case it was malignant - it was indeed. After a second surgery, we got all the margins, and monitored future growths carefully. Some would end up being benign, and two more were also deemed malignant and removed. At one point we scanned his internal organs and found him to be cancer-free on the inside so the hope was that we just needed to continue to be vigilant.

Well, our luck ran out. My fear that my Henners was a sick kid came true this past May 31st when he suddenly seemed distant, lethargic, and withdrawn. After a battery of blood work that didn't point to any one definitive diagnosis, our vet ordered an ultrasound and that was when the ugly, awful truth was revealed: Henry had hemangiosarcoma, with masses on his spleen, in his heart, and possibly in his liver. I panicked. I felt so helpless. I reached out to our wonderful Vizsla community, scoured online resources, took him to specialists...all the feedback was the same: you have days, maybe weeks with your dog. After the initial period of lethargy which caused us to take him to the vet, he bounced back and was himself - 100% - for two 4-5 day periods, and one final 10-day period, with "bad days" in between. Dr. Elmslie, the wonderful Oncologist at VRCC in Denver told me that any bad day he had after the diagnosis, could be his last. I struggled with whether to put him down. She told us as long as we could mitigate his pain and discomfort on the bad days, we should enjoy the remaining good days, and he would let us know when it was time. He did that, on June 26th. After ten perfect days, we awoke to Henry's last day with us. I spent all day with him. At around 8pm that night Henry died in my husband's and my arms at our house. We miss him terribly. He touched our lives in profound ways and we feel so lucky to have loved him and been loved by him for the 5 years we were lucky enough to have him as a part of our family. - Jessica