Thank you everyone for your Happy Birthday wishes. And for your Happy Scooby wishes too. For your Facebook comments. For your cards and your calls. Each one of them was meaningful. Likely far more meaningful than you will ever know.

That my birthday coincided with Scooby’s French Fry Friday made it even more special. Because watching Scooby with his French Fries is the best! As for the rest of my birthday celebration, it was low key.

Because I wanted to stay home and hang with the Scoobsters. So that’s what I did. Knowing he just had surgery a few days ago and had that gnarly mass removed from his soft stomach made me want to stay extra close to him.

Plus he’s got stitches in a few places and I want to make sure I’m nearby if he begins to fuss with them. So that meant we spent the night doing little more than telling each other jokes and making each other laugh.

We watched some TV. Scooby got a massage. I gave a massage. We shared some snacks. We played some games. And we toasted my birthday with some tasty red wine.

I had mine in a glass. Scooby had a couple of drops in a special Scooby bowl.

After a while the TV went off and we just sat in the candlelight. I looked at him and thought about how much I love him. And he looked at me, hopeful that I would get up and get him some more treats. Which I did. Several times.

And the night continued with a comforting sense of calm. There were no other duties or details left. Just to be.

To be at peace with my special friend and pray that he continues to thrive. As I know so many of you are doing to. And I thank you for that.

We both fell asleep on the couch. We woke up but didn’t know what time it was. I grabbed my phone to check and saw an email had arrived a bit earlier. It was from the vet. Late on a Friday night. The subject line read Scooby’s biopsy.

Just those two words: Scooby’s biopsy.

I put the phone back down.

I looked at the Scoobs and he looked at me. I thought about a million things in that moment. He thought about French Fries.

I got up and brushed my teeth. Then I gave him a bedtime snack and brushed his teeth too. We went outside for one more sniff of the night air and to look up at the sky and to say thank you for another birthday.

Under that night sky I opened the email.

“We received the report from Scooby’s biopsy. The mass was a benign hemangioma, a type of non-invasive, non life-threatening cancer of the blood vessels. This tumor was completely removed and that should be curative. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope he is doing well.”

Benign! Benign! BENIGN!

I read it twice just to be sure. And then I read it out loud so Scooby could hear it too.

We ran back inside and had a little more wine and a few more treats. Then we went to bed without even brushing our teeth again. Because it was that kind of moment.

The perfect gift to end my birthday. Thank you for being part of it with us 🙂

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. It was benign. thepongofund.org

(Photo Credit of Scooby sticking his tongue out at cancer is by Terri Jacobson Photography​)