I have very sad news.

Today we got the results of laboratory tests that confirmed what we feared most.
We are now certain that Joop is very ill. He has cancer. There's an aggresive malignant tumour
growing in his nose, behind his right eye. The spot cannot be operated and
there is no possible treatment. Joop will not be with us much longer.

It started in May with a running eye and a running nose. Our vet believed it was an infection
but the antibiotics he gave Joop didn't do much good. I was worried and took Joop to another vet
in the city for a second opinion but this doctor also thought this was a nose-eye-infection.
He found no evidence of a tumour. Joop got another kind of antibiotics and at first the new pills
seemed to do the job. Joop was looking better. Just before we went to France Joop had a bad
nosebleed. Our vet checked him again -nose and eye- and told us to continue with the antibiotics.
In France Joop's condition seemed to improve. Long walks were no problem and most days he was
active and happy. But after we had returned home there was a crisis. Our vet send us to a
specialist doctor, and he found the tumour in a pocket of Joop's nose.

Joop is not in pain. The pain medicine he gets works real well. In fact it works so well
that it is hard to believe and accept that the end is near for him. He still has his tail up,
he still wants to protect us and keep us together, he still loves cookies (now he can only
chew the soft ones). But his eye is growing thicker.

I can't begin to tell you how I feel.
We are so good together. We love him to pieces
and we've done so ever since the first time we saw him.
So hard to let him go already.

Henk