From Zero to 100 back to Zero, sort of

So Charlie came home from the hospital today, thank dog. His bum hole looks pretty normal except for the fact that it's shaved, and he seems to be in a bit of discomfort. I can always tell when he's uncomfortable because he barks a lot more when he's in pain - and today he was barking at everything and everyone.
You can tell here by the look on his face - at least I can - that he's not his normal, placid, happy self - but at least he's alive, and I'd be pretty unhappy if I'd just had my butt hole torn open so that a cancerous rectal tumour could be cut out.

This is Daisy and Charlie in the backyard tonight when I was mowing the lawn, which was about 4 days overdue, so the lawn was really long - except of course for their wrestling area - they only wrestle in one specific area of the lawn, and the grass in that area refuses to grow - you can see it very clearly delineated in the photo. It's pretty funny - at some points in the year it verges on becoming a mud pit. Sometimes I almost think I should just relent and brick the area and give up on trying to have lawn in that area - but then I figure they'll just move 12 feet over and wrestle on the grass next to the bricked area - and then the grass THERE will die - so I'd still be a lawn loser.

It's funny that in a few short days you can go from having things being completely normal to thinking that one of your family members was at death's edge - to that family member being back at home and things seeming to be normal again.

This afternoon though I was laying down and giving Charlie a good scratch and I felt a fatty lump on his belly and I thought - I hope that isn't more cancer. And I thought to myself - no, I don't think that things will ever be quite the same ever again.