Hope (and a good diet) is a COA

i took ellie to the veterinary specialist on wednesday.
 thank you so much to everyone who has asked about her.
it's really comforting to us that others are thinking about her, too.

i wish i had some better news, but the vet confirmed that she has chronic kidney disease.

she also has a low-grade heart murmur.

i've learned more about the kidneys in the last week than i ever thought i would.

one of the most interesting - and terrifying - things was that typically, by the time blood tests can detect that something is wrong, the patient has already lost about 75% of the total kidney function.

the other fact we learned is that kidney failure is irreversible.

you can slow its progression, but there's no way to heal or regenerate a failing kidney.

so that's the bad news.

the good news is that ellie is showing fairly low levels of the elements that indicate kidney failure,
 so she should continue to feel pretty well for the time being.

so, hopefully we will have as much time as possible with her.

and maybe a couple more years of moments like this:

and this: