Pancha

March 3 (Los Angeles) —

Pancha is still alive and kicking at 14.5 years old, but our veterinarian called the night before we were supposed to move out of our house in LA to report that Pancha has salivary gland adenocarcinoma, a cancer of the salivary gland.  We asked our landlords to stay through the weekend so we could make decisions about her care after taking her to an oncologist.   Additional scans show that the cancer has not spread, so we are delaying our trip so that Pancha can have surgery tomorrow here in LA to remove the tumor in her neck.

Fortunately, our great friends, Adji and Nichole, offered us their guest bedroom while Pancha recovers.  After losing Bacio four months ago to cancer, I can’t believe this is happening.  What a crazy week.

Update post-surgery:   Pancha has recovered well and additional biopsies of her lymph nodes (removed during surgery) show no spread of the cancer.  So it appears to be a slow-growing type of cancer.   Given this and her age, we are not going to subject her to chemo or radiation and will instead monitor her salivary glands to see when it returns, which will hopefully take a long time.