"When was the last time you saw your regular vet?"

My wife and I had taken our youngest golden retriever - Gaby - to have her knee evaluated at NC State's animal rehab clinic. Four years ago she was chasing rabbits in our yard and came limping back. Her ACL was ripped up! She recovered well from that surgery and really had no lasting effects other than a little muscle denegeration around her thigh and thicking on the knee cartilige.

We wanted to do what we could for her since she was only our second dog. You see our first, best and most wonderful of all dogs, Gambit, had just passed away in September 2007. (Leave future link to Gambit's blog.)We had motivation to make the best life for Gaby and was almost doing it for Gambit. We told Gambit when he died that we would take good care of his sister.

We sat down with the rehab doctor - Dr. Kevin Jones - for his first look at Gaby. He started out with the normal hands on exam going over her body starting from the head down. He had just put his hands on her when he asked us that question: "When was the last time you took her to your regular vet?". I immediately thought nothing of it. "Why?" we asked.... "You may want to take her as soon as possible." "She may have lymphoma."