An interesting observation

Neurotic dog mom struck again and thank goodness she did. This morning I took Chino to the vet to have a little lump on his leg checked out. When we noticed it, I immediately started worrying about it - Nick, not so much. He assumed that it was a clogged hair follicle or a bug bite. To appease and calm me down, we scheduled an appointment to have it looked at. Of course, our worst fears were confirmed and its most likely a mast cell tumor. The vet wants to treat it aggressively and Chino is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday morning.

Of course, as the vet is explaining it to me, I'm listening intently, paying attention and reading estimates as he explains the anesthesia, recovery and blood work. When I walked in the door and told Nick that it could be the "C" word, I lost it. I'm mad and nervous and anxious about the whole ordeal that is coming up.

Nick, on the other hand, handles things completely differently. He's Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected and somehow knows that everything is going to be ok. This is how he handles most situations of stress. He just knows things are going to be ok, although in this instance he was admittedly thrown for a loop since he thought I was slightly overreacting.

Later this morning, after I calmed down, I made an interesting observation. When I had my own health scare a few months ago, I didn't cry for myself. Was I nervous? Yes. Was I scared? Yes. Could it have been bad? Yes. Yet, here I was, bawling for my dog. I guess the important part was that I held it together at the vet and listened and retained most of what he said and was able to explain it to Nick so that he understood the next steps and what to expect. When I mentioned this to Nick, he told me in a matter-of-fact tone, "That's just how you are."