Brian Mast is pure Michigan. #mastcelltumor #malignancy

I will join you 😭 My dog hasn’t thrown up, but she did get a #Stelfonta shot in a #MastCellTumor on her tail and it is leaking all over as it rots off. Pretty gross 🤢 eh❓

Joanie She stands, unsteady, a shadow of the wild thing she was, before sickness carved its name into her flesh. I watch her breathe, each rise and fall of her ribs a quiet battle, a slow retreat. Sleep comes in fractured slivers, stolen between the moments I check, I touch, I wait. There is no rest, only watching, only hoping, only failing. This thing inside her grows, a silent, merciless thief. I reach for answers, for mercy, for something beyond the limits of my hands— but the world offers nothing, only the weight of time. She does not ask for miracles. Only kindness. Only time. Only me.

Joanie, my German Shepherd mix and best friend, is battling cancer. This poem is for her—about the sleepless nights, the helplessness, and the love that remains.
#Poem #Poetry #DogLove #MastCellTumor