One Year Ago...

I just realized that Ava was diagnosed with her auto-immune disorder a year ago this month. A YEAR ago! I cannot believe that. It seems like last week I was taking her into the vet every other day, up with her crying and screaming all hours of the night, whisking her up to Massachusetts for appointments with specialists, and just feeling hopeless and scared and oh-so-sad.

I was convinced back then she wouldn't make it through Christmas 2009. And now, here it is, a whole year later, and Ava is back to being her cuddly self, happily jumping around and burrowing under covers, and most importantly, she is still here. Still with us. Still able to annoy us with all her coffee-mug-breaking, counter-surfing, leftover-smuggling, food-begging, bed-hogging antics.

And as much as I complain about all of that, I would miss it terribly if she wasn't here.

We went from this:

In her 'Hannibal Lector' mask at the specialist's office.

To this:

Sitting pretty at my work.

And true, she isn't 100%. Probably never will be. She still has those awful sores on her ears, she is on medication that makes her fat (or swollen, as my mom says), has new sores that aren't really healing, and is on a very restrictive diet. But we look past all of that because it's all manageable.

So, I just wanted to send a quick 'thank you' out into the universe for this year. I hope for many more to come.