Family reunion, Sam's broken heart

The past week was a bit eventful.

Some of my cousins organized a virtual family reuinion on Zoom, which we held yesterday.

It was mostly about a dozen relatives who post on Facebook.

It was nice that my dad got to see all of his brothers, who live back east.

He has 3 younger brothers still alive, and one younger sister who passed away a few years ago.

Because they asked, I updated this Facebook group with some pictures of my garden. 

(I already posted them here previously.)

Here is a new one: We are going to have a lot of grapes pretty soon!

Saturday, I spent a whole day doodling this, in my sketchbook.

I started with alcohol marker (like Copic and Sharpie) and topped with acrylic marker (like Posca)

Last week (Wednesday) I took Sam to the vet.

He has a lump on his head above his right eye, which I have been observing for a long while.

It is about an inch around and located in his temple, behind his eye.

It doesn't seem to be a wound or abscess. It doesn't hurt. It seems to be a tumor.

He will have an operation to remove it on on Wednesday. (In 2 days). 

They say it might leave a scar, but if it grows any bigger, I know he won't be comfortable.

While he was getting a checkup, the vet detected a heart murmur.

It's like a leaky valve. He doesn't have any symptoms, except being a little short of breath.

I was surprised how large his heart is! 

The vet said it looks mostly normal except for one ventricle being a bit out of shape. 

The tiny lines near the heart are the longs, showing a little fluid build up.

When he is older, and starts showing more symptoms, he will get medication for it.

The other dog had a similar problem (but he was much, much older.)

Sam is 11 years old this year, so it's not a total shock.

Also, I've heard of a "broken heart" syndrome, when one loses a loved one...