((Nick Galifianakis for The Post))

What if their beloved dog’s cancer comes back and they can’t pay?

Dear Carolyn: We just used the last of our savings to pay for a young and otherwise healthy dog — our child’s best, sleeping-on-the-bed-and-meeting-the-bus-with-joy buddy — to have a cancerous tumor removed. All the signs are good, and the vet believes the chances of recurrence are low.

But if it comes back we -cannot- afford to treat it again, not without taking on debt. We currently have none, but both adult jobs are unstable right now, and while the kids would 100 percent give up their extracurriculars to save the dog’s life, another round of treatment would cost more than all their activities combined for a year, and I don’t want to kneecap their life launch for a dog.

But I’m typing this while I hold the dog and cry into his fur at the thought of killing him so my kids can what, take karate? I can’t think, and I’m so tired. He’s such a good boy. But the kids have to come first.

How do I stick to my logical guns if I have to make this decision again? Husband is in the same boat as me, mentally.

— So Tired

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