Mom, tell me again the story about how you chose me.
Ernest, we chose you because you needed us, and we needed you.

I'm so excited that Ernest's adoption story is shared on Chewy.com's Pet Stories. I've been a Chewy Influencer for years, reviewing and blogging about various products, so I was delighted to contribute this story to their site as well.

Canine Cancer Survivor Becomes Therapy Dog to Man With Alzheimer’s

This post is by Chewy Influencer Peggy Frezon.

Our first senior dog rescue was 11 years old when we adopted him. I shook my head and told my husband, “He’ll break our hearts.”

My husband looked at me and said, “But he needs us.”

So, we adopted the sad, skin-and-bones Golden Retriever, named him Brooks, and fell in love with him. And sure enough, he broke our hearts—but not before filling them with love and joy.

Brooks helped us find our mission—to give a loving home to abandoned senior Goldens. We’ve loved and lost a few. Then this May, our rescue group contacted us about a 9-year-old Golden who lived in deplorable conditions. Did we want him? We’d just lost two senior dogs. Could we open our hearts up to such pain again?

The answer was clear.
See the rest of the story at Canine Cancer Survivor....

In addition to publishing the story, Chewy.com sent Ernest a box of goodies, and they also sent Peppertree  Rescue, the amazing rescue group from which we adopted Ernest, Brooks, and our other dogs, a big box of two dog beds, toys, Kongs, and treats to share with foster dogs in their care. Here's what they got:

















Thank you to Chewy.com for all they do to share stories of our love for our pets, and for recognizing the great rescue groups that help make families complete. Thank you Peppertree for helping us find Ernest, who has filled our home with so much love.
P.S. He's now 3 months cancer free!

Petting your dog may save his life.

Ernest is a good boy.

 A few weeks ago Ernest was at his therapy dog prep class. In between exercises my husband was petting him, stroking his fur like we both do numerous times a day. I'm sure you do with your dog, too. But this time he felt something different. A small bump near Ernest's shoulder.

Later that night he showed me. It looked like a mosquito bite. I didn't think anything of it at all.

Mike shows me the lump.

It's barely the size of a mosquito bite.

 A few days later we were at a vet appointment for our puppy. Ernest was with us. Mike happened to mention the bump to the vet. She looked, taking more interest in it than I thought, which surprised me. "I'll aspirate it and take a look," she said, inserting a small needle into the area. To be honest, my only thought at the time was, here goes our bill up, up, up!

The next night we received a phone call about 9pm. The vet.  "It's not benign," she said. I listened, barely believing her words. I thought Ernest was fine. He had no symptoms. And the bump was so small. But now the bump had a name: mast cell tumor.

Monday Ernest had surgery to remove the tumor.

Ernest's scar on his right shoulder.

 Tissue was sent for a biopsy. Stage 1 is a pretty good prognosis. Stage 2 could go either way. Stage 3 means it has already spread. The biopsy shows it is a stage 2 tumor.

None of us know how long we have. It's no different for Ernest. We're just going to give Ernest the best, happiest, most loving life we can, and the best health care within our means. We have a wonderful veterinarian we trust and we know that she'll take good care of us. We plan to continue with therapy dog classes (only one left and then he'll take his test!) and if he passes, Ernest will fulfill his destiny (we believe) to be a therapy dog.

Paw Power!

He's recovering from surgery well. The tumor has been removed. And all because my husband was petting him one night.

So petting your dog can save his life.

And you can bet, we'll be petting Ernest a lot.

Saturday, my sweet dog Ike died of hemangiosarcoma. Tragically, we had no idea he was seriously ill.















In fact, he'd had his senior exam not long before this. We were constantly alert to Ike's daily health, and probably nothing would have changed the sad outcome. I'm sharing these details in the hopes it may help someone else...although sadly, there is very little that can be done to prevent or treat it. At the end I will list a few suggestions.

Ike's symptoms (*this may not be the way it is for all dogs):
1. Ike was 10 years old. Over the last several months he seemed excessively tired at night, preferring to remain on his pillow in the living room rather than climb the stairs to join us. We'd mentioned it to our vet who surmised multiple possibilities for this. Maybe it was joint pain. We even considered that he wanted to be downstairs to stay with our other dog, who had started sleeping downstairs as well. Maybe it was just part of aging. Looking back, it was the cancer we didn't know was in his body, making him so tired.

2. One day a couple weeks ago, Ike had diarrhea with a little blood in it. You never like to see blood in the stools. In the past, I've taken my dogs to the vet the moment I see this, and almost always it has turned out to be something benign that improves in a few days. We decided to bring him to the vet the next day...but the next day the stools seemed okay so we figured it was nothing serious.

3. Over the course of a few weeks, Ike vomited twice. Maybe he ate too fast. Once was in the car. Maybe he ate too close to riding and the motion made him sick. He had a sensitive stomach. I wasn't overly worried.

4. A few times, Ike refused his breakfast. Once we had started mixing in a new food. Maybe he didn't like the food. And he always readily ate treats, and ate fine by dinner time.

5. This up and down pattern of feeling off and then feeling better, eating then not eating, gave us a false sense that he was getting better. Looking at his overall trend, however, we had decided that he should be checked out soon to find out what was going on.

6. Saturday he came upstairs to wake us up, as had been his pattern. He then trotted downstairs and we let him outside and he seemed fine. When he came inside, he refused his food. I called the vet and made an appointment.

Moments later--and I mean just moments--he was lying on the front porch, very still. I got his leash and asked him if he wanted to go for a walk--something that usually elicits elation--and nothing. He didn't respond at all. Immediately, we rushed him to the emergency vet.

There, in a very short time, the doctors did bloodwork, xrays and ultrasounds and gave us the diagnosis-- hemangiosarcoma. A tumor on his spleen. And blood in his stomach. It had ruptured. The vet was very, very clear. Ike was in bad shape. Surgery to remove the spleen could be done, and was the only way to tell for sure if the tumor was benign or malignant. But of all the cases she's seen that presented themselves like Ike's, and had ruptured like Ike's, they were almost always malignant. And if she removed the spleen, the cancer came back in a very short time. One time it was only 10 days. Other times it was a couple weeks to two months. Even with chemotherapy after surgery, the prognosis was poor. And the surgery would be around $5000. I don't have $5000, but I would have done it. I would have, for Ike. We asked the vet if there was any chance it was benign. She said no. Given that there was really no hope, we had no choice but to do the one very difficult almost impossible thing that we were totally unprepared to do. I won't go into details about that, and many of you know from your own experiences how devastating it is to go through. We held him, loved him, cuddled him, told him he was a good boy, kissed him and said goodbye, run free, see you at the bridge.


Here are some facts ***not intended to substitute for your veterinarian's opinion***
1. Not all masses on the spleen are cancerous.
2. Hemangiosarcoma is very invasive and there may be no clinical signs until the dog suddenly dies.
3. Golden retrievers, along with other breeds such as German shepherds, Boxers, English setters, Labrador retrievers are more likely to get hemangiosarcoma.
4. The up and down symptoms we observed are due to the fact that the mass is bleeding, and then the dog recovers temporarily as new blood cells are made.
5. Symptoms include:
slight lethargy
loss of appetite
weakness
nose bleeds
mild anemia


6. Upon rupture, symptoms include:
pale tongue and gums
panting
weakness
rapid heart rate
collapse

7. Treatment options include:
blood transfusion
splenectomy
chemotherapy
but prognosis is poor and life expectancy even with treatment is about 3 months.

8. Prevention includes:
Breeds that are predisposed to this may benefit from yearly ultrasounds.
The vet may routinely palpate the abdomen to check for masses.
Routine bloodwork in predisposed breeds may help identify possibility of tumor.

http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/animal-lovers/hemangiosarcoma.html
http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/cancer/c_dg_cancer_spleen_liver

Meet my pal Bocker. He is one really inspiring dog. Here's Bocker reading Faithfully Yours!




 Zeke, Ike and Kelly enjoyed reading his book, Chasing Bocker's Tale.




I thought you'd like to learn some more about him.
Eight Fun Facts about Bocker

1. He's a model. His first ad was for Tommy Hilfiger.

2. He's famous for his adorable head tilt.

3. His name came from his mom's favorite basketball team, the New York Knickerbockers.

4. He played a role on the movie Eat, Pray, Love.



5. He's a certified therapy dog.

6. He listens to children read as a "Tail Wagging Tutor."

7.  He's active in causes helping people and animal advocacy.

8. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and is now three months post-chemo and is kicking cancer's butt!



Visit Bocker's website.