I come to you all today with a very heavy heart.  Yesterday we had to put down the sweetest, most intelligent, loving dog I have ever known in my 48 years.  My wife was a Rottweiler breeder before we met and Jasmine was the only offspring that she kept, meaning that she had Jasmine for all of her 12 years and 14 days.  Jasmine turned 12 on October 3, 2007 and passed on October 17, 2007.

I met my wife Judy when Jasmine was a mere 2-1/2 years old.  When we got married in 1999, we had two Rottweilers.  Magnum died of osteosarcoma in February 2003.  Jasmine was devastated and grieved for several weeks.

In August 2007, Jasmine began favoring her back right leg.  Right away, we took her to the vet who looked at it and said it was a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).  I questioned his ability to diagnose this without so much as touching Jasmine or doing an x-ray.  His callous, arrogant response to me was that he has seen this before and knew exactly what it was.

We then took Jasmine to a surgeon the very next week to have what we thought was going to be ACL surgery.  The surgeon did a preliminary exam and looked at us and said that he did not feel a tear.  He did x-rays and about 30 minutes later delivered the devastating news to us.  Jasmine had osteosarcoma in the ankle area of her back right leg.

Our options for treatment were very limited.  She was about 7 weeks shy of turning 12.  She was not a candidate for amputation.  We decided to take her home and just love on her for the time she had left.  She did remarkable for over two months.  She finally learned to walk on her three good legs.  She was happy and her appetite was voracious.  We continued most of her normal routine which included her favorite thing to do, which was riding in the car.  We had her on previcox and consequin, which really seemed to manage her pain.

We have two of Jasmine’s puppies, Zoe and Nikita.  About the first week of October, Zoe came inside limping.  We have about 3 acres and all three girls have plenty of room to run around.  We figured Zoe must have sprained an ankle or hurt her foot somehow.  Off to the vet we went.  They did x-rays three days later on Zoe and called us with more devastating news.  Zoe has osteosarcoma in the upper area of her front right leg.  Zoe and Nikita will be 8 years old in March 2008.  We are fairly certain that Zoe will not see her 8^th birthday.

Back to Jasmine...yesterday (October 17, 2007) Jasmine was lying in the kitchen when my wife asked her if she needed to go out.  She jumped up to go and the leg with the cancer completely broke in half.  The screams from her were horrible and will resonate in my wife’s and my heads for a long time.  She stopped crying and actually walked to the car where we rushed her to the vet.  We knew why we were going.  There was no hope for a quick fix.  It was time.  My wife and I both knew it.  So at 3:30pm yesterday, we said goodbye to the sweetest dog that has ever lived.

Now, we wait to see Zoe’s fate.  We’re afraid it will be more of the same.  We pray that Nikita will be spared.

Cary Silverman
Canton,  Georgia

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Webmaster note:  Check out a support organization for those individuals whose dogs have been diagnosed with bone cancer: www.bonecancerdogs.org