When my husband and I married back in 1995, I moved quite a distance away from friends and family into his town home. I had started a new job and things were going pretty well. My husband, however, worked the graveyard shift and I felt very lonely at home. We were trying to start a family but things didn't happen as quickly as we had hoped. One day, my husband came home and said he had a surprise for me. He told me to come downstairs -- and there lying on the first step was the most gorgeous 8 week old puppy I have ever seen. She was to be my companion in so many ways. We called her "Smokey." I had so much fun taking her for walks. She just loved the outdoors and seeing other animals. A few months after my husband surprised me with her, we found out I was pregnant. I always wanted my children to be raised with animals as I was. It lessened their fears of being near other animals and teaches them a kind of love that is very unconditional.

Smokey was a very proud dog. Back in mid-March of this year she started limping and I didn't think much of it. Maybe she bumped herself. But the limping continued and after a couple of weeks I noticed a lump on her right front leg. I took her to the vet who x-rayed her and told me it could be one of two things: Either osteosarcoma (bone cancer) or a type of Fungus.

He suggested doing a biopsy on it that same day but we were leaving to go on vacation two days later and we didn't want her to be in the Lodge in any pain with bandages on so we opted to wait until we returned to decide on further treatment for her. When I went to pick her up after our vacation, I noticed the lump grew a little larger and took her to another vet for a second opinion (I wasn't crazy about the first vet). The second vet had more updated equipment and took digital pictures of her leg. Well, we found out that it was in fact osteosarcoma and weren't left with many options.

The vet suggested amputation to make her comfortable since the bone would eventually break and that would be far more painful than the recovery of amputation. I wasn't ready to let her go because she was still so much alive in her mind and spirit and didn't seem to be in any pain. I chose to amputate to make her more comfortable but did not elect chemo treatment following the amputation as Smokey always had a sensitive stomach and chemo would have upset it. We knew that time was precious and hoped that she would outlive the statistics of osteosarcoma since it does metastasize over 90% of the body by the time it's diagnosed. We knew the primary tumor was removed, but that the secondary tumor would eventually grow at some point.  We were hoping for time, as much time as we could have with her while she still had a quality of life.

The amputation was performed on April 25th. After the surgery the vet ended up taking her home with him for a couple of days to monitor her since she wasn't doing well. At that time, I was questioning my decision and whether I had made the right one after seeing her in such pain. It was the most difficult time in my life. The vet realized after two days that it was the pain patch that actually made her sick and not so much the surgery in itself. Once that was removed we took her home and just made her as comfortable as we could. The two weeks following the amputation were definitely not easy. I was so happy on one end to have her home with us and be a family again and yet so sad to have put her through this.

	But two weeks later, she was out and about hopping along as if nothing mattered. For those 4 months following the amputation, she was so much herself again and everything seemed back to normal. She made it to her 10th Birthday on July 17th. She still loved her walks even though they were much shorter and even came around to Sasha, our other Rottweiler who loved to play with her. She went back to barking at squirrels and taking the alpha position in the household over Sasha. Her spirit was renewed and she still sat with such pride and dignity.
Smokey after amputation with buddy Sasha