Survivors and Celebrations

Rose's Story

First of all, Rose did live a full and healthy life, and I’m told by nearly everyone who met her that she was ‘one of the happiest dogs they had ever seen’. Even when the mysterious lump on her leg showed up, this loving, happy attitude never changed. This was the start of what was later diagnosed as a type of fast-acting nerve cancer. After 11 months, she had had three operations to drain the reoccurring leg tumor. Each time, the tumor was reoccurring faster and faster, getting bigger and bigger, and spreading further and further. Finally, we had the diagnosis of cancer. We faced a choice then: chemotherapy, amputation, or euthanasia. Euthanasia didn’t seem right; it seemed confined to one leg, and as our vet said, ‘she wasn’t ready to die’. She still loved life. But, the cancer was horribly fast-acting. We nearly lost her then, and at the last minute, chose to amputate the leg; we didn’t want to put her through chemotherapy at such an advanced age – she was 14 and half. She rebounded well, learning to walk again on three legs. Three months later, when she appeared to be healing, she started coughing and choking and unable to get her breath – it had spread to her lung and she suffered a collapsed lung. This time, we felt she wanted to go – so we chose to help her cross. Rose taught me more about living and loving than nearly anyone I've ever been privileged to meet. She was our joy and a true member of the family. She lost her battle with cancer November 1, 2008, at nearly 15 years old.