Rescue Dog

Penney arrived at our Massachusetts home in July 2004. She has adjusted quite well and loves her new surroundings. She is treated like royalty and enjoys every moment of being the queen. She has a nice fenced-in backyard and we have purchased a kiddie pool for those times that she just wants to cool off. She is treated to off-leash walks everyday in the marsh. She absolutely loves it. Patrick has been trained her with an electric collar and she does amazingly well. She always runs ahead, checks back and then waits for Patrick (unless she sees a squirrel). She splashes in every puddle she finds and when she finally gets down to the beach she just sits in the ocean. Her favorite activity is running through the tallest grass she can find and chasing out some unsuspecting birds. It is so much fun to watch her be free. Her life has been so hard that she deserves so much to have this happiness.

When she first got here we did some research to find out her history. She was left in a backyard in Topeka, Kansas after her owners decided to move. Finally, some neighbors called animal control when they realized that nobody was coming back to get her. She was held for the mandatory three days to see if anybody would claim her (which they did not). She became available for adoption but nobody wanted to take her home. A lovely woman named Sabra who worked at the shelter thought Penney deserved a second chance and looked into rescue options. She looked after Penney until she could make arrangements with woman named Mary who offered to help. They each drove an hour or more to meet and make the transfer. Mary cared for Penney until she could find her an appropriate home. Penney stayed temporarily with Bill and Gail until we found her. This all seemed to take place over the course of five months. Unfortunately, I have no idea of what Penney’s prior life was like.

It seems that she was a hunting dog as her instincts are exceptional. It also appears as though she was not abused but I have no way of knowing if anyone ever gave her the love that she craves so much. I wish I could find out why someone just left her behind. The one thing that we do know is that she hates to be left outside alone. We have to be with her. If we come into the house, she is following closely behind. Maybe that will change in time but right now I think she is terrified of being left again. In the house she is fine. We can go out and leave her for long periods of time and come home to find her in the exact same spot – on her favorite doggie bed. She never begs at the kitchen table; she never jumps up on furniture unless she is invited; she has never had an accident in the house and she has never tried to escape from the backyard. She is just perfect. The only thing she asks for is love which I can assure you she gets plenty of.

When we first got Penney, we noticed that she had a slight limp when she ran. She also seemed to have a hard time getting up from a laying down position. Every once and a while we noticed that she would let out a quick cry of pain and we started to become concerned. We thought that maybe she was injured somehow from the long car ride to Boston. I can assure you that she was never in constant pain but it did seem odd to us. She also developed a bit of a runny eye. We thought that maybe she had an allergy or a slight irritation. We also noticed that she had two lumps on the back or her right leg as well as a lump on her right shoulder. We took her to our local vet where he prescribed some ointment for her eye and some powder to add to her food to aid her joints. He was a bit concerned about the lumps on her back right leg so he suggested that we do a needle biopsy to see what they were all about. He did not seem concerned about the lump on her shoulder. We proceeded to have the lumps on her leg biopsied and waited two weeks for the test results. Unfortunately, one of the two lumps was cancerous.

Our next step was to see a specialist to discuss a course of action. We went to see the doctor that treated our previous dog, Lovell. She is an amazing vet who specialized in emergency care but she was willing to see us because of the relationship we developed with her. She recommended that we have the two lumps removed from her back leg as well as the lump from her shoulder. Upon removal, the lumps would be sent to the lab so that they could be examined fully and to determine what stage of cancer we were dealing with. She also decided that while Penney was under anesthesia they would take some X-rays to see if they could determine why she was limping slightly. You can imagine how heartbroken we were to put this dog through more trauma but it was necessary.

Penney had her surgery on August 9, 2004. All three lumps were removed and she was fully X-rayed. The best case scenario would be stage one cancer. This is when the cancer is fully contained in the lump and they can remove it with little chance of it returning. Stage two cancer is when the cancer is not only located in the mass but in the outlying areas around the mass as well. This means that the cancer has begun to spread. In stages three and four the disease has progressed further and may have spread to other organs. Prognosis is generally pretty grim in these instances. My husband and I prayed so hard that Penney would have stage one cancer but to no avail. Unfortunately, Penney was diagnosed with stage two cancer. It also turns out that the lump in her shoulder was stage two cancer as well. The surgeon explained that when he removed the lumps, he also took out the tissue around the lumps as well. This is how they determine that the cancer has traveled beyond the mass.

On a positive note, he also told us that although the cancer had begun to spread it had not spread beyond the areas that he removed. In other words, it had just begun to spread. The lumps were cancerous, the areas beyond the lumps showed signs of cancer but beyond that there was nothing. He thinks that they got it all out which is very encouraging. Incidentally, the third lump that was removed was just a fatty tumor. The results of the X-ray also confirmed our fear of hip dysplasia. Penney was diagnosed with mild to moderate hip dysplasia which most likely was the cause of her limping and occasional crying. Our hearts were broken for her. We just wanted so much for her to never have another moment of pain.

When we picked her up at the hospital after her surgery she looked like Frankenstein. She had so many zigzags of staples and stitches that I wanted to cry. The doctor told us that the incisions were so long because they had to remove as much tissue as they could to insure that they got as much of the cancer as possible. Her stitches ran down the whole inside of her right leg and about three inches across her shoulder. She was a mess to look at but she was wagging her tail wildly when she saw us. She was tired but so very happy even though she had to wear a ridiculous lampshade. We were given antibiotics, pain medication and over the counter Pepcid AC. Sometimes the medications can be harsh on a dog’s stomach so they prescribe Pepcid to help with that. Her recovery was slow as some of her staples ripped out in her leg and we also dealt with an open wound. The doctor told us that it has to heal from the inside out and that we just needed to leave it alone. Penney acted fine and happy. As a matter of fact, the pain medication really helped with her hips. We kept her activity to a minimum until she healed. We even purchased a pretty red lampshade for her because we thought she should be as pretty as possible while healing.

At her last check-up, she had completely recovered from the cancer. She did grow another small lump but upon testing they found it to be just a fatty tumor. THANK GOD! She has been very healthy and never seems to be uncomfortable due to the fact that we are giving her glucosomine/chondriton with each meal. She is still as sweet as ever and she now goes outside by herself (without the fear of being abandoned) and she also climbs the stairs to sleep with us at night. She is a bit awkward in our bed due to the fact that she sleeps horizontally as opposed to vertically. She starts off very small but as the night progresses, she opens up and my husband and I end up in the margins of the bed while she is sprawled across the entire middle. After almost seven months of this we decided to train her to sleep in her own bed which is placed next to me. She has been fine with that and never tries to crawl in with us anymore. So we all sleep much better now.

She is as adorable as ever and I am thankful each day that she is in my life. She is truly the sweetest dog in the world and wants nothing more than love. I still can’t understand why someone left her behind. She is an amazing dog and we love her more and more everyday. We know that we found each other for a reason and somehow we were brought together. We don’t regret anything. She is the best dog with an amazing will to live...and we thought that cats had nine lives...huh?

Warmest regards,
Gena

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