Kenya's Story

Kenya adopted me 10 1/2 years ago from a shelter in Colorado.  I went in there looking for a tan dog because I already had a light colored Golden Retriever and wanted to keep all the dog hair the same color.  Very practical, don’t you think?  Anyway, I went into the make shift adoption place and found a pile of children on the floor.  From the bottom of the pile protruded a large black furry foot.  A little boy jumped up from the pile and said “Are you looking for a dog? …. You should get THIS DOG!!!”  I said…”but I need a yellow dog”.  He stared up at me with the patience children have for thick headed adults and said… “Yeah, but you should get THIS DOG!!”  “THIS is the BEST dog”. 

I had to take a look.  The children parted reluctantly to reveal the undercarriage of a large, skinny, black, kind of mangey dog with her eyes mostly closed and rolled back in her head the way dogs do when they have been belly rubbed to sleep by a team of children for an extended period of time.  It turns out the little boy was right and she IS the BEST DOG!! and she is still an absolute glutton for the belly rub.  My house is coverd in not only black and gold hair but red and white since we have been adopted by two other dogs making the grand total 4.

Kenya’s story is a little different than some.  She never had any pain.  She developed a small lump on her right “elbow”.  It was squishy and soft and didn’t seem to bother her at all.  The vet told us it was a lipoma and nothing to worry about.  Bring her back if it gets so big it is in her way.  Well, we foolishly did just that.  The squishy bump very slowly got bigger until it was about the size of 1/2 a softball.  We decided to take her in to get it checked.  The vet did a needle biopsy which was inconclusive – just showed inflammatory cells but the trauma of the biopsy really set it off.  It very rapidly got ALOT bigger and wrapped around her leg and shoulder – over the course of maybe a week!  It was starting to make her walk a little more carefully because of it’s now football size but she still did not seem to have any pain. 

X rays did not show any bone erosion or change in density but the vet told us that he was 99% sure it was cancer and could invade her chest wall rapidly, since it was growing rapidly.  X rays did not show any lung metastasis.

The surgeon was in town THAT day and would not be back for 2 weeks.  If we did not do the amputation THAT day, we would have to wait 2 weeks and risk spread into her chest wall or go to Sacramento – a 2 hour drive- to find another surgeon “who would undoubtedly tell us the same thing – that the leg had to be amputated”.  In that case, we would be 2 hours from home – away from our other 3 dogs – with a post surgical amputee to take care of… where… in a hotel?  I had no idea what after care would be like.  Needless to say… THAT SUCKED!

The idea that they would want to amputate her leg was a total shock to me and I was completely unprepared to make that decision RIGHT THEN…but we did and off came the leg.  It turns out it was a very slow growing tumor  (can’t remember the cell type at the moment) that is not inclined to spread and amputation is “curative”.

Although it has only been about 2 1/2 months since her surgery, she is doing very well.  She’s an older gal, she wont tell us how old-  and it takes alot of energy to hop around – especially in the Northern California heat we have right now but she is happy and very playful.  She poops out sooner than she used to but I’m not sure if thats the tripedal or the heat. 

We are very greatful to have our girl happy and healthy.  We have met so many nice people who come up to meet our 3 legged dog and admire her athleticism when we are out walking.  She’s the celebrity of the family!

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