I thought it’d be nice to share a few uplifting stories of pets that either we’ve cared for ourselves or other people’s stories that we know of.
Here is one of my absolute favourites that I wanted to share with you in case you hadn’t heard it before.
A lady called Lucy had been told she could potentially only have a few years left to live if a kidney donor wasn’t found for her and of course it needed to be the absolute correct match.
Lucy was down at the beach one day with her dog, Indie, who kept trotting off to visit this other lady named Katie much further down the beach. Lucy presumed she must’ve had some tempting food! Anyway, these two ladies eventually ended up chatting together and during that conversation, it turned out that Katie had just joined the altruistic organ donor list. Miraculously, she turned out to be the exact kidney donor match. The surgeon said this was as rare as a one in 22 million chance of Katie’s kidney being the correct match for Lucy. All of this came about through Indie, Lucy’s dog, making that connection with Katie . How truly remarkable is that!
I’ll attach the article if you’d like to read more about it. Would love to hear your stories of you know if any similar ones!
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I rescued Ella Fitzgerald from a herding dog rescue as an adult in 2015. I was a first time dog owner. In 2019 I found a lump on her butt which was obscured by her border collie mix “pants” that the vet said was a cyst. It got bigger. I took her to another vet who immediately sent us to oncology. It was an a nal sac adenocarcinoma. She was having trouble going to the bathroom and I began making plans to put her down. I also gave permission for a CT so I could be sure that was the right decision. It was a large tumor but it was a stage one cancer.
I decided to treat her. We have a top vet school in my city. She had surgery to resect the tumor in January 2020. She started 30 days of radiation in February 2020. The expectation was an average of 18 months of survival.
Here she is today almost 4 years later. She’s a happy old lady now and still has pep in her step though she’s a bit hard of hearing.
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Such an amazing story. What a beauty she is! She looks like she’s so healthy and thriving now. Thanks so much for sharing this with me.
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She’s doing very well. I don’t know how old she is but the vet says about 12/13. She’s happy and just loves her walks. Nose to the ground the entire time.
Only sign of her cancer treatment is white hair where she was irradiated in the back and she also needs at least a mile in the morning to empty out.
Her eyes are a little cloudy and I wondered about her vision. But last week she spied a dog almost a full block away so I think her vision isn’t too impaired. But her hearing is, I am starting to use hand signals more consistently so when it goes entirely she still will know what to do. She’s a lovely old girl and I’m glad she has had this time. The first part of her life wasn’t what she deserved.
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I’ve got to say, she looks incredible for being 12/13! Lovely to see a beautiful dog like her flourishing after such a tough start.
You’ve done brilliantly with her.
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You done very well with her I appreciate you.
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@lucyhere Kind of you to say. It was not an easy decision. But when the testing showed it was a stage 1 cancer I knew I needed to treat her. She was only 7 or so at the time. She’s been away for 10 days as I have a bad ankle sprain and I miss her so very much. She’s coming home Sunday.
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This is a very personal story but one I’m willing to share if it helps someone else and it really is close to my heart. One of our very first house sits was a local one an hour away from where we lived and I’m going back seven years. We really hit it off with the homeowners and the dog, a lovely Labradoodle who took to us immediately. It was a month long house sit and I was a little concerned about the length of the sit but we loved it. The homeowners decided after the sit that they didn’t want anyone else and just invited us and we looked after their beloved Labradoodle about seven sits and we had a great bond. Our last house sit was just as COVID started. Jasper always sat beside me on the sofa but he started doing something on this particular sit that he never did before. He would constantly “paw” me, tapping on the right side of my chest and did this during the entire sit which baffled me. A week after I returned home, I discovered a lump and was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer on the right side. I read an article about dogs sensing cancer in humans and I honestly believe Jasper detected the cancer and was warning me. I’m now going into my 4th year of remission but unfortunately Jasper passed away in May just short of his 16th birthday. I was absolutely heartbroken when his homeowners called me to tell me the news. I honestly believed Jasper saved my life.
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Here is Rex, my dog with a dog im sitting. They’re both Macedonian rescue boys
Edited to meet posting guidelines.
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Thank you so much for sharing this with us. What a truly special dog Jasper was. I’m so glad you’re in remission now and may your health continue to flourish. Your story also reminds us all to never ever underestimate the intelligence of animals.
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Thank you so much for your kind words.
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What an amazing story. Dogs definitely know when we’re not well. So happy you’re in remission.
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