My Son Peter and his wife have 2 young daughters and a live in a small townhouse here in Leesburg (Exeter). When my youngest granddaughter Jordan was born with multiple heart defects, they had trouble taking care of Roxy, their Beagle/Boxer mix. Unknown to me, they were trying to find her a new home. After discussing their situation with my wife, Linda, we decided to “foster” Roxy until things got better and they would eventually move into a bigger house. I called my daughter-in-Law, Lindsey to ask her if that was OK and she just started crying because they were one day away from bringing her to the Pound. We love Roxy and she is happy here (Potomac Crossing) with us. My older Grand daughter, Leyah, 3 still calls Roxy “Her Puppy” and loves to visit us and play with her. Jordan had heart surgery at Washington Children’s Hospital in late February and is doing great.
— Paul from Leesburg, VA

Peaches is gone.  Cancer stole her away from us this past 4th of July after a diagnosis of cancer of the spleen last September. Having lost two other Golden’s to cancer and having then opted for exploratory surgery then but only to add weeks to their lives, we chose to just let her live out her life with quality of life while working to build her immune system to fight the onset of the cancer with sardines and fish oil.  She lived happily enough and eating well for 10 months and went the beach three times to surf the waves before she became to weak and fragile to go.  She was approximately thirteen and a half assuming her age at 14 months when we adopted her from the Amanda Foundation in Los Angeles.  Peaches was the sweetest, most beautiful dog, fit and a joy to live with, hike with, run with, hunt squirrels with, swim with and take to the beach so she could body surf the waves at Zuma Beach.  Always sitting in her front chair in our van, head pointed out chin on the window sill whenever we drove anyplace.  She waited countless invaluable hours by the front door for us to get home from work every work day for over twelve years.  We had lost our last female Golden “Sunshine” in January of 2000 to cancer and did not want another dog.  Then six months later we saw a promotion for the Amanda Foundation on a Sunday TV news show and left a voice mail asking if they had a younger, female Golden…and they did!  We named her PEACHES because of her peaches and cream ice cream lush puppy like coat.
What an empty feeling now especially after wrapping our lives ever closer around her care as she declined.  Suddenly now- nothing to manage…except our other 6 year old Golden-Tiger, another rescue. He’s an awesome dog also but Peaches will always be La Unica to us and hold a most special place in our hearts.  Sometime down the road we will find another dog to make it two again.  And so the circle of life continues.
Love them and be with them for every moment you can because dogs live for the moment and life is short especially for them.

— David from Thousand Oaks, CA

Riley is the BEST dog any family could ever ask for in life and he has blessed our family with his un-conditional love in the most touching way. Riley would swim with my daughter & son in the pool playing fetch, tug of war and he would even do “Cannon Balls” as he played Marco-Polo with them. Riley, as with all of our animals has ALWAYS been an in-door member of the family with his very own bed and areas of the home which he lounges in. He is a very healthy boy and very active and loves to run, play hide and seek and to collect his “chewey toys” and stash them about the house so his little brother “Woody” doesn’t find them and taken them away.
One night, when Riley was about 2 ½, my wife had felt a golf-ball sized lump on the inside of Riley’s arm. We took him to the vet to get it checked and the Dr. took a biopsy, (which turned out to be benign) and had instructed us to keep an eye on it to see if it would get bigger.
About 6 months later and a couple vet visits in between, this golf ball turned into a baseball. We decided with the vet to have it removed, as it was just a “Fatty Non-Cancerous Tumor”. During the operation, the Dr. was able to remove about 65% of the tumor as the remainder was “too far embedded into his muscle and further removal would significantly increase the possibility of paralysis”. So the Dr. stitched him up and sent him home with a cone around his head as well as post-operation instructions to care for him until he was all healed up. This is where it begins.
As time went on, Riley’s tumor grew and grew and grew. His tumor soon became the size of softball. We took him back to the vet and was told that the surgery exacerbated the tumor and made it grow with vengeance and further surgery at this point could result in death as the tumor was embedded around his main arteries. Given the fact of how rapidly the tumor has grown already, the Dr. told us to just enjoy Riley while we can until such time his quality of life has become so impaired then we would need to put him down.
Riley was still a healthy dog, EXCEPT for the fact of this darn tumor. As further time went on, the tumor had grown well into his shoulder to the point where his leg became “bowed” and his paw inverted inwards. The tumor then spread over to his other leg, up his arm, his left paw became “swollen” and both legs became full of lumpy tumors, then finally over his chest. During this time, we took him to a couple other vets for a second and third opinion and it got to the point where the Dr’s were amazed by the growth as they have “never seen anything that size before” then it always turned into what appeared to be a “Money Issue” where they wanted $2300 for a CAT scan, then $5000 for surgery all at the same time as having “minimal chances of survival”.
The tumor on his chest had grown into the size of a cantaloupe. We began researching natural anti-tumorous supplements such as tumeric, green tea extracts, ionized water, mushroom extracts from Asia and more all to no avail. During this time, Riley’s right leg and shoulder kind of grew together as the tumor began to overtake his entire front side. He could no longer go on walks with us as his pads on his paws would bleed and this hurt us the most as he would almost “Cry” when he would see us go out the door for our evening walk. Riley became depressed, as did we as a family feeling helpless as we saw our beloved Riley overcome by these tumors.
The tumor on his chest grew into a watermelon then doubled! His chest tumor alone is about 30 pounds and throughout all of this, Riley is still healthy, wags his tail, likes to play tug of war and likes to play with his little brother Woody. Riley limps along to get up and get water, eat his food and go outside for his restroom breaks. He is not in pain as much as discomfort. We now have to use gauze bandages and wraps for his tumor as the tumor drags on the ground when he walks and creates openings to where it will leak fluids and we are worried about an infection so we treat him daily. After we treat his wounds with bandages and antiseptic, we put a shirt on him and tie the top to keep everything contained and the shirt lifts the tumor about 3 inches to prevent it from dragging.
I know I’m rambling, but we have sought help from all over. Even posting him on You Tube. We are feeling totally helpless and do not have thousands of dollars to spend as I am in the construction industry in Central California and bidding opportunities have shrunk by 50% within the last few years. We have spent many moments crying as we think his time is near to where we need to take him in to put him down. The problem is that Riley absolutely LOVES to “Go-Bye Bye” as those words are his que to grab his leash, (Which he will do and put it in his mouth and bring to us to leave the house). We cannot bear the thought of having him so happy to leave the house only to not return home with us. We want to have his chest tumor operated on to just “reduce” its size to buy him some more time with his family. He’s only 7 and if it wasn’t for this tumor, he would easily have another 6 or 7 years left in him! We would really like to create some sort of fundraising event so we can afford to take him to a top specialist and maybe by posting his story, maybe somebody reading this can offer Riley a chance of hope.

— John from Clovis, CA

My best friend is Charlie.   He is a three year old Coton De Tulear – a wonderful breed related to the Bichon.

Charlie brings me happiness in so many ways.  He is intelligent, athletic, and playful and has a unique sensitivity to his surroundings.  He is always so happy to see me and I truly look forward to our hour-a-day of play.  He loves to go with me any place I go and is as loyal as they come.

Charlie has the uncanny ability to know what I’m going to do before I do it.  He is always ready with an answer to any situation that arises.

Charlie is such a loving little dog that I can’t imagine life without him.  He is truly a blessing.

Most of my friends think I’m nuts.  I’m a runner and am avid about my gym workouts.  At 6′ 2″, 225lbs I’m probably not someone you would think would be in love with a 15 pound dog.  But I am.

— John from Tulsa, OK

His name was “Dozer”. His heart was just as big as he was. He was my “Big ‘ol Goofy Boy!”
When I came out of the local Mom and Pop grocer, there he was. Giant head, huge paws, deep aqua blue eyes.Would have made Mr Sinatra jealous.  All wrapped by the most deep, almost liquid looking black fur. The most “handsome” puppy I had ever seen. I feel for Him almost instantly. The fact he was the biggest in the litter, running about the back of that old Chevy pickup truck, bowling over any and all sibling pups who dared to stand up to him!
Took him home of course. Upon my arrival and after seeing the puppy, all my wife said was “No!” I just planted my garden and “that thing” will just tear out all my vegetables… Ahhh, I will take care of him. Bonus I will build you a fence around your garden to keep him out. “See Hun,” I say to her. “everybody wins”  “H\’ll make a great guard dog when He is grown!”   Well, she folded after seeing those big blue eyes!

Long story shorter. Dozer grew and grew into a beautiful Black Lab.

I miss him. After losing my job, sorry Mark, I work as a Union Ironworker. Still consider myself a Independent conservative tho :P  Anyway the savings ran out after 10 months and the wife had her hours cut.. I just couldn’t keep him any longer. Dozer and my 15 year old son were eating me outta house and home. :(

So, it was with a very heavy heart that I had to find Dozer somewhere else to live his life. Away from me and his really new adopted family. Had Dozer for a brief 17 months. It was hard emotionally and mentally. I Had to find Dozer the perfect Home… It took me 3 weeks to pick the right place. A local family up here where I stay in the lower mountains in Fresno county.

They had 4 kids. Ages 5 to12 years old. Dozer took to them like a over protective mother hen. I gave the Father Dozer favorite tug rope and His BIG ol dinner bowl. Shook the mans hand. Thanked him for the great home for Dozer, I turned and walked away…

Last time I saw my “Big ‘ol Goofy Boy!!”

— Ronald from Auberry, CA

I have had other dogs and my last dog Sandi was so good it took me five days to make the decision to put her to sleep – if it wasn’t for Labor Day weekend coming up at that time I may have put it off but decided it wasn’t fair to her to see her suffer, even though she just lay there.

I now have Sparky, an 11 1/2 year old Cocker Spaniel.  I love Sparky dearly even though he can be a terror – it is known Cockers have a mind of their own but he is cute and lovable.  He now has arthritis in his neck and back and I have him on medications from the vet.  I live on the second floor and have a problem getting him to go downstairs – unfortunately I can’t carry him as I have a disabled shoulder from being hit from behind in a car accident years ago and since I’m in remission from Leukemia and have to take medication for this it damaged my tissues and the surgery failed – get physical therapy on and off to help me.  My neighbor downstairs knows when I shout “now’  Sparky knows I mean business and comes down the stairs.  When it comes time to go back up he flies up with no problem.

Seeing him going downhill is so painful and he sees the vet at least every other month due to other problems too.  It really hurts.  They say Cockers live 10-12 years and he’s approaching 12 but with his problems some days I worry he isn’t going to make it.

Pets do give unconditional love and when you live alone they are really great company,  My friends think I’m crazy as I’m 74 and say if Sparky goes would definitely get another dog but even leaving him for the day at the groomers it gets lonely.

— Marilynn from Medford, NY