Ray the Rottie

Ray July 2010

Ray’s journey – with us – began in July 2006. My husband & I rescued Ray when he was approximately 3 years old. We were told that he came up from down south and was a rescue from Hurricane Katrina. He was in pretty bad shape…he had lived in a kennel for about a year & was blind from his untreated entropia. That same month we had eye surgery for him at UPenn that would finally end the agonizing pain he endured every time he blinked his eyes. We thought this would be the worst of his days and vowed to spoil him with lots of love and attention. When we first brought Ray home we quickly discovered his “dislike” for other dogs. He was an only child at the time but now 4 years later he has 3 siblings after we rescued his sister Storm. We rescued her from a kill shelter in S.C. and after some wonderful pilots from Pilots N Paws flew her here, we took her to our vet who told us she was pregnant. In March 2010 she gave birth to 10 puppies. Ray was still not in love with the idea of siblings, so we kept everybody seperated. Once the pups were about 8-9 weeks old, we found them great homes and adopted them out and kept 2!! Tatonka and Theodore are now little brothers to Ray and he actually has come to LOVE having them around – and now more than ever, I see how they make a difference in his life and give him that extra “spunk” that he needs since be diagnosed with Osteosarcoma.

Yup, that’s right, our poor Ray was diagnosed with bone cancer on 9/18/10. Ray had been at the vet 8/14/10 for a checkup and he had no signs or symptoms of the bone cancer than. Our vet is AMAZING to say the least. He truly cares about Ray. Not long after that appointment we noticed one day that he was limping. Ray is a 100lb Rottie and would jump in and out of my husband’s truck – so when we saw him limping we thought maybe he hurt himself doing just that. The limp seemed to disappear but when it returned we took him back to the vet, fearing it was his hips or lyme’s disease. Never in a million years did we think he had cancer. Upon examination by our vet, he felt a lump on the rear left leg and was worried. An xray confirmed our vet’s suspicions…cancer. We were deeply devasted at the news. We made an appointment at UPenn for a consult on 9/23/10 & on 9/24/10 Ray had his leg amputated. We initially thought after first hearing the diagnosis that we would not choose to amputate but after leaving Penn we were convinced that amputation was the only choice. We just want what’s best for Ray & amputation gives him that chance to live the rest of his life without the pain. After talking to our Vet and reading everything from the tripawds site, we felt like we made the right choice.

Ray trying on his Halloween pirate costume a week before his diagnosis

Christmas 2009