Brutus's Page

Weight: 90
Breed: Other
Age when diagnosed: 11

Tumors:

In Aug of 1996 I lost my beloved Bruin, a Shar Pei to renal failure at age 7, I was devastated and never thought I could go thru that heartache again by allowing another dog to steal my heart. A friend of mine knew someone who had a litter of Pit Bull puppies and insisted I take a look, everyone was convinced I needed another dog to pull me out of that sadness. That November we went to see the puppies, they were 10 weeks old, I instantly fell in love with the biggest goofiest one of the pack, Rudy who soon became Brutus and my little doggie soulmate. That March we bought our home and felt we should get Brutus a companion to keep him company while we were at work, we adopted Bella, another pit bull from a back yard breeder, I felt like we saved her from a terrible life and they were instantly joined at the hip. We went thru a number of life changing events and a few obstacles with Bru, he became dog aggressive to strange dogs at age 1.5, we had to plan our camping trips and vacations with our doggies accordingly, we always had the furthest campsite, we had to hike for miles down cliffs to go to deserted beaches to let them play where no other sane person would go ;-) then at 4 Brutus developed some moles, they were melanoma, every 6 mos we would have them removed and tested, the results always came back benign, thankfully. as Brutus got older he got better about strange dogs and we could tolerate other dogs in our space without chaos. at about 10 years old he started to knuckle his rear feet when he walked and back to vet he went, after a series of test they determined Brutus had developed nerve damage and he would eventually lose all feeling in his hind quarters. in September of 07 we ordered Brutus a dog cart from Eddies Wheels and he was back to running and catching sticks. this week we found a huge lump on his left knee that literally showed up overnight, he had fractured the knee while pulling himself around his room and it had swelled to the size of a grapefruit. Monday we took him to the vet and then to a specialist who told us the devastating news that Brutus had bone cancer in that leg. I felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. The vet gave us the option of amputation but could not guarantee that he had not already spread even though the xrays should no evidence of it in his chest. We decided against the amputation because he has been through so much already, at his age it would be more about us than him and I could never put him through that. Brutus has been a challenge, but he has taught us so much and he loves unconditionally. We learned so much about this breed, how awful people can be based on what they hear in the media,we learned a lot of life lessons, and I would not change one thing. Our focus is to give him the best possible time he has left filled with all of his favorite things and keep him comfortable until we have to say goodbye. Brutus is my heart and I'm lucky to have him in my life.

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