Zoe.
Less than 24 hours left to enter and/or vote for your favorite pups for the 2 Million Dogs’ Cancer Can’t Keep a Good Dog Down 2012 calendar contest. The contest ends tonight, October 1st, at 12 midnight Central time. Still a few hours to vote!
Zoe’s Story
(by Carla and Bob Tews) We got Zoe when she was just a tiny little puppy. She was born in a trailer out in the country. Her Mom was a black lab and her Dad was a golden retriever. Since day 1 she was one of the family. She was our only dog (my first) and we spoiled her rotten. We let her on the furniture, she slept on the bed, got tons of presents for Christmas, etc. She was like “our child”. Zoe loved people most of all. Everywhere she went she craved love and affection from everyone! Even total strangers.
It all started when we were watching the Super Bowl. She was sleeping on the couch and had a seizure. We rushed her CSU Emergency where they did a few tests and sent her home. She was okay at first but a few days later she started going downhill.
We were sitting in the exam room at our regular vet and the vet told me straight up “I think this dog has a brain tumor.” I literally felt the blood rush from my body at the sound of these words. The soonest we could get her in to CSU Vet Hospital for testing was almost a week later. It was one week of pure hell watching her deteriorate each and every day.
We dropped her off that Thursday morning telling her everything would be okay. They did a chest x-ray and an MRI of her brain. We went back that afternoon to pick her up and, despite our hopes for treatment, it was a brain tumor and it was already very large and inoperable. We told them we wanted to try radiation. We were prepared to try anything to save her.
That night, her brain swelled from the anesthesia and we could not wake her up. We rushed her back to CSU Emergency. When the on-call vet told us she would most likely not regain consciousness, we decided to let her go peacefully. Just like that – she was healthy one minute, and 11 days later she was gone.
We were completely devastated. We never dreamed we would lose her at 9 years of age from this terrible disease. I thought for sure she would live to be an old girl. I was naive to think that since she was a mixed breed that she wouldn’t have the health problems so many purebred dogs do.
Now that I think back, I wonder if there are things I could have done differently to prevent her from getting cancer. I’m sure pets get cancer for the same reasons humans do, such as exposure to environmental toxins. I tried to be careful but I admit to using pesticides and herbicides while she was growing up. If I had to do it all over again, I would have let the weeds grow and the bugs eat my plants. I have learned my lesson the hard way and I’m bound and determined to do things differently with my next dog. I’ve decided to become an advocate for organic living and now I know of things that I can do to help keep my family and my pets safe.
We still miss Zoe and think of her every day. She was our “Gooberdog”. She brought such joy to our lives and we were so lucky to have her.
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