Diana Lerner
Diana Lerner
(by Sandra Lerner)
In the summer of 2013, our exquisite golden retriever Abigail was starting to slow down, and was not as playful as she was when she was younger. Bruce loves a playful golden, and so he let me know he was interested in getting another. At various times in our lives, we have had 2 goldens, and that just makes everything twice as nice, so it was always fine.
We thought that this time we would like to spare ourselves the hard work of raising a puppy, although we always have started with a puppy. I located a prestigious kennel in central New Jersey, and we called to ask them if they had a young adult they would consider selling.
They had a 5 year old named Diana, who had had 2 litters, but whom they decided was not the best breeding dog they had, so they said they would sell her to us. Her AKC registered name was “Dianthus,” after a flower I had never seen, and which I promptly became familiar with.
We drove a long way to meet Diana for the first time, on a hot summer day in 2013. She was a kennel dog, and had never lived in a house, or been part of a human family. When they called her in to meet us, she flew in at the sound of her name, and sat down immediately to look up at the person who called her, as if to say, “What may I do for you?”
She was a big girl ― she weighed 76 pounds, and was the color of honey. So obedient, so gentle and so beautiful. We took her home.
She had a hard time adjusting to being a family dog, with a house and people, but eventually proved to be our first “lap dog” golden. She loved to sit on Bruce’s lap.
In July of 2014, we brought home a golden puppy, Annabelle Sunshine (we call her Annie.) She was not friendly toward Diana, and in fact, attacked her so often that we needed to keep both dogs separated.
One day, I saw Diana limping, and I thought Annie might have bitten her leg, and bruised her. We brought her to our wonderful vet, and he determined that she was limping because she had a tumor in her right front leg. This was devastating for understandable reasons ― she was young, and she had just joined our family. Our local vet referred us to Hope Veterinary Specialists in Malvern, PA. They were at the forefront of treating dogs with cancer. We drove 115 miles to meet the incredible veterinarians there. Diana was assessed to be eligible for Cyberknife treatment, designed to kill her tumor, and then would be a patient of the incredible oncologist, and our local vet for support.
We understood that if Diana did not undergo treatment, the humane thing would have been to euthanize her, so she would not suffer the pain of her disease. It was a no-brainer. We signed on, and then began a long, painful, beautiful and expensive journey.
Diana would receive monthly infusions of pamidronate, a bone filler, at our local vet in West Orange, and would go to Pennsylvania every 6 weeks for treatment from the oncologist.
Along the way, she needed medication for pain and swelling, and I became the queen of Pill Pockets. All the time, she was the sweet, beautiful, loving girl we brought home.
She was always ready to go out, to come to us, and to be part of our daily lives. Eight months into her treatment for osteosarcoma, she could not stand up one day. We knew we had gone as far as we could.
The Hope Veterinary Specialists gave us 8 months of love and life with Diana. It was very, very expensive to treat her at two veterinary hospitals all this time, but during those months, she lived a practically normal life. She was playful, interactive and hungry.
We lost on her on May 6th. She could not stand up. The doctors at Hope VS had let us know that the cancer had finally started to spread to her chest, and there would be no further treatment possible.
She was a brave, beautiful, gentle angel, who reminded us so deeply of the love we share with our pets. We have not a moment of regret for what we did to keep her alive, pain free.
It was horrific to lose her after less than 2 years together. We still can see her watching the backyard from the kitchen window.
In the end, she made our lives better for knowing and loving her.
