An adult female with long blonde hair wearing a white top and jeans, walking an adult medium-sized dog possibly German Shepherd mix in a residential neighborhood; an older male with short gray hair in a plaid shirt indoors with a yellowish-brown dog possibly Labrador Retriever or similar breed on a light-colored rug near a large plush dog bed 4:56
GeoBeats Animals channel icon GeoBeats AnimalsOriginal creator 737K views Save

Dog on chemo gets ice cream from grandpa

Taylor found Ozzie through an ad for a puppy who needed a new home. He had one brown eye and one striking blue eye, and he did everything at 120 miles per hour. more

His first family was moving somewhere he couldn't go. To Taylor he was "literally just perfect," so she took him home. He was a hyper German shepherd mix with a whole lot of life in him, and he loved hikes and the beach.

One September he began to limp. At the vet, the staff took him back for X-rays, and about ten minutes later the vet came back without him. She put the X-rays up and pointed to a splotch on the bone of his front leg. It was a tumor, and Ozzie had osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bone.

Taylor called her husband, who was in a meeting. He left work and came. The vet gave them three paths. Pain medicine alone might give Ozzie about two months. Surgery to take the leg, four to six months. Surgery plus chemo, nine to 12 months on average. They chose the last one, and the vet took the leg the same day.

Taylor was crying when she came back to pick him up. A vet tech warned her it would be hard to see him, but said he was in great spirits. "And just so you know," she added, "he ate someone's peanut butter toast this morning." Then they brought Ozzie in, walking on his own in his cone. Taylor sat down on the vet's floor, and he lay down on top of her.

For two weeks they slept downstairs on a mattress topper so he wouldn't have to climb the stairs. Chemo began a month after the news. On chemo day he is sick for three or four hours, then he sleeps. The next day, Taylor says, "is like nothing happened," and two or three good weeks follow before the next round.

Taylor's dad lives in another state, so after every chemo round he has ice cream delivered to Ozzie. When he calls, he asks, "How's your son doing?" He knows this road. He got his own cancer news years before Ozzie did. Ozzie can't talk, Taylor says, but the two have gone through something very similar, and that's where they connected.

An adult female with long blonde hair wearing a white top and jeans, walking an adult medium-sized dog possibly German Shepherd mix in a residential neighborhood; an older male with short gray hair in a plaid shirt indoors with a yellowish-brown dog possibly Labrador Retriever or similar breed on a light-colored rug near a large plush dog bed. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Taylor found Ozzie through an ad for a puppy who needed a new home.

Ozzie still loves to hike and kayak, but with one front leg doing all the work, he tires fast. A friend put up a post, people gave money, and the money bought a carrier bag. Ozzie rides in it on the trail, and they have hiked about seven miles that way. "It was pretty heavy," Taylor says, "but he enjoyed it." Keeping him alive without the things he loves, she says, "would just be selfish on our part."

At home, the family's other dog is what Taylor calls a "big goofy girl," usually hyper and fond of lying on top of people. Since the surgery she has turned gentle with Ozzie, as if she knows he is fragile and this is no time for zoomies. She sniffs him a lot more now. The fridge is full of get-well cards, and he has one chemo round left.

A black-and-white dog lies with chin resting on a tan dog while a person's finger strokes the tan dog's face. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Since the surgery, the family's other dog has gone easy on Ozzie and keeps her zoomies in check.

Taylor has had Ozzie longer than she has had her husband. He was there when she got engaged, in the hotel room after the wedding, and on the honeymoon. They have lived in four states together. "He's really being that rock," she says, "and that stability for me."

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