We made it to year number 3!
I remember sitting at the UW Madison Vet Teaching Hospital on March 17th 2010. It was a beautiful spring day. I had brought my lawn chair along for the wait and ended up taking a nap outside in the sun while they amputated Josie’s leg, shoulder blade and lymph node. Wow…it seems like only yesterday.
But here we are….3 years later…and my “little” lucky charm is still hopping through the clover! Hoppy St. Patrick’s Day to Josie – The Greatest Dane!!!
As you can see, I don’t blog very often anymore…my last blog was exactly one year ago! I used to use the blog as my way to cope, to find help, advice, get answers, almost a bit of therapy….after a while I found that I have that all right at home. Josie has always been the one to know when things are wrong and she can tell me just about anything with her eyes. I also have an amazing friend I found through this site…Sue Von Rosen Zieske, Queen Nova’s Mom. She has been my go-to girl and I look forward to hopefully meeting her and her beautiful girls this summer!
Josie has had two extremely scary episodes this past year where she was actually walking on 2 legs….yes, TWO legs!!! I thought it was the end….time to say goodbye. Instead, she has been diagnosed with arthritis in her hips and pelvis. She also has old torn ACLs in both her knees. Her amazing doctor started her on Adequin injections twice a week along with Rimadyl and Gabepentin pills. She is down to getting her Adequin once a month and that along with the pills have her hopping and running like no ones business! Dont get me wrong, she still has bad days when she overdoes it, she will be real slow to get up and will favor her rear left leg. BUT….she is happy and hoppy 99% of the time! She still loves to get outside in the cold Wisconsin weather, eat snow and run with her two sisters! Yes, we adopted another Dane, Orra Ireland, on New Years Day this year. She is a 10 month old Merle and is a wonderful addition to our family. I think she brought some spunk back in Josie’s life. Miss Gully is almost 6 now, so young Orra is keeping them both on their toes!
On the wonderful day of February 24th Josie celebrated her 9th birthday in style…cake, ice cream and presents and best of all, her human sister Brittany came home for the day!
Tomorrow (March 17th 2013) is officially her 3rd Tripawd Ampuversary…I ordered her yet another cake and we will celebrate once again. I hope there are many more cakes in our future!!!!! (I had to explain what an “Ampuversary” was to the lady in the cake department at our local grocery store, she thought the cake was for a little girl that couldn’t pronounce Anniversary…)
Hoppy Ampuversary my sweet Josie!
Congratulations Josie! THREE YEARS IS AMAZING!!!!! I think you’ve caught some of Nova’s magic over there because really, this is another “unheard of” case that proves that miracles ARE pawsible!!!
Ma, don’t feel bad about not blogging. I think it’s wonderful that you’ve been living life to the fullest with your special pups. In the end that’s really all that matters, that you all get to have the time of your lives.
I’m so happy for you guys! We salute you in this miraculous milestone! If you don’t mind, I’m putting your post in our “Size and Age” matters forum because I really want people to see that outcomes like this are possible, especially with big dawgs.
Wooooohoooo!!!!!
Josie, you are AMAZING!!!! I hope you have a wonderful celebration with your family, with lots of yummy treats, and plenty of love.
And I can’t wait to see the meeting between you and Nova! I really hope you gals can get together this summer!
Congratulations to you and Josie! 3 years is amazing. May there be many more.
Josie girl, CONGRATS! You are an inspawration. CONGRATS!!!! You look great and it sounds like you’re doing really well with your new meds. Keep it up, big gal!
Thank you so much for sharing Josie’s and your story. Our 6 1/2 yr old Great Dane, Daisy, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her right front paw two weeks ago. My wife and I have been wracked with grief and fear, but we’ve spent the past hour reading your blog, and have taken new hope from your story. Daisy is our baby, just like your Josie, and we need to do whatever we can to help her. She’s full of life and not ready to say goodbye yet.
Today is Tuesday, July 16th, and she’s scheduled for surgery at the Colorado State Univ. Vet Teaching Hospital this Thursday. We are torn between the limb sparing procedure and amputation, which seems to be a much more straight-forward surgery with a much lower risk of complications.
However, both have plenty of benefits and risks–Daisy was also just diagnosed last month with tenosynovitis in her LEFT shoulder, so we’re worried that leaving her with just that front leg might handicap her too much with only three legs…I guess it’s impossible to balance all of the potentials and “what-ifs” to make a decision that is 100% right. You have given us hope that whichever procedure we go with, we can give our Daisy more time and a good quality of life, and reminded us that we have to stay happy for her. THANK YOU!!