Hello All,

Wow, what a lot has happened in only a few weeks. Where would we be without the fantastic support we've received from all of the lovely kind dogs (& people) here on the tripawds website? You are all so generous and giving.

Two weeks today on from the amputation and after lots of ups and downs, as you all so rightly warned us, life is so much brighter! My stiches were taken out yesterday, in the boot of mum's car (because I was quivering with apprehension at the prospect of going into the vet's surgery). Thanks to "Jerry", "Bevd", "Smokey" and "Luvyourpets" and all who had more faith than my family did during these fearful few weeks and guessed better than they did how strong I would be. 

Straight from the vet to a local park to finally re-acquaint myself with some of the local canines, so nice to meet up with some dogs after so many fussing humans. One puppy kept sniffing my amputation site – so rude!!!

My family simply cannot believe the progress I have made. They are so proud of me. My four year old human playmate declared that it was great to have the old Alfie back – no problems from him or his six year old brother adjusting or coping at all.

Who knows what will happen next? Our very kind vet is talking "when" not "if" which we all know is fair enough given the odds, but we're going to do our best to beat them, just like our wonderful inspirational Jerry and his family have, what a fab example to us all.

Will be keeping in touch with you all – we're part of the tripawds family now after all. Hope my story offers some support to all of you out there who are going through all of this. Remember I'm only nineteen months old, so age is on my side, recovery might just take longer for our more mature friends. It's still early days for me, I'm taking it easy and building up my strength and tripawd ability, but here's to LIFE!

Special wishes to my soul mate "Sandy W", hope you are doing OK, would love to hear from you when you can.

Alfie (& Linda) xxx

Hi Alfie! Way to go! I am so glad to hear you're doing so great! And even though I come here almost every day, somehow I missed your update til now.

My pawrents are also amazed at how well I'm doing! Of course I'm older and have a lazier nature than you do, so I'm not quite ready for a trip to the park yet! But I get around my house and yard fine, including down the full flight of stairs – I take it slowly but I'm wagging my tail the whole time! My mom tried playing a little catch with me indoors yesterday, nothing very demanding, and I would have played longer except I got pretty tired after just a couple of catches. I'd just rather lie around anyway – nothing new about that!

I did start chemo a week ago – IV adriamycin and then oral cytoxan a few days later, for 4 days. I do it again in 2 weeks. It doesn't seem to be bothering me, except maybe I'm just a little more tired these past couple of days. The vet told my mom side effects often show up in about a week.

Anyway, enough about me, I am so happy you're feeling good!