August the 16th soon became the worst day of my life thus far. At 9:00 in the morning I was told that my best friend had an aggressive form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma.

Gracie began limping on her back leg in July. We first thought that she jumped off the bed and hurt herself. We took her to the vet who told us that Gracie may have an ACL tear. She gave us some pain meds & told us to give it some time to see if it gets better but…if it doesn't she would possibly need to have an operation to repair the tear.

We took Gracie home & she seemed fine. There were days that she was very playful and others where she kinda limped a little. We thought that she just over did it and needed to rest. A few weeks went by and Gracie had a couple bad days in a row. She didn't want to even put weight on that leg. This is when we knew we had to take her in to get x-rays to see what our options were for ACL surgery.

Sitting in the exam room we waited while they took her to do x-rays. When the Dr. came back he told us that Gracie had a black spot inside her leg bone and it was most likely bone cancer. This hit me so hard. For a moment the world stopped….. I felt sick……It was so much for me to wrap my brain around. I thought to myself… this can't be, she tore her ACL right?

The Dr. took us back to show us Gracie's X-ray. He showed us a normal leg bone & then Gracie's. He said this type of cancer eats the bone from the inside out. He also told us it is very painful. We went back in the exam room and sat down. He brought us a box of tissues and told us what our options were.

He said that to control her pain we should have the leg removed asap. He also told us that we are dealing with a very aggressive form of cancer that moves to the lungs. He then said no matter what step we took next Gracie's life expectancy would be 3-6 months. Then he left the room to take chest x-rays of my little girl. The chest x-rays did not show any masses but…he told us that it is possible that small cancer cells could be there and just too small to detect.

I sat there…3-6 months. I wasn't letting it sink in...... my dog didn't come with an expiration date. I began to get mad..... Why Gracie? My husband & I have done nothing but take the best possible care of her. She is our child & we treated her like one. She has her own bedroom, her own Bulldog Christmas tree I set up every year. She is the queen of our couch (we sit where she allows us to). I bought her the best foods, best treats. She comes first. Didn't I do everything right? Why her?

Soon the Dr. brought her back into the room. My husband & I did our best to collect our emotions. We did not want her to know or sense that we were upset. We kneeled down & kissed her & told her how strong she was & how we needed her to stay strong.

The drive home seemed like it took hours.

We now had some hard discussions to make. I got on the net and read everything I could about osteosarcoma. Everything the Dr. told us was right. But…what he didn't know is our little girl has a drive like no other (remember…she's a Bulldog).

After reading all we could about this type of cancer, we quickly decided to have her leg amputated. This was a very hard decision but….I knew we were doing the best thing for her.

Gracie went in on August 20^th for surgery and we picked her up the evening of the 21^st. When they brought Gracie out she was a real trooper. You would never know that she had four legs in the past. She amazed us. They even said she bit their office cat. Yep…that sounds like my girl. It was so good to see her & bring her back home with us.

We know that we are in for the fight of our lives. I can't tell you that Gracie has had all perfect days since her operation but…I can tell you that we are very hopeful & are going to do everything we can for her. As long as she shows us she has a drive for life…we will keep going.

Gracie has been so strong though all of this (so much stronger than her mom & dad). She is not only my best friend…she is my hero.