Hello everyone! I would like to introduce myself and my pup, and our story.  I am Vanessa and his name is Brady (if the user name didn't give it away lol). We are from Miami FL and October was a very eventful month for us! A little background - Brady is an almost 9 year old Red Doberman Pinscher, I found him on Craigslist from some guy who was selling 2 puppies he had recently purchased because "it was an impulse buy" and realized he "couldn't take care of them". By the time I contacted him the female was already sold and I was told if i didn't pick up the male that same night some one else was coming the next morning to get him. I immediately called my BF (not living together at the time) and asked him for the green light (since he was going to be his bday gift)... BF said ok, so as soon as I got out of work I rushed to meet the guy and pick up the LOVE OF MY LIFE - no collar, no leash, no food or bowls - we had absolutely nothing ready for his arrival, so i rushed to Petco to buy his essentials. 

Brady lived with his dad for the 1-2 yrs of his life until we finally moved in together in March 2013, although we had a lot of sleepovers before that. Brady loves making new human and fur-friends, always had tons of fun going to the dog park - although there were a few scuffles. Loves to run and play in the sand at the beach, also likes to dip his toes in the shore and go for swims in the shallows. I don't think we met many strangers that didn't love him once they got past the "Vicious Doberman" idea they had painted in the minds. He has had many platonic girlfriends but never any puppies because we do not believe in profiting off of him and/or breeding him since there are already many dogs who need homes ...although we had many offers even after his neuter! lol then in 2014, we gave Brady a little brother - miniature schnauzer, Rocky - you can say its a typical sibling love/hate relationship

Fast-forward to October 2020 - our family of 4 has moved to a new bigger home with a yard and one day while doing what Brady did best, being a couch potato and getting a chest/belly rub, I noticed a hard lump on the inside of his left hind knee. At this time, Brady has a few lumps on his body but they are all squishy and can be moved around, vet had them checked in the past and said they were of no concern. However, I knew this hard lump was of concern. At first i thought, maybe an insect bite? we did just move to a new area with many trees and bushes, on top of him being very sensitive to environmental allergies, so I gave it a day or two and realized it wasn't going down but growing in size so I mentioned it to Brady's dad and we agreed to rush him to the vet the next morning. He had a cytology done and we were sent home. about 2 days later we received a call saying it looked like a spindle cell sarcoma, we then met with the surgeon and she recommended x-rays and ct scans plus a consult with a cardiologist - because of Brady's breed and age and his heart murmur, she did not feel comfortable operating until we knew his heart was ok because of possible DCM. We decided on x-rays of the leg with the lump and his chest cavity and dropped him off. The x-ray results seemed to reveal the lump was on the bone and that his heart was of normal size with no detectable spread of cancer to his organs - so the surgeon approved him for surgery. However, the battle began between Brady's dad and I. 

Since the day we had the cytology done, I knew what was coming (osteosarcoma) and i read my eyeballs off of what could be coming in the near future. I already had made up my mind by the time we dropped him off for the x-rays but I don't think Brady's dad was prepared. There was conflict to say the least - I wanted to amputate and he wanted pain management . long story short - he reluctantly gave in and i won and now here we are. tomorrow will be 2wks since Brady's surgery and we will be taking him to have his stitches removed. I have to say that I knew recovery was going to be about a good month and that the first week was going to be roughest but Brady has blown everyone away with his resilience - especially his dad; and it makes me sooo happy that he was finally come around to agree this was the right decision for all of us.

We are still "tripawd-proofing" our home as this all happened so quickly. I've purchased an additional bed, raised food bowls, a special harness, musher's paw, a little radio flyer wagon because Brady loves his walks around the neighborhood but gets tired on the way back, 3 carpets and counting, and many vitamins and supplements to support his immune system and joints because we are attacking this with a holistic approach too! on top of that we have started a diet so Brady can shed some pounds - standing tall at 82-ish lbs with four legs we need to alleviate those joints a bit. We will see tomorrow his updated weight. His brother is joining in on the weightloss journey too lol 

I hope to figure out how to post pictures soon so I can share with you all our beautiful boy