It hit us a few days ago: without amputation, there'd be little hope that Jackson would be in our lives 3 months after finding his tumor.  Well, we amputated (no hesitation to do so) and we would do it all over again.  Today our 3-legged star is with us and is as good as ever!  We love him TONS and are SO PROUD of his progress, spirit, attitude, and preservation of his (super-) quality of life.  We love you, J-Pod!  Keep on being a J-Hole, in your funny, obstinate way!

To celebrate, we head north to New Hampshire for the weekend.  This will be huge.  It was up in New Hampshire, where his grandpawrents live, where cancer was found and amputation occurred.  For those that don't know the story: I brought Jackson up there a few days before my husband and I were to spend 2 weeks in Europe, just prior to Christmas 2012.  The day before we left, Jackson comes inside (my parents have a ton of land and J's not a wanderer, so he goes in/out without a leash whenever he wants...which is ALL THE TIME) holding his right rear leg up to his hip.  He'd been limping on that leg for a bit, but we'd been medicating it and monitoring his activity.  Well, that night, he finally tore the whole ACL.  That diagnosis required an ER visit at 2am (BTW - I'm leaving out all my tears of stress, emotions, frustrations, confusion about leaving him while on vacation....I was a basket-case), as I didn't want to leave J with my parents for 2 weeks w/o a diagnosis and drugs.  Once stabilized and drugged, I left J up there and came back to CT to fly to Europe with my husband.  It was during our trip that we emailed with my mother's vet about his ACL repair and surgical costs, needs, etc.  We booked the repair Sx (with an ortho specialist) the very day after we'd get home, that way we could begin ACL-repair recovery at their home, over the holidays, with only 2 stairs inside/outside (vs our 12 here).  We had a great time in Europe (Spain and Italy)!  The day we were heading north, we of course got a call from the vet, but the phone call wasn't what I was expecting: it was in those pre-op xrays they found the tumor.  His tumor was weakening his knee, which lead to the partial and final tear of his ACL.  So that Sx was canceled and we began prep for amputation.  What a homecoming!  What a Christmas and New Year's!  A week later, right after Christmas, Jackson had his leg removed (by the same ortho specialist - WOW, what a surgeon!  He came in during his week off to take J's leg!) and recovery began up with my parents.  So you see, he's not been able to tear up those woods for months.  Tonight is going to be epic.  Beware, chipmunks!  Jackson's coming to terrorize you!  I still fear the way he moves he's going to injure his other legs or rear knee.  But, this is His Life.  He's an active boy.  Restricting him is not giving him the life he deserves.  It makes me all teary now just thinking about the life we've been able to maintain and give him (back) over these 3 months.  Please PLEASE let there be 30+ more months!

~ Katy

(Yep, he got a cookie after every one of these shots!  See the Pi on his chest?  He's a nerdy mom's dog for sure!)