I think Martin was born sometime in April 1999.  (I celebrate his birthday on Earth Day.)  I didn’t meet him until June 1999.  My boyfriend at the time, Marc, was taking a break from work, walking around a run down neighborhood in downtown Dallas, TX.  He saw a little, black, puppy sitting on an old couch someone had left at the curb with some trash.  Being the nice guy that he was, Marc scooped him & took him back to his office. He discovered that someone had put a white leather collar on the puppy, but had never bothered to change it or make it bigger.  The leather had started to be imbedded in Martin’s neck!  He was much better after having that cut off of him.  I still have it, he must’ve been just a tiny thing when they put that on him.  

Marc tried to find someone to take Martin home from his office.  No luck.  So he took him home.  He then called me to come see the new puppy.  A puppy he still wanted to find a new home for.  I love dogs so I eagerly came over, but with no designs on taking him home.  I just wanted to play with a puppy!

I walked into Marc’s kitchen, where Martin was.  I knelt down, stuck out my hand, palm up.  Then this little puppy calmly walked over to me and put his forehead in my hand, so gently.  I was a goner.  That was my dog from then on.  

In all the pictures from that time frame, Martin is just smiling away.  I still believe he knows that he was rescued and has never looked back.  

So we spent the next 11, almost 12 years, happily together, inseparable, for the most part.   

Then, one day in early March 2011, I found a lump on his left hind leg.  I thought it could be another lipoma since he has 2 of those on other parts of his body.  But… this one felt different.  It scared me.  I called my vet first thing on Monday, but she couldn’t see us until Friday.  I anxiously waited for Friday to come around.  When it did, she took some samples to look at it under a microscope but couldn’t tell what it was.  So we scheduled a biopsy for the next Friday.  But over the weekend it got bigger.  He was starting to limp, his hind legs gave out him a couple of times, and his appetite changed.  That really scared me.  Martin Loves To Eat.  I called my vet on Monday, she said she would come in on her day off, Tuesday, to do the biopsy.  She called later that day to tell me it was a tumor.  That’s when the first mention of amputation was brought up.  I cried & cried.  

My vet then referred us to specialists, an oncologist and a surgeon.   The test results came back that it was a soft tissue sarcoma.  My vet and the oncologist recommended amputation as the best way to get rid of the cancer.  I reluctantly agreed.  I just couldn’t imagine how he could live a happy life with 3 legs, everything would be different for him.  But I didn’t want to imagine the alternative, living without him.  

The surgery was scheduled for March 23, 2011.  Before then, I took video and pictures of him with four legs.  Knowing that he was going to be changed forever just shattered me.  But then I then started researching online and found Tripawds.com and downloaded their e-book.  It was so helpful & comforting to read what all of these other people had gone through with their beloved dogs.  I read and re-read, and looked for videos of hind leg amputees.

We had an appointment with the surgeon before the surgery, because she wanted to do a CT scan to make sure she would be getting all the cancer when she amputated.  She also wanted to discuss the bladder stones that were found on the x-ray.  Then the CT scan showed another mass, an anal gland carcinoma.  I was even more scared at this point.  She brought up the option of having all 3 surgeries done at once, as long as his body could handle being under anesthesia for that long. It would be more cost effective and better than having to have him put under again.  I decided yes, to do all 3.  

With trepidation I dropped Martin off on surgery day.  Later that night I got the call that he was out of surgery & waking up.  Sigh of relief.  Then he had to stay in the hospital for 3 nights.  I was sad not to have him with me, but knew they could take better care of him at that time.  I picked up him on Sat morn.  The technicians and the surgeon told me how he had gotten up & moved around in his cage on the day after surgery.  They reassured me that he was going to do just fine.  

Me on the other hand, I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to take care of him correctly.  There were so many meds to give him, hydrotherapy, & cream to be put on.  

So it’s now the 13th day post op.  He’s getting better every day, they took his staples out yesterday.  He’s still having some problems with the rectal area, they actually had to go back in and reinforce some of the suturing.  So even longer to recover and to wear that horrible, plastic e-collar.  And he still has to stay trapped in my kitchen with bath mats and towels due to leakage.  But at least has the Cool Bed III, which I found on Tripawds.com.  It’s taken him awhile to get used to it, but he lies on it.  His appetite is great, and thank goodness for peanut butter.  Only way to get down some of those nasty pills.  I also bought Honest Kitchen Ice Pups, recommended on Tripawds.com.  It’s great, I make the broth and get him to drink more water.  Which he’s not as good at as he is at eating.

To end, (sorry this has been so long), but he’s walking better & further every day.  The little booger would walk further if I let him.  

Thanks for reading our story.