Hello my name is Kristin and I am the mom of three small children and two furbabies. One of our loves is a purebred Doberman Pinscher named Tycen. He lives everybit up to the Doberman nickname of a Velcro dog. He is a lover, a leaner and about as sweet as a family pet can possibly be. Tycen is 7 years and 364 days old today. He was born on Christmas Eve, the fattest puppy in his litter and remains a giant Dobie to this day at 92 lbs.

Over Thanksgiving, Tycen forgot his age and his size and jumped off a 7ft retaining wall to chase after my parent's new puppy. Within days he was limping and of course we assumed he was limping due to the wipeout after that jump. A few days later, a large lump developed on his right shoulder. We had it aspirated, then when that came back unknown, biopsied and the diagnosis was lipoma. Tycen has had many many lipomas over the years, but every time a new lump pops up I of course freak out. With this latest diagnosis I sighed another breath of relief, but noticed he never stopped limping. The estimation was that the lipoma was pushing on a nerve causing the limping and would probably need to be removed. We were planning on that surgery after the new year.

Yesterday we had a scheduled appointment with the vet to remove the sutures from his biopsy procedure. In the morning I was doing my usual 'lump check' (I am constantly feeling that dog all over checking for new lumps in case I need to point those out to the vet) when I noticed that his right front wrist was extremely swollen. My husband and I thought, well maybe THIS is what is making that poor dog limp. We thought perhaps it wasn't the lipoma after all, maybe he has a fracture or arthritis. We pointed it out during our visit and of course our vet was concerned and xrays were ordered.

The diagnosis came back quickly and knocked us out. Suspected osteosarcoma. After years of checking and treating lipomas we finally received a cancer diagnosis. This is the moment I was both waiting for and dreading. I don't know, I just figured one day the news wouldn't be fatty tumor.

So today is the 23rd of December. Tycen will be 8 tomorrow. Happy birthday buddy. We of course cannot get in to be seen until after Christmas. He has been limping for a month and we have been explaining it away with other injuries and lumps and now I feel like the clock is ticking. Our vet got us an appointment at Ohio State Univeristy Veterinanrian oncology on Wednesday. She suspects (but of course we will find out exactly the plan on Wednesday) that Tycen may be a good candidate for amputation. NEVER had I thought of my beautiful long legged deep chested Dobie as a three legged animal. But I'm not against the idea either. We will see what the ultimate recommendation is. We had chest xrays and bloodwork a month ago for the lipoma issue and they were clear, we'll see if they want to re-do those.

So here's where the homelessness comes in. We are moving, on FRIDAY. We sold our house and the new owners take possession on Friday. We will be living in a hotel near our new town for over a week until we can get into our new home (2.5 hours away) and we had reservations to kennel both of the dogs. If we go into oncology on Wednesday and they want to amputate on Thursday (let's get this cancer out!!!!!) what do we do with him when he's ready to come home? We won't have a home for almost five days after he would be released and of course the average kennel won't take him. This move has already been one of the most stressful events of my life. Moving Christmas week with three children under age 4 and two pets has been ridiculous. The movers boxed us up last week, so we are surrounded by boxes. The movers will be back on the day of Tycen's oncology appointment to pick the boxes and furniture up. I will be with the dog. My husband will have to the wrangle the three kids and coordinate the move.

When we DO finally get in our new home, it is a much better set-up for a three legged dog. Our Master bedroom will be on the first floor and there really is no reason for him to go upstairs or downstairs until he figures this new lifestyle out. I am just so concerned about what to do with him for that week in between. Hoping to find a vet who will board him for us. I don't know if we should find someone up here near where he will have his surgery so he doesn't have to spend that time in the car or if we should board him near our new home so we can come visit him everyday. Our poor baby dog. This is just awful. Thank you for reading.