Meet Bozwell

This is my sweet boy. He is 11 years old and was my first rescue dog. He was at the shelter at 6 months old and by 9 months old, his time was up at the shelter and they were going to put him down. I fought for him. I fought really hard for him. They turned me down multiple times because I lived in an apartment at the time and they said he needed a fenced in yard. I argued that being in an apartment meant I would have to take him for walks and couldn't leave him in the yard alone to fend for himself, but they still would not allow me to adopt him. My friend agreed to adopt him for me. She had to show proof of mortgage, they inspected her home, and finally he was able to leave the shelter but they had no idea he came home with me. His life has been full of dog park visits, endless toys and antlers to chew on, getting a little brother and a human sister, moving across the country, snuggles every day, his favorite treats and so much more. He has lived an amazing life, but he still has so much life left in him. A few weeks ago, he had an infection in his mouth. He has never let me look in his mouth so I wasn't able to see what was going on, I just noticed the drooling which was abnormal to him. The vet prescribed antibiotics and scheduled an oral exam with sedation. While he was sedated, they found a large mass in his mouth surrounding his back 3 teeth. We scheduled a surgical visit to give a thorough dental cleaning and see if they could remove the mass or get a good amount of tissue for biopsy. They removed most of the mass successfully with minimal bleeding and the doctor was hopeful since the mass did not appear to be attached to much of anything. They sent it off for biopsy and unfortunately the results today showed that he has osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer which the doctor found very surprising as it usually does not begin in the mouth. Our next steps are to see an oncologist and have a CT scan done of his whole body to see if it has spread anywhere else and from there determine if radiation or surgery are good options, but ultimately this is something he likely will not recover from and it will likely reoccur and spready quickly. This boy is so special to me and my heart is broken. I just needed to share his story and ask for good vibes to be sent his way. He deserves all the treats, toys and snuggles. <3 

Thank you for reading!