Nov 6th, 2012
About Marlie
Me and my Girl
Marlie is an eleven year of retired racing greyhound ( racing name “PA’s Minaki”) …although she has never actually raced. Instead, our little girl spent her first six years as a blood donor dog in Texas. She came up to Canada through Southern Alberta Greyhound Association and ended up in a home outside of Calgary. When she first arrived in Canada, she also was fostered with another retired racer, Digimon Didit (“Digit”), who would find his home with me and my husband, Jeremy. After the family decided to give Marlie up, she ended up with Mark Abrams ( SAGA’s Founder) and his brood of greys. Marlie moved up to Edmonton to a new home, but the home was not suitable and she was removed and returned to Calgary. She again landed at Mark’s house, who decided that he would keep her. When Mark decided to move to the US, he contacted me and my hubby and asked if we would consider taking her. We had lost our little grey girl, Eva, a year earlier and we wanted a friend for Digit. Digi and Marlie were re-united and we were instantly in love with this sweet little girl.
Marlie’s personality makes everyone love her instantly. She is very gentle and loves all dogs, kids, and people after a few minutes. She loves to sleep and is only awakened by me coming home or when she is hungry…. which starts around an hour before her dinner time. ( she does not agree with sleeping in, either, if it means that her breakfast is late!) She has a slightly malformed jaw so some times it looks like she is wearing hillbilly teeth– earning her the nickname “Derp”
Although she has always been a little slow and lazy, in late September, we noticed she was limping slightly and having problems with the stairs. Our usual vet did an X-ray and thought it was a muscle pull or strain. Mark thought it may be corns on her feet. Neither seemed to help her prognosis and the limp got worse. About three weeks later, our vet X-rayed again and found a lump. A biopsy first came back negative, but a second deeper biopsy said it was hemangiocarcinoma.
With heavy hearts, we made an appointment with an oncologist– and the best case scenario for Derpy’s health seemed to be amputation of the leg. Luckily, Marlie’s lung X-ray and ultrasounds showed that no mets were found in her other tissues and there was a chance that the hemang had not spread.
Her amputation was November 05, 2012. Ten days later we received the confirmation that it was osteosarcoma and not hemangiosarcoma– which we have decided to look at as ” good news”. She is set to have her first carboplatin ( courtesy of Ohio Stare University) on December 03, 2012. Other than a low white blood count on November 29 and a general dislike of physiotherapy, all so far seems well.
More to come….
