This is the story about a resilient little dog named Buddy. After feeling the empty dog-shaped hole in our life for what felt like forever, my partner and I decided we wanted to give a dog a second chance at life. After much searching, we found his mugshot all the way down on page 107 of 110 on a pet adoption website. As soon as we saw his sweet little face we knew we had found exactly what we were looking for and almost immediately made the 6 hour drive from Sydney to Albury to meet him. Within 10 seconds of being introduced, we knew that we would be taking him home.
Since 2015 he has been living his best life with us, loudly expressing his many and varied opinions to anyone who will listen in true Staffy fashion. After some time we discovered that he was having behavioural issues and developing a reactive nature. Many failed attempts at training and an extended stint in rehab unfortunately resulted in little change. Thankfully this behaviour only really applied to dogs and motorbikes and anyone that has met him can attest to his sweet and loving temperament. In 2019, we added to our family a Japanese Spitz sister for some company and companionship. Whilst he doesn’t usually get along with other dogs, he grew to love her and the two have been inseparable now for years.
Fast forward to December 2021, Buddy’s behaviour had started to ever so slightly become a little reserved. We noticed a couple of lumps in his neck that had grown over the course of a few weeks so we promptly booked him in to see our local vet just as a precaution. The vet quickly suspected the worst and after some initial tests, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. This came as a big shock to us, as being a small 8 year old terrier, we thought that he would have many healthy years left ahead of him and that cancer was typically found in older dogs. After consultation about our options, within one week he was receiving chemo treatments with Dr Veronika at SASH. We have received nothing but the most kind, caring and attentive service from everyone at SASH, helping to make the best of a bad situation.
Buddy went into remission and returned to his normal behaviour, but some time after completing his treatment, the lymphoma has returned. Luckily we knew the signs this time, however incredibly subtle, and were able to book him in for a consultation quickly. Buddy is now once again in chemotherapy but like before, SASH are doing everything we could hope for to help him. We don’t know what we would do without Buddy in our lives and we’re so glad that our little boy has gotten his third and fourth chance at life. Thanks to everyone at SASH, Buddy continues to be deeply loved by his human parents and canine sister.
