So… our story. Spencer is 4.5 years old. He is a rescue doberman who was picked up in Atlanta. He had been set to be euthanized at the animal shelter in Dekalb County when he was picked up by a rescue. We were considering getting a dog and I was combing the petfinder site and came across Spencer. We were leaning towards another doberman as I had one doberman when I was in high school and college, and then had adopted another one after college who we had when we got married. Both of those dogs had been wonderful pets. Both had natural ears. Adolph – our dog when I was in high school – was a black/rust doberman who my family got from a breeder when he was a puppy. Baron was a red doberman who I adopted from a co-worker’s ex-girlfriend when she couldn’t keep him due to a job change.
We saw Spencer on petfinder – a red doberman with natural ears –
and had to find out more. The kids and I went with my mom out to meet him. We talked to the rescue. E-mailed with them. Then my husband and I went out to meet him and we adopted him.
When he was young he was… high spirited… as most young dobermans are. But he was great with the kids and fell in well with our family.
In recent months he had fallen into that wonderful age for dobermans – around 4 years old they start to calm down a little. he was enjoying laying around with the kids on the floor and going out to play in the yard.
In June I noticed that he had a slight limp. It wasn’t even really a limp. It was just that his gait wasn’t quite right. My husband took him to the vet, they checked him out and couldn’t find anything to explain it. He took an NSAID for a day or two and was back to normal. No further problems.
Then on August 17 I was walking with him down to the school bus stop and I noticed that his left shoulder looked really muscular. I felt it and it was hard. Definitely didn’t feel like a fatty tumor (something my last doberman had quite a few of). I called the vet from the bus stop and the kids took Spencer straight to the vet.
Right away the vet knew things weren’t good. Spencer seemed to not even notice this large mass on his shoulder. I couldn’t understand how I had never seen it before. I know at first the vet was wondering HOW I had missed something that BIG. But as we talked we started to realize it must have grown really fast. We knew it was not there 2 months before when he went in to get checked for that limp. He had actually been kenneled at the vet in July while we were out of town and we all agreed it wasn’t there then either. This thing was growing fast.
Our family vet decided we should leave Spencer overnight and they would do surgery first thing in the morning. Mostly to biopsy it; but also to possibly see if it could be removed. I tried to be brave and not let on to the kids that things weren’t looking good; but when the vet mentioned the likelihood that Spencer would have to have his leg amputated I just couldn’t keep from crying. Which set the kids off. We were a pretty sad foursome!
Here is a picture that I took of Spencer on the first day of school – August 15. Somehow none of us noticed this!
Cute pic! It’s crazy, though, how fast these tumors grow isn’t it? And, of course, scary.
It’s so hard when you first get the dx. I hope Spencer is with you guys for a looooong time to come!
Hang in there,
Jackie, Abby’s mom
Hi, I just saw this. Spencer is really beautiful. It’s a great picture of him and your son. You were so nice to email me when I put a question out about my dog Harley. I was thinking about you and wanted to see if I could find any updates on Spencer and just saw this story. So he is a rescue just like Harley. You just want to do so much more for them to try to make up for their past. I had to laugh when you said your first dog’s name was Adolph because that was my father’s name! I will keep Spencer in my thoughts and prayers. Take care.
Kathy and Harley