Sonny...

I find that the hardest, saddest animal rescue cases can also be the most heartwarming. I can't resist the hard luck stories as in the end, they end up being the happiest of all animals. This has lead me to adopt a three-legged dog, a kitten with a near-blind eye, a cat that needed to get broken her tail removed, the list goes on and on. We love our kids, each one has a very unique story.

Our dog Sonny is one; he's a very, very special pup. He was rescued in 2005 on a hot Summer day in Los Angeles where a bunch of street guys were feeding him beer. The woman that rescued him pulled up and demanded that they let go of the rope they had around his neck. He immediately jumped in her car and I met him a few hours later. He was a very sweet greyhound/terrier mix, completely dirty at the time with a giant scar that traveled half-way down his body. Vets tell me it was a Frankenstein sew-job. He also has scar tissue covering the skin under his ears. For years he had nightmares nearly every night. And a severe fear of being left alone.

With all of that... Sonny is one of the friendliest dogs I've ever known. He loves meeting people, loves kids, and finds himself more at home around humans than other dogs. He has an intelligence I've never seen in a canine, almost as if he could actually speak to you.

In 2008, Sonny came down with ITP, an auto-immune disorder that caused his body to destroy his own blood platelets. He nearly bled to death while they worked day and night to lower his immune system and stop the attack, as well as get him blood and plasma transfusions until they actually worked. It took three transfusions before his blood began to go back to normal. After that we had to work on keeping his immune system low and getting him tested repeatedly to make sure the ITP didn't return.

Sonny is a very happy dog these days. After everything he's been through, he's now stable and secure enough to be home alone, and he hardly has nightmares now.  He and his pal Zendra are like two peas in a pod.

So... I was quite shocked when I found the glands under his neck to be swelled out like golf balls. And after being tested, we find he has lymphoma. Most likely brought on by his immune disorder. He is not in any way acting ill, so hopefully we're catching this early.

Tomorrow we get him to the oncologist and figure out the plan of attack. I hate to do chemo, but Sonny is a very special case, and we have to really walk the tightrope on how we'll proceed. I've just gotten a whole new holistic supplement system for him to help with what he's got to deal with.

With everything else happening in our lives, this is going to be so hard to afford. Steve has been talking to artists about making special artwork of Sonny. We plan to sell sets of prints of our boy while we deal with the hospital bills to come.