Sebastian
Success Stories
Sebastian "Bassy"
VA - 2014
Dear Brown Dog Foundation,
We are so grateful for your help and would like to share our experience with our Sebastian and our situation that led us to you.
I had always wanted a Harlequin Great Dane and was so incredibly excited a few years ago when my husband showed me a picture of Sebastian online when I got home from work. He was an adorable 4-5 week old puppy at the time being advertised for sale on the Internet through a breeder about three hours from us. I had been teaching summer school that year, so my husband suggested I use my summer school pay to buy him since it was extra income for us. :) He was my dream dog, and two years before I had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and gone through treatment, so I was really wanting this cuddly puppy to brighten things up.
We contacted the breeder and three weeks later we were bringing Sebastian home. :) He has been as wonderful as I imagined. He is loving, cuddly, a huge lap dog, and just an overall happy boy.
This past year has been a rather difficult year for us. My husband was involved in a child support case where is his ex wanted to switch our usual child support payments so they went through the court instead of us mailing them directly to her as we alway did. Their court case became very involved, we're in another state, and unfortunately for us resulted in a mistake by the magistrate. My husband was ordered to pay back child support even though he had proof that we had already been paying it though personal checks. Not only did we now have to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers and court fees but more than half of my husband’s paycheck was being taken for child support we had already paid. As we are both teachers and I have three children of my own this is not something we were prepared for.
Shortly afterwards, our oldest dog, Harley was diagnosed with several medical problems that required extensive testing and now a lot of medication. Finally, last month we were told Sebastian had a mast cell tumor and required major surgery to have it removed. We were overwhelmed. Our credit cards were basically full from the court situation and with most of my husband’s check taken by the court, we are having difficulties paying the payments. Adding another bill wasn’t possible at this time. We were scared for Sebastian not to have the surgery as it was explained to us that without it the cancer would definitely spread, but we were not able to afford the surgery either. We considered giving him to rescue which broke my heart and infuriated me at the same time. I immediate began searching for ways to get help and found the Brown Dog Foundation.
I was so relieved and that we had found an answer to Sebastian’s problem. He had his surgery on Dec. 3rd for the tumor removal. We were told if clean margins were obtained, it would be likely that this one surgery would save his life. The pathology report returned that Bassy’s tumor was a grade 2 mast cell tumor, but with CLEAN MARGINS!!!!! He should be cancer free now! We are just monitoring him closely. He did not have an easy time after surgery, as his sutures opened multiple times since the tumor was in a mobile, muscular area, and once terribly, his first day home. He had a severe arterial bleed and spend the night in the ER vet, and following that he had a pretty terrible infection. He is finishing up his antibiotics now, and has returned to the happy, puppy-like, playful Dane we knew before.
We are grateful to Brown Dog and can not express the thankfulness we have for them in allowing us to treat our dog’s condition through their foundation.
