Bongo’s Battle

We are in need of donations for Bongos extensive and ongoing medical care. I feel it’s important that if you are kind enough to donate to our cause you should understand all about Bongo. Sit tight it’s a long story…

One year ago, we rescued Bongo off the streets of Costa Rica. A dog full of sores, skinny and scared.

Danielle spotted him as we drove by and demanded we turn around to help. I’m so glad she did or else I would’ve never met my best friend. We coaxed him near us with food but he would not get close enough to go into the car. A local saw our struggle and grabbed him, tossed him in the car and said, “his name is Bongo”. Poor Bongo peed himself out of fear, and that was just a glance of how he was treated by humans all his life.

Bongo went directly to the vet to get IV fluids and emergency care. He was diagnosed with TVT which is a curable sexually transmitted cancer which would later be treated at Dog Tales as he was not strong enough to under go chemotherapy. While we waited for that time to come, Bongo’s sores began to grow into large painful tumours, which we thought were related to the TVT but ended up being something completely different.

When Bongo got to Dog Tales, the vet removed over 10 tumours and masses. Almost all came back to be Squamous Cell Carcinoma. A malignant tumor of the cells that line the outer layer of the skin. We were told chances of the tumours growing back were possible but not likely. After he was healed from that surgery and doing well it was time to treat the TVT. He underwent 6 chemotherapy treatments by the amazing vet team at Dog Tales.

Everyday I would visit with Bongo. I had no intentions of adopting him and I planned to find him the most amazing home. Each day it got harder doing adoption calls and telling every family about him. All families were discouraged by his ongoing and unknown medical needs. Every call was emotional for me because I felt I was trying to convince people of how amazing he was. It was hard because he was also very attached to me, if he was on a walk with another handler and heard or saw me, even from a distance away, he would cry out for me. I finally told Danielle that I couldn’t live without him and she was happy about my decision. After months of strict quarantine he finally came home.

Introducing him to the pack at home was not easy but all the hard work paid off. They are all loving each other’s company. Everyday I look at him and I cannot imagine life without him. I truly thought after all his medical treatments he was in the clear but only a few months after we decided to forever foster him he became ill.

Bongo has been fighting is entire life and he never seems to catch a break. The last few months have been very tough on Bongo. He had a reoccurring cough that lead to an ultrasound and CT Scan, then led to a possibility he has a growth on his lung. That led to specialist appointments then another ultrasound. During all of this, several lumps started to grow all over his body. Due to his history with Squamous Cell Carcinoma, and the tumours growing at an alarming rate he was scheduled for another surgery. Last week he underwent a surgery and they removed 10 tumours. Again, most came back to be Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

I am truly devastated it has not been even a year and his cancer came back. Something that was supposed to be unlikely to happen. We are now in the process of speaking to an oncologist in the US and also Canada. We are learning about all the natural medicine we can give to Bongo to boost his immune system to fight off and prevent the growth of more tumours in the future. We are looking into targeted treatments that could help him live a longer and good quality life. This fundraiser is only a fraction of the costs so far.

Bongo is just 4 years old and he has so much life to live. I’m not ready to say goodbye to my best friend so soon and will do anything in my power to help him heal and become stronger.

I cannot thank Dog Tales, Danielle, Rob, Lori and Kerry enough for all the support and everything you have done for Bongo. I really could not have done this without you. Thank You for trusting us to foster Bongo.

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