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Help Our Cricket-Dog Beat Cancer

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Anyone who knows us, knows that we LOVE our animals, and to us, Cricket is not just a dog. She is a piece of our heart and has been every single day since we adopted her as a three month old puppy from our local animal shelter.  We were devastated in September 2020, when we received some bad news. The benign fatty lump on Cricket that we had tested at the end of the previous year had quickly grown larger while we were in quarantine and had turned into the word everyone dreads to hear: cancer...more precisely Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

We acted as swiftly as possible and we were referred to an oncologist with radiation capabilities an hour from our home. After a successful surgery on October 1, 2020, our wonderful surgeon was able to remove most of the tumor, but it ran much deeper in her bone and muscle than they had anticipated. Cricket then had to have a second surgery, skin flap surgery, to cover her wound which was in a very precarious spot on her shoulder and very tough to heal. Due to infection, we had to give Cricket antibiotic injections two times a day for seven weeks, as well as travel to the surgeon one to two times per week for bandage changes. To say that she was the perfect patient would be an understatement...in fact, the medical team always comments on how absolutely docile and kind Cricket is and she has become a favorite of the staff.

After visiting with the oncologist and radiologist recently, the good news is: the majority of the tumor has been removed and Cricket is in perfect health! The bad news is: there are still microscopic pieces of the cancerous tumor left, and radiation now needs to be performed. Radiation Therapy will cost $8,000 and this is where we hope a few good Samaritans and animal lovers might step in to help.

With over $7,000 already paid in medical bills and still more to come with her radiation, which starts January 19, 2021, we are still very much in the midst of her journey of healing. We will be traveling an hour and back to the oncologists five days a week, for four weeks straight so that we can help heal up this amazing, precious soul who has completed my life more than I ever knew I even needed. Our sweet girl is worth all of this and more...the hours of driving and hours of waiting in our vehicle, since we can never go inside of the vet's office due to COVID. All of the times we carried our 70 pound baby up and down the stairs, lifted her into our cars, and picked her up to sleep on our bed...she means the world to us and deserves nothing less than the best we can give.

2020 has been a horrible and heart-breaking year for everyone, and I know so many of us have struggled financially, lost someone they love, or stood by feeling helpless and seemingly without a way to cope in such a terribly tough moment in time. We know how that feels and we hate that we even have to reach out for help during this difficult time for everyone....but please know, anything that is given will be so incredibly appreciated with eternal gratefulness and love from our family.


"Lost souls in revelry
Running wild and running free
Two kids, you and me..."



(Medical Prognosis: Soft tissue sarcomas that are low to intermediate grade and can be removed completely with aggressive surgery have an excellent long term prognosis. Control rates for low grade soft tissue sarcomas that are incompletely excised and followed by radiation therapy are also very good. Approximately 85% of these patients are tumor free three years after treatment. By comparison, the majority of dogs with incompletely excised soft tissue sarcomas that receive surgery without follow-up radiation will regrow by one year.)
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $200 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • KEITH S WILSON
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
  • David Cardenas
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
  • Jerry Shafer
    • $20 
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer

Kasey Alura Rutledge
Organizer
Plano, TX

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