We got little Finn just 1 year ago. He brought joy and lightness back into our lives after our previous dog Zoe passed away after having developed cancer in her face and skull. We had a long and difficult journey with Zoe in numerous appointments trying to diagnose what was making her so sick and Finn was a fresh start for us.

We found a concerning lump on Finn’s chest just several months after we got him. He had a biopsy in April, just a few weeks before our son Oliver was born, to remove as much of the lump as they could and also determine what the lump was - a lipoma. Lipoma’s are normally benign and pretty common in golden retrievers. We were so relieved.

Unfortunately, just this past Monday on a routine visit to the vet, we learned the lump had more than doubled in size since the surgery. Through several consultations this week, we have come to learn that Finn has a malignant form of lipoma - an Infiltrative Lipoma, which is effectively cancer. It embeds itself into the muscle and nearby tissue, and will eventually infiltrate the chest cavity and interfere with his lungs and internal organs, resulting in worsened breathing, muscle degeneration, and ultimately would affect his quality of life. They gave him about 6 months if we don’t take any action.

Elliott and I have faced an impossible choice these past couple days - do we put Finn through a difficult road of a major surgery and radiation treatment for a full month and pay tens of thousands of dollars, or do we watch our dog deteriorate within the next 6 months of his life.

We have come to the decision to choose a chance at a life with our dog - we want Finn and our son Oliver to grow up and be best friends. There are no guarantees, but we know we would regret not doing everything we could. We will now schedule a surgery to take out as much of the lipoma as possible, and then a few weeks after start radiation therapy to hopefully get rid of all of the tumor cells.

This is an expensive road and not one we took lightly - if you feel you want to contribute to Finn’s road to healing and chance at a good long dog life, we would love any support - financial or otherwise <3