A man's best friend. A love. A loss.

Anyone who has ever owned a dog, knows the special bond and profound love between them and their human. They are loyal and love you more then they love themselves. They become part of your family.

Chris and Torri found this love in Lewis. He was their child.

Nothing could have prepared them for the devestating news that Lewis had cancer. They knew they had to weigh their options and choose what was best for Lewis. Sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing.

Here is Lew's story....

Lewis' Cancer Journey.

He was absolutely taken from us too soon. He still had a ton of life in him. A one of a kind dog that will be VERY hard to replace.

What started as a simple bump on his left side. He was diagnosed with "Sarcoma" on 3-31-22 cut to 4-20-22 and this video is his journey down to IA State Veterinary Clinic. The reason we went there is because we needed to see a board-certified oncologist to figure out a plan of action.

The only choices were the U of M, IA State or UW-Madison.

We chose IA State because they were the first that could get him in for an appt. Upon arrival for his appt we met with a oncologist and surgeon to weigh the options. Chemo/Surgery, Radiation or Just Surgery.

We chose Surgery with potential chemo after.

(As I've stated before) So, we left him there to start his treatment with them planning on doing surgery on the afternoon of 4-21 provided a CT scan was clear of any obvious metastasis of the cancer. It was clear except for a very small spot on his lung that they couldn't be certain it wasn't cancer. We proceeded with the surgery.

Surgery went well...the Dr stated they removed the tumor and got good clean cell margins in all directions. They ended up taking 6 whole ribs from his left side. They originally thought 4-5.

Then, the road to recovery begins....

He was be sedated by design and had a vapotherm (mask-less CPAP) on to help oxygenate his blood. For his Spo2 levels weren't where they needed to be. After a day or two on that he was finally taken off and put on regular blow-by oxygen. Things were looking up...

3rd day of recovery he was kind of leveling off; not declining but not really improving. The goal now was to get him to eat and start backing him off sedation drugs. They started to do that and he started come around more and more.

The 4th day was met with a call from his surgeon stating there were a few things they were watching. His liver levels were slightly elevated and they thought this was easily managed so wasn't a super big deal. He was overall pretty happy with his recovery thus far.... the next few days were just keeping the same plan, backing him off sedation/supplemental oxygen and getting him to eat on his own. For he was being fed via feed tube to his stomach all this time. That night they called and stated he had been taken off supplemental oxygen entirely and was breathing on room air. They said he even tried to bark and get up and walk! We were very happy to hear this, but knew they didn't really want him doing that stuff quite yet. But still very happy to hear our sweet boy was getting better!

The morning of 4-25 they called and said Lewis was looking his best yet and had briefly tried to eat and get up and walk on his own. They said he looked the best he had so far and things were moving in the right direction. We also chatted about us coming down there the next day to see him and hopefully boost his moral by seeing him hopefully speeding up his recovery. I said, yep! We'll be there! Excited to see my boy....

At about 4 pm that day I got a call, I could immediately tell something was wrong. They said Lewis had suddenly stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. They performed CPR and he was back with us for now. They had no clue why this happened. He was presenting well the whole day up to this point.

I get in my car, pick my wife up and they call again....He's arrested again and they are trying to resuscitate him again but it's not looking good. I say, "keep going. Do whatever you can. I'm on the way to see him."

We drive from Rochester to Ames, IA in about 1 hour and 45 mins. I was going almost 100 mph the whole time and even got pulled over and warned by trooper by the IA/MN border. I didn't give a shit, I have to get to my boy...continued on, got there about just after 6 pm. They put us in this "quiet room" and say the Dr. Will be in soon.

They come in, state that Lewis was resuscitated the 2nd time but he was down for about 10 mins. They said if they had to guess he had a blood clot that had caused this. Giving him about a 5% chance of living at this point. She said he wasn't showing very good sign of neurological activity at this point.

We then went in to see him, he was there, on the mechanical ventilator. Basically lifeless....I myself even shined a light in his eyes and could see he was not really reacting.

That's when I knew what I had to do....We had to let our sweet boy go...we spent a lil bit longer with him saying our goodbye for nows. Made the call to put him down. His fight was over...He had been through enough.

We left after he was gone not before paying for his treatment there which totalled $14,552.00. (3 X what was originally estimated)

I share all of this with in hopes you never find yourself in this situation and if you do...you have my story to weigh and help make your own dog treatment path. This whole thing, while we knew could come with some challenges...we really didn't think we'd be here with this ending.

Lewis, you were the best dog I have ever had or seen in my life. We love you more than we could ever convey.❤️❤️❤️

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Lewis meant the world to Chris and Torri. Their hearts broke the day Lewis passed away. They left Iowa that day with only one thing, a financial burden.

Can you imagine? No dog and a bill for over 14k?

So today I am asking you, their friends, their family and their acquaintances, to please help them by making a donation in Honor of Lewis.

Thank you to everyone for your donations, prayers and kind words during this difficult time.