Our journey began when we found out our 5 year old keeshond,
Bear, had cancer. We found a large lump on his neck, and took him into the vet.
All of his glands were severely swollen, and the vet informed us he had
lymphoma. Treatment options were expensive, and would only prolong his life up
to one year, and it would have only been for our sake.
We decided to go the steroids route. There was a possibility
that the steroids would mitigate some of the growth, and give us up to 1 month
more with him. Unfortunately, they didn’t do much. He began getting sore, and
weak. He could no longer go up and down the stairs, so we had to carry him
outside to go potty. We had 3 more wonderful, bacon and walk filled weeks with
Bear. On Halloween, we had to make the awful decision to take him on one last
ride.
When we found out about the cancer, we also had to decide whether
or not to get another dog. We both agreed that a house wasn’t a home without a
dog in it, so we started looking online. We thought about adoption and rescue
organizations, but in the end we decided to get a puppy. There was a lot to
consider. Energy level, size, amount of exercise, personality… the list goes
on.
About a week after we found out about Bear’s diagnosis, we
came across and add on KSL for Siberian husky puppies. We found a reddish brown
male and fell in love almost immediately. A week or so later, we went out to
visit the 2 week old pups. Nate Brought Cash. We went home empty handed, but
with a receipt in hand. “1 red/brown male” it said. It was a strange mix of two
completely different feelings. We were excited at the prospect of the new
puppy, and sad about Bear.
Fast forward to November 23rd, they day before
Thanksgiving. We got a call that the puppies had been checked out by the vet,
and if we wanted, we could take him home early. Nate called me at work at 9am,
and we picked up Dalton by 11:30am.
Thus begins our Journey into Siberian Husky Ownership.
