Help Ruddy Fund His Cancer Treatment

I’ll start by saying that Ruddy is the best boy. From the moment he was a puppy, it was hard not to be smitten by him. I fell completely head-over heels (and have remained that way ever since). Little did I know when he came to us in the summer of 2014 that this little chunker of a Labrador puppy would become my heart-dog and one of the most precious and important characters in the next decade of my life. Ruddy was there beside me in all my moves; heart aches; growing pains; Dutch bros coffee stops; and outdoor adventures. What more can be said about the dog who moves with you from apartment to apartment and state to state? The dog who accompanies you in every car ride; who goes with you to work; who comforts you when you need to cry and sits beside you on the paddle board out on the reservoir as the sun is starting to set? He has been perfect. The exact life-companion I needed. Don’t get me wrong, he has a devious side. I have never known a better counter surfer, nor have I known a dog more dedicated in figuring out how to outsmart a childproof lock on a trashcan so he can get to the food inside it. He is a proper trash panda and his skills are unsurpassed.

 For years, my greatest fear has been losing him and recently I’ve been confronting some of the worst fears of any pet-parent with their companion animal. Just as we were moving states this past May, we received the news after an ultra sound that the very beginnings of cancer had been detected on Ruddy’s prostrate. Unfortunately, this very rare cancer is aggressive. Typically you don’t catch it until your animal is showing clinical signs such as straining to urinate or defecate, showing blood in the urine or not being able to urinate at all. And by the time they are showing signs it is already too late. As unfortunate as this diagnosis is, we are lucky to have caught it so early. Because this aggressive cancer acts fast, we need to get Ruddy’s treatment started. The best intervention for Ruddy to extend and maintain the quality of his life would be a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. Radiation would cost $11,000 and chemotherapy would cost $5000. A CT scan would be required prior to radiation treatment beginning, which the veterinarian informed me would be another $3,000. I want to get Ruddy the care he needs, as he has done so much for me during some of the hardest periods of my life. Unfortunately after this very costly move we just made, finances are in a hard place right now. If you are able to donate anything in anyway to help Ruddy get the treatment he needs so that he can continue living, I would be so deeply grateful. As would all of his stuffed animals who need their cuddle Buddy to be there to keep carrying them around.