About a month after we lost our dog Bandit to osteosarcoma in March, we adopted a sweet female pit bull mix named Greta. The jump from an 84 pound Lab, Shepherd, Husky, Pit mix who was strong enough to be considered a force of nature to a 49 pound pit bull mix made Greta seem petite.
Her happy personality was on display from the moment we picked her from the animal shelter. She happily cuddled in my wife's lap for the 30 minute ride home.
She had had a rough early life, having been bred at least twice by the age of 2, followed by being abandoned in a fenced outdoor holding pen at a shelter in West Virginia. Luckily for Greta and for us, she was transferred to the Loudoun County Animal Shelter which is where my wife discovered her.
Despite having shorter legs than Bandit did, Greta loved accompanying my wife on 2-3 mile walks once or twice a day. She found people much more interesting than other dogs or toys and had a number of friends in the neighborhood.
Bandit had always wanted to be a lap dog but Greta was actually small enough for that to be a regular occurrence. It's hard to tell whether she enjoyed it more or whether we did. She was extremely affectionate.
In early September, we noticed some swelling on her neck, so my wife took her to the vet. To the vet's surprise, it was not an infection but instead turned out to be lymphoma and a fairly advanced stage at that. Apparently that's rare in a dog so young. She was prescribed steroids which did a wonderful if somewhat temporary job of reducing the swelling. It was lovely having an extra 6 weeks of time with her where she was relatively symptom free.
Unfortunately once the final dose was done, her swelling came back with a vengeance. It quickly advanced from being an uncomfortable nuisance for her to starting to obstruct her breathing. I'll never forget the look in her eyes which seemed to question why this was happening to her.
She was sweet and loving to the end, despite all she was going through. We'll always miss her even though she was only with us for 7 short months.
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