Molly’s Story

Back in July, we wrote about Molly.  She is the 2nd dog that received the listeria vaccine in the Mason Bone Cancer Study.  We have been meaning to post this for a while now, but our lives have been hectic, and Carlos and I neglected the blog a bit.

Molly’s mom shared how they came to have Molly.  In Jennifer’s words, here is  Molly’s Story:

Molly with Ginger

We adopted Molly in December of 2002. She was 14 weeks old and was located at a rescue facility in upstate NY. We drove to Syracuse to pick her up. Our friends still tease us and say “you drove to Syracuse to get a mutt”. Molly is so gentle and our cats over the years always loved her company. I’ll always remember that in 2007 during a walk on the canal path, Molly saved my life from a potential attack by a man armed with a gun.

In March of 2012, we noticed that Molly was limping. Mark took a closer look and noticed a lump on her front left leg. Our gut feeling told us that it was most likely aggressive cancer.  She was given the diagnosis of osteosarcoma and surgery was scheduled for amputation on March 15th. She had a quick recovery and was able to climb stairs 10 days later. Dr. Baez, Oncologist of CARES in Langhorne told us about the vaccine study and put us in touch with Dr. Mason.

Molly is a beautiful girl – even if she is a mutt!  She is strong, as she has proven with her quick recovery from her amputation, and we wish her well in her fight against cancer.  We know, first hand, the kind and compassionate care that she is receiving at UPenn with Dr. Mason and the rest of the dedicated team there.

We wish Molly and her mom and dad, the best, and we hope you know that you are all in our thoughts.