Our gentle giant, Harley, was diagnosed on 8/17/06 with intestinal lymphoma. He was 6 years old at the time and previously very healthy. He had surgery to remove the tumor and 6 inches of his intestines. The prognosis was not good as the vet said it was likely that they weren’t able to get all of the affected tissue. The previous year we lost our chocolate lab, Buddy, to lymphoma after just 40 days of chemotherapy. Needless to say, we were devastated, heartbroken and somewhat resigned to the seemingly inevitable outcome. We chose not to give him chemotherapy and just to use prednisone as palliative care. When he went into surgery he was a very healthy 102 lbs. Over the next few weeks, he got down to 88 lbs. Fast forward four months to January 2007…our family relocated 2,000 miles away all the while thinking that Harley wouldn’t be with us much longer. However, when we got to our new home, we visited his new oncologist. His blood levels and ultrasound looked great. The oncologist couldn’t believe he had only been on prednisone and doing so well. His weight was back up to 100 and he had great energy. We decided to start him on a low-dose of chemo — chlorambucil. Fast forward 4 1/2 YEARS… Harley is still with us and doing amazingly! He visited the oncologist every 3 months for blood work and ultrasounds for the first two years and then every 6 months for the next two years. In February 2011, our oncologist recommended taking him off the chlorambucil. She said it was like having a person on chemo for 35 years! The chlorambucil is such a low-dose she said that it would have come back already even when he was on it. It was hard to let go of that peace of mind — didn’t want to change anything since everything was working — but we ended up taking him off. He has been cancer-free and off chemo for 6 months now! This picture is Harley after a swim in the pool last week. He will be 12 years old in October which means almost half of his life he has lived as a lymphoma survivor. Had you asked me in August 2006 if there was any hope, I most likely would have given you a different answer. Now I know that miracles do happen and every dog is different! Please know that there IS hope! Who knows if your dog will be one of those special cases who will beat the odds? My advice to you is to enjoy each day you have with your pup and be thankful for every single second!