Last year I rescued a dog with one week left before she was to be euthenized. She was just 14months old, had already had a litter of pups and had heart-worm, which we treated her for. After a couple months, she started bouncing up and hitting me in the same place on my left breast, so much so that it hurt. When I felt the spot she kept hitting, I found a lump. I thought it was just the injury but still thought I'd better check it out. That was in February '09 and the rest is history. It was a triple negative tumor but very small. They found a second, even smaller tumor in the same breast so I had a mastectomy and am now almost finished with my chemotherapy. I would have been going for my normal mammogram this month (July) and because of the kind of tumor, it might have been much further along and my prognosis not nearly as good. I have no doubt that first I saved my dog, Sambucca's (a very black labrador retriever) life, and then she saved mine. BTW- since my surgery, "Bucca" has not jumped up against me at all and she also found a tumor on my mother's dog. She is amazing!

Maria
Silver Spring, MD