Outlet: Virginia Beach Beacon
VIRGINIA BEACH
Two golden retriever sisters will attend a dog-jumping contest Saturday in Virginia Beach. Their story goes paw-in-paw with the owner’s charitable cause.
It started in July last year. Kempsville resident Jen Hoover took her dog, Crash, for a routine checkup when the veterinarian noticed a little bump on Crash’s cheek.
Hoover wasn’t alarmed. The doctor thought the bump, along with the inflamed gums, was caused by an abscessed tooth. But after removing the tooth, the veterinarian discovered something worse.
Crash had cancer.
Hoover took Crash to North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine to have an oncologist look at the cancerous tumor.
Her hopes came crashing down when the doctor told her nothing could be done. Crash was expected to pass away in a couple of months.
“It just felt like the wind got knocked out of you, like you got punched in the gut,” Hoover said. “You try to take care of them, you give them the best health care, the best everything they need, and you can’t fight cancer. You can’t stop it from happening.”
Crash, a female golden retriever, has fibrosarcoma cancer in the connective tissue of the skin. It’s hard to get rid of.
“No matter what you do, it will come back almost 100 percent of the time,” Hoover said.
With that information in hand, Hoover had to tell her husband, Tyson, the bad news.
Jen, 37, and Tyson, 36, don’t have children, so their dogs are their children. Jen Hoover said Crash and her husband are also best friends.
“One of the things that went through my mind was, ‘How was I gonna tell him?’ ” she said. “The two of them have formed this bond.”
Tyson Hoover is part of a SEAL Delivery Team at the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base.
When Jen Hoover found out about the cancer, her husband was underwater working in a submarine. The only way the two communicated was through email.
“It was sad,” he said. Just two weeks prior, he found out that his uncle had a severe stroke and the worst was expected. Hearing the news about Crash was just another ache in his heart.
Crash has a younger sister, Chase. In August, Jen Hoover enrolled Chase in a DockDogs competition in Hampton called Big Air. During this competition, Chase jumped from a dock into a pool of water to fetch her favorite toy.
But before the competition, Hoover hooked up with a nonprofit organization called Chase Away K9 Cancer that was on-site. The charity funds canine cancer research and awareness.
Still feeling the pain of Crash’s prognosis, Hoover promised to donate $2 for every foot that Chase leaped during the contest. She ended up donating $120 in Crash’s name, and Chase walked away with the junior championship.
Now nine months after Crash’s diagnosis, Chase is getting ready to do another jump in her sister’s name. This time it will be during the Care-A-Lot K9 Extravaganza in Virginia Beach next weekend.
The event will bring dog owners together to compete in different Olympic-like events such as Speed Retrieve, Extreme Vertical and Big Air.
Speed Retrieve is a relay event where several dogs race to get a ball and bring it back to the finish line. Extreme Vertical is more like a high jump. It involves a dog jumping as high as possible from a dock to get a toy that is suspended in the air over a pool of water. Chase will compete in Big Air once more, and her first jump will be Saturday.
Hoover and her husband have again committed $2 for every foot that Chase jumps to the same organization. And Crash will be right there to support her little sister.
The cancer has now grown into Crash’s nasal cavity, so she has lost her sense of smell and can no longer breathe out of her nose.
But she’s still alive, and that’s what Jen Hoover said matters the most.
Crash turned 9 years old on March 28.
“We didn’t think we would get to celebrate,” Hoover said, “but we did.”
Care-A-Lot K9 Extravaganza is 1 p.m. April 26; 9 a.m. April 27-28 at 1617 Diamond Springs Road, Virginia Beach, right across from the Care-A-Lot retail store. For more information about DockDogs, visit dockdogs.com. For information about Chase Away K9 Cancer, visit chaseawayk9cancer.org.
