Family works to complete bucket list for terminally ill dog

<p>The owners of a terminally ill dog have been working nonstop to complete a bucket list for their pet.</p>

News 12 Staff

Jun 14, 2018, 2:29 AM

Updated 2,156 days ago

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The owners of a terminally ill dog have been working nonstop to complete a bucket list for their pet.
Bobbie Jo and Jeff Ledford say that their St. Bernard “Odin” was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, and was given only months to live.
“We realized he had a bump on his leg and we brought him to the vet,” says Bobbie Jo. “They said that he’d have only six months to live.”
The family says that they considered amputation and chemotherapy, but say they did not want to ruin Odin’s quality of life.
"They said if I did chemo that he'd only live for a year and I just felt I've seen humans go through chemo and they're not the same and I want him to be the happy puppy he is,” Bobbie Jo says.
So Bobbie Jo and her husband created a list of things that Odin absolutely had to do before he passed away. The list included a trip to Lake George and even a stop at Hooters
News 12 New Jersey caught up with Odin and his family Wednesday as he completed another item on the list: eat ice cream. It was a task that was complete thanks to family friend Tracy Broderick who saw the list on Facebook.
"I said if he likes ice cream he needs to come to my sister’s place,” Broderick says.
Broderick’s sister runs the Whistle Stop in Waldwick. Odin was treated to a vanilla sundae with dog bones.
Broderick says that it was the least that they could do.
"They give us a happy day every day.  We wake up, they make us happy.  They live for us.  And any day we can give a little piece of that back.  That's the best,” she says.
Bobbie Jo says that the list has been therapeutic for her and her family as well as for Odin.
"When I made the bucket list it made us closer and happier.  I don't have time to cry. We are doing things,” she says.
The list has been expanding thanks to suggestions from other friends and Facebook followers.
The family hopes that Odin will get to visit Yankee Stadium – another item on the list.


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