Hi, I'm Petra

In May of 2019, Tulsa was in the middle of record flooding. One night, while it was still raining, my owners tied me to a mailbox, and left me...out in the rain. I wondered if they were going to come back, but after a while, I realized they weren't. But, these nice people came and saved me. They were in the area helping a litter of kittens that they heard about being in danger of drowning and happened to see me tied to that mailbox...soaked and scared. They couldn't leave me there, so they put me in a crate and took me to this place where other dogs were being held while their families stayed safe from the rain. After a few weeks, those dogs went back to their families, but I sat...homeless. I was very sick, malnourished and had worms, but the people that saved me took very good care of me. 

Well, one of the days I was in that shelter, this lady and her friends came to help out. I had a bad accident in my crate and that lady, her name was Chris, took me for a walk, while her friends cleaned out my crate. I didn't know it at the time, and I don't think that lady did either, but that moment was to change both of our lives forever. 

A few weeks went by. The shelter closed down after all of the dogs went back to their families and I went to live at a vet clinic for a little bit, then I went to live another family. Meanwhile, God was working on Chris...my blue eyes stayed in her mind for a long time until she finally called to inquire about my whereabouts. Long story short, we found each other again and she adopted me.

At that time, I was believed to be 9 years old. It was hard to tell because I was in such bad health and my teeth were so bad. It seemed I may have had puppies recently and as I mentioned, I was recovering from worms. My name was Maddie, but Chris wanted a stronger name for me. She did a lot of thinking. I was Ruth, Camry, Mabry, Frankie (after Frank Sinatra), but the name Chris finally landed on, thanks to the help of those friends the met me at the shelter that fateful day, was Petra. Petra means rock. It's a name from the bible. 

My new home is full of other animals who needed a home. I not only got a new, loving home, but siblings to share life with. My pack has changed since I first arrived here, but many are still the same. I have learned that Ms. Chris means it when she takes us in...she sees us through to the very end, no matter how long that takes.

That became important a few months ago. In June of 2021, Ms. Chris or Mom, found a large mass in my groin area. She took me to the vet and arranged for the mass to be removed. Unfortunately, that mass was in my mammary glands and had started to attack the full mammary chain, so the entire chain needed to be removed and sent off for a biopsy. The biopsy reported that the mass was malignant. 

And, my journey with breast cancer began. That's all I will share for today. I hope you will join me on this journey. I will introduce to my pack and keep you in the loop on how they are all doing. My sister Stormie actually had to have some mammary gland tumors removed two days before I had my surgery, so we have been through a lot...but we are going through it as a family.