2025 PuppyUp Madison Canine Hero
For each PuppyUp Walk, the Event Manager and their Walk Team select both a Human Cancer Hero and a Canine Cancer Hero, to be honored during the Walk ceremonies.
These Heroes are chosen because of their exemplary attitude towards their particular type of cancer, showing bravery and hopefulness in their fight against this terrible disease.
Our Canine Hero for the 2025 Walk is Kovu. His photo and story is shown below.
Kovu is an 8-year-old German Shepherd born into White Paws German Shepherd Rescue where he found his forever family. He is true to the breed, extremely loving, loyal, and protective of his family. He loves to play chase with his mom and soccer with one of his little humans because he can chase and grab the ball away! He’s popped a few soccer balls in his lifetime. Kovu is a bit of a social butterfly. He is very friendly and loves all the attention he receives from people at rescue events. He doesn’t care when a group of kids run over to him and surround him for hugs and kisses, he just eats up the attention. As a social butterfly, you wouldn’t believe that Kovu is also a trained service dog. He is trained to detect an increase in heart rate and provide deep tissue therapy for panic and anxiety disorders. He can ignore noises and people to focus on his mom and what she needs at any given moment.
In November 2024, Kovu’s mom discovered a small, hard lump on his right shoulder. They went to the vet and the aspiration results came back as a fatty tumor. Within two weeks of that visit, the tumor had grown very large and was hard as a rock. They went to WVRC for an ultrasound and another aspiration and this time the results came back as Hemangiosarcoma. An MRI was done to get a better view of the tumor and surgery was scheduled for early February. Surgery went great and the doctors were able to remove 95% of the tumor. Kovu struggled with the recovery process, he wasn’t too happy about the fluid drain inserted into the surgery site and decided to remove it on his own a few times which led to more than a couple trips to the ER. Once the fluid buildup was under control and the infection cleared, he was able to receive his first dose of chemotherapy. He had a little tummy upset, but other than that he has been doing well and will go back for his second treatment in April as long as his white blood cell count remains good.
From Kovu’s mom … I am so lucky to have him as part of my life and to be my best friend. I have had many dogs throughout my life, but Kovu is my soul dog and is so special. We are very hopeful that he will beat this cancer, and his doctors are as well because we caught it early.
