About Indy

Indy - full name Indiana Jones Weir - is an eight-year-old Frenchie who rules her kingdom with a benevolent, fluffy fist. To know Indy is to love Indy. She has an innate talent for bringing smiles, good cheer, and stinky farts. She’s the beloved baby of Elise and Phil Weir, who joke with her that the doctors were so surprised when Indy popped out at the hospital.

Indy is a licensed therapy dog with the organization Alliance of Therapy Dogs, and she’s actively worked with children since receiving her license in 2018. Currently, Indy works as the assigned therapy dog/cheer captain at an elementary school in her home town, and also has begun work at a local high school, where she was an instant hit! (P.S. any photos shared of Indy with kiddos are publicly shared photos by the schools.)

Indy even had her own page in Rice Elementary’s yearbook last year! She is a beloved friend to many, and keeps her Frenchie figure by ensuring on daily log naps in the morning sunshine, as well as frequent tanning during the summer. Subsequently, she is the founding member of the “Lawn Slug Tanning Co.”

Indy’s favorite foods are broccoli, pancakes (her daddy makes her mini pancakes), cheese, eggs, and rotisserie chicken (ONLY rotisserie, ONLY from Whole Foods). She loves nothing more than a day of snuggles, put you must always be prepared to do your activity, like reading or working, one-handed. Because, of course, the other hand must be petting Indy!

There are truly no words to sum up this little nugget. Indy, aka “Oogie Bear,” is the center of her family and beloved by so many in her community and across the nation. Her mom, Elise Weir, is an artist who specializes in animal portraiture. Elise has run four fundraisers (with Indy’s snoopervision of course) called Prints for Paws, which have raised over $25,000 for dogs in need and assisted by French Bulldog Village.

In 2018, Indy not only became a therapy dog, she also became an “addi-dog”! In October 2018, she became incredibly ill, and was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease. In Addison’s Disease, the adrenal glands no longer can provide essential supplies of glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, resulting in transient episodes of sickness, and eventually death. Luckily, Indy was diagnosed before she had an Addisonian crisis, which can often be deadly. Addison’s is rare, so she has a care team full of specialists that have gotten to know her over the last four years.

Indy’s Current Fight

Unfortunately, in late August 2018, Indy developed a minor limp that was attributed to a soft tissue injury or sprain. She was put on bed rest and gabapentin. She was generally under the weather, and her limp would come and go. Unfortunately, every time her limp came back, it was under circumstances that made sense - a badly executed pick up by a teacher at a therapy event, a badly timed jump off the couch right when MOMB wasn’t looking, so we didn’t suspect much. Though, Indy still didn’t feel well, so we continued pushing.

Six weeks and seven vet appointments later, we had our likely answer, staring at us menacingly from the radiograph table. Osteosarcoma. We all stared, including the vet, at the images in a state of disbelief. Osteosarcoma is nearly always in very large dogs, it was entirely unexpected. Osteosarcoma is horrible, and has at best a guarded prognosis, at worst a grim one. But Indy is lucky - her beloved team of specialists, who got to know her silliness and love over four years of Addison’s treatment, managed to snag her an appointment with their oncologist less than 24 hours later.

The meeting with her oncologist was both devastating and full of hope. Yes, he said, it absolutely looks like she has Osteosarcoma. It is not behaving like any of the other types of cancer that could happen in the canine skeleton, and it also is just generally the most likely: up to 85% of primary bone tumors in dogs are from Osteosarcoma. Yes, there are some odd factors about Indy’s case, but the truth is, is it likely Osteosarcoma.

Because of how horribly aggressive this cancer is, we have chosen not to biopsy and wait for results before amputation. We are, as Indy’s Auntie Beth quoted, “cutting off the limb and sending the whole dang leg to the lab.” There are no answers that do not result in amputation, and dogs surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) fair excellently with amputation. It will also remove the gnawing bone pain that dear Indy has likely been feeling these last few weeks. She will probably be soooo much happier almost instantly!

So, Indy’s amputation is scheduled for Wednesday, October 12, 2022. While we are so devastated, we are holding on to hope that (a) it could be a rare, less aggressive type of cancer or syndrome and (b) that if it is Osteosarcoma, we will have caught it as early as we could. Though the cancer is so aggressive that veterinarians say that you “cannot catch it early - by the time you can visualize it on an x-ray or CT, it already likely has spread,” we are holding on to hope that Indy does not have any metastases. So far, her lungs look clear, which is great news, as the cancer typically spreads to the lungs first with significant predictability. That said, we won’t know that she is clear of mets until the day of her surgery, when they will also perform a CT scan. This CT scan is essential in staging.

Once we know what we are facing, we are ready to hit the ground running. Indy will receive chemotherapy, which is also very well tolerated in dogs with minimal side effects. She will also likely receive at least one immunotherapeutic remedy, of which a couple are available on trial. We have already been talking to several people involved with these trials, and are very hopeful Indy will receive at least one treatment, if not multiple modalities of treatment.

Indy’s Adventure Journal

I (Indy’s MOMB Elise) decided to start Indy’s Adventure Journal for a few reasons. First, I wanted to provide a place for people who love Indy to receive regular updates about her care and her life. I fully expect she will be back to her silly self shortly after amputation, and I want to share that hope with the world! Second, I wanted to provide a collection of information, stories, and hope that may provide comfort to others facing canine cancer diagnoses, especially one as devastating as Osteosarcoma.

Indy’s Adventure Journal will be updated at least a couple times a week, and it is both a balm for our hearts, and we hope, yours. We hope you will be able to watch Indy happy enter her Pirate Phase, and see her thrive for years to come. We hope to see a miracle, but no matter what happens, we are going to do every single thing possible for our perfect little Indiana.

Follow Indy on instagram @indydoesstuff - though we will keep her page mostly lighthearted, because a lot of kids follow her page. Indy’s Adventure Journal is the best place for real time updates about Indy’s Pirate Life. :)