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Photo courtesy of Casey Schaffer.
Left: Mulligan’s brother, Bogey, lays with him while recovering from his surgery to amputate his right rear leg.
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Photo by Lexi Coon.
Schaffer with Mulligan, her three-legged golden retriever who she’s working with to become a therapy dog.
In informal golf, a player can call mulligan to take an extra shot that isn’t marked on their scorecard. At home, Casey Schaffer can call Mulligan and be greeted by her three-legged golden retriever, who she is working with to become a therapy dog team.
Schaffer has had Mulligan since he was 6 weeks old, and he’ll be turning 10 this December. “I had decided I wanted a golden retriever about six months before [we got him],” she said.
To make her decision known, she talked about her and her then-boyfriend’s, now husband’s, future dog and pasted photos of different golden retrievers all over their refrigerator.
Only a few months later, they picked up Mulligan from London, Kentucky. “He’s our first child. He’s always just been a really good dog, so easy and laid back.” And he’s been healthy, too, until recently.
About a year ago, Schaffer said he began limping and favoring his rear right leg, so she took him to their veterinarian where they found a build up of soft tissue. Thought to be caused from wrestling with his younger dog-brother Bogey, it was suggested that Mulligan rest to help it recover.
At the same time, a friend of Schaffer’s told her about a holistic veterinarian who performs acupuncture.
“[Before the acupuncture,] she looked at [Mulligan’s] X-rays, and as soon as she felt his leg she knew it was cancer,” Schaffer said. “I was so scared because I thought we were just going to get acupuncture, and she’s talking about cancer and amputation.”
Mulligan was soon diagnosed with synovial cell sarcoma cancer, which affects soft tissue. “It’s a really rare cancer, but it’s really aggressive,” Schaffer said. Luckily, they caught it before it metastasized to the lungs or lymph nodes.
After doing research and consulting with their veterinarian and surgeon, Schaffer and her husband decided they would amputate Mulligan’s entire leg to remove the cancer and perform chemotherapy treatments.
“I was just devastated [when he was diagnosed]. I consider myself a pretty emotionally strong person, and that [diagnosis] tested that,” she said. To learn more about what her Mighty Mulligan was going through, she researched everything she could.
“The way my brain works is I always need to find the ‘why,’” she said. “So, I decided maybe the why was to use his story to bring good to other people.”
In addition to raising funds through Do Dah Day, Schaffer set out to join Hand in Paw, an animal-assisted therapy organization, to meet with children going through chemotherapy treatments, amputee patients and veterans. “There are just so many people I thought he could touch,” she said.
As of late June, Mulligan passed his first interview, and he and Schaffer will continue training this month. Later, she hopes to visit the Children’s Hospital of Alabama tumor center to comfort children who are there. “His personality was always that he would be great at it,” she said.
Schaffer is also using her and Mulligan’s platform to share his story and what she has learned with others.
“[We want] to get other people to know putting them to sleep isn’t the only option,” she said. “It’s not a death sentence.”
Eventually, Schaffer would like to use her knowledge and background in nonprofits to raise funds for those pet owners who many not be able to afford extensive treatments for their pets or to benefit other organizations like Hand in Paw or the humane society.
“I think it would be amazing to, in the end, do a foundation in his honor … to provide financial assistance [to those who couldn’t afford treatment],” she said. But she’s still looking forward to working with Mulligan as a therapy team.
“To me, it’s just exciting to use … his talents to help others,” she said. “I’ve never been through anything like that in my life, so it’s kinda like we’re one-upping cancer.”
To learn more about Mighty Mulligan, visit their Facebook page, Mulligan is Mightier than Cancer, or their Instagram account,@mightymulligan.
