He was about 4 years old and we were buying dog treats from the pet store just as you would. But we realized that the treats were filled with preservatives and chemicals. It wasn’t what we wanted for our dog. We wanted something healthy for him. One day I decided to make homemade dog treats for him. He loved it and so we shared with the other dogs in our neighborhood. They loved them as well. It was at the time we decided we should go ahead and start our own company, and True Nature Dog Treats was born.

But Chesney’s orthopedic issues didn’t end there. He ended up getting hip dysplasia in both hips and osteochondritis in one of his back legs. Having him keep weight off was more important now than ever. And feeding him treats that I knew were healthy and not filled with a bunch of ingredients you can’t even pronounce was a must.

Chesney just could not get a break. At the age of 5, he was diagnosed with a mass cell tumor on his front leg. After all this and trying to feed him healthier food and treats, he still gets cancer. We were devastated. We soon learned from his oncologist that his cancer was most likely caused from lawn chemicals. We never even gave that a thought. We were just so consumed with what we were feeding him, that we didn’t even think about outside risks.

He had surgery to remove the tumor and also had to have radiation. He survived and was a trooper. However, the setbacks continued. We noticed a growth on his head that also turned out to be cancer. That was surgically removed and all was good for a while. Then he started coughing in November 2017. Our vet said to keep an eye on it and if it got worse to go ahead and bring him in. A few months later, things were not improving. I took him to the vet , only to find out that he had a tumor at the base of his lungs and he was struggling to breath. There was nothing we could do. It was time to let him go. On February 4, 2018 we said good-bye to our wonderful boy.

We know he crossed over the rainbow bridge and is running pain free and eating all the treats he wants. We learned so much from him. And True Nature is just a small piece of that. We can now share our treats with this wonderful community. It makes us so happy to know that after all these years we have been helping dogs stay healthy and live a happy life!!