Madeline Novey

madelinenovey@coloradoan.com

Patricia Cudd has lived longer than doctors predicted, but she says final-stage breast cancer will kill her.

Making sure her pit bull mix, Sherlock, finds a loving home tops the list of things the 62-year-old Fort Collins woman wants to do before she dies.

"I love him so much. I want him to have the best, you know?" she said, sitting on her bed Monday, one arm in a sling and the other draped across the 5-year-old dog's back.

Cudd adopted "Sherie," as she fondly calls him, from the Longmont Humane Society in September 2010. He was initially apprehensive of his new owner, but they grew to be best of friends, enjoying long walks along the Poudre River and playing when Cudd took breaks from her accounting studies at Colorado State University.

Roughly two years later, doctors diagnosed Cudd with metastatic breast cancer.

After particularly grueling chemotherapy treatments, Cudd will curl up next to Sherlock on the bed in her hotel room in east Fort Collins. The two once sat side-by-side, "watching Harry Potter movies for a full day until I felt better," she said with a smile.

The cancer is taking its toll, though, and Cudd said she may need to go into hospice care. That, coupled with her waning strength, makes it too difficult to walk or care for Sherlock in the way she thinks he deserves.

"I am passing away. I don't know when exactly. Of course, everyone is passing away. But the cancer, you know — stage 4 is the ultimate stage — and he needs a home," she said.

Throughout the roughly five years Cudd has lived in Fort Collins, she's struggled to find landlords who allow pit bull or pit bull-mix dogs. She worries finding Sherlock a home could prove a challenge, given negative perceptions of the breed.

Cudd is the first person to admit Sherlock is territorial and protective, but she says he's also attentive, loving and playful.

The best future home for her companion would be one without other pets. She knows he will create happy memories with another family, just as he has with her, if given the opportunity.

"I have to place him somewhere. It breaks my heart," she said. "But if he could go to a good home, you know, it would help me so much. It would give me peace."

Those who are interested in adopting Sherlock may call (970) 775-0797 or email rubyphoenix36@yahoo.com.

Interested in adopting Sherlock?

• Call (970) 775-0797 or email rubyphoenix36@yahoo.com.

• Sherlock needs to be welcomed into a home without other pets.

• Dustin Main, of Front Range Pet Scooping, said he is willing to offer a year of free pet waste removal to whomever adopts Sherlock, as long as they live in Loveland or Fort Collins.