Calendar_Story

My three-year-old dog Lucy was alive during the creation of this calendar and was my
Number One inspiration for embarking on this project of love. She was found in an
industrial business alley at the age of ten weeks, and is the rescue dog who rescued
my heart in many ways; my “alley angel.” I will always be grateful for all of the
positive changes Lucy inspired in me and I am so lucky to have had such a wonderful
spirit as hers grace my life. After Lucy was diagnosed in June 2004 with
osteosarcoma, the most common and aggressive primary bone tumor in dogs, I joined
an online support group for people who had dogs with bone cancer in search of answers to
all the questions I had. It helped me tremendously to talk to other people going through
the same ordeal, as well as those who had lost a dog to bone cancer. The standard
treatment for osteosarcoma of the limbs (appendicular osteosarcoma) is amputation of the
affected limb followed by chemotherapy. I did make the difficult decision to have Lucy’s
front left leg amputated, but decided to follow instead, with a holistic treatment of carefully
chosen supplements, herbs and an organic home cooked diet, which was cancer-specific. I
met others who treated their dogs with both allopathic and holistic methods and the
exchange of information was very valuable to me.

The idea for a canine cancer awareness calendar came to me after corresponding with
many of the wonderful people I met through the support group and hearing the stories of
their brave dogs. I thought it would be a wonderful idea to memorialize all of the dogs I
had the pleasure and heartbreak of learning about, as well as my own brave girl
Lucy. I decided the calendar should feature both photos and stories of dogs who are either
battling cancer at the moment, or who have lost their battle. I also wanted the calendar
to have an inspirational and educational focus, featuring food for thought in the way of
preventative care and facts on canine cancer.

While reading the book Help Your Dog Fight Cancer by Laurie Kaplan, I discovered a
new fund she founded in honor of her dog Bullet, a survivor of canine lymphoma. The
Magic Bullet Fund has been created as a subdivision of The Perseus Foundation and
will help many dogs with cancer whose caretakers cannot afford treatment.
Cancer-dogs across the country will be given treatment and a fighting chance to survive. I
know all too well the financial strain of caring for a dog with cancer, and was not able to
take advantage of a fund such as Laurie’s, so I decided to find sponsorship and
independently create this calendar to help Lucy, as well as helping other dogs by
contributing the majority of proceeds from the calendar to The Magic Bullet Fund.

The amount of research I have done for Lucy’s benefit has been an education unto itself.
I had no idea that cancer was so prevalent in domestic animals and the more I researched,
the more surprising the statistics became. When Lucy’s diagnosis was announced I
thought there had been some mistake. After all, Lucy was only three-years-old, extremely
active and seemingly healthy. I learned that osteosarcoma can strike dogs as
young as six-months of age and that cancer in pets-just as in humans-can come at any
stage in life.

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