On September 19, 1992, I
met Bullet at my local SPCA animal shelter. He was 18 months old and
weighed 58 pounds. My first puppy! Over the years, I had
had many cats, two or three at a time,
and had no interest in dogs. I was a medical animal writer
and the editor of Catnip
newsmagazine from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Siberians show up at
shelters often -
they are willful, high-energy and spend
their lives on a quest to find a hole in the fence, a door that wasn't
closed securely, a dropped leash... their wanderlust is
insatiable! Shelters are now educating
people about the personality of the Siberian before placing them. Yes,
they are undeniably beautiful, but living with a Siberian requires a
great deal of patience and humility as well as a sense of humor. As I
read in a book about Siberians shortly
after adopting
Bullet, "If you want an owner-slave relationship with a dog, don't get
a Siberian!"
Bullet and I
enjoyed many
years of adventure. We traveled from home
near NYC down to the Chesapeake Bay and up to Lake Placid for dog
sledding. We hiked, trained, learned agility (both of us), bicycled,
went camping and snow shoeing... he was a wonderful companion and a
true friend.
On July 17th, 2000, at
9+ years old,
Bullet was diagnosed with late stage multicentric B-cell lymphoma. I
was horrified, terrified, and determined that I would not lose Bullet
wihtout a fight.
"NOT TODAY AND NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT"
He
had chemotherapy
the next day and went into remission right away.
Bullet had a chemotherapy protocol called
VELCAP-L. The "L" stands for Long, and it was! Bullet had treatments
every 2-3 weeks for 75 weeks (a year and a half). Modern
chemotherapy protocols are only 16 - 25 weeks long. A shorter
version of Bullet's protocol is now used (VELCAP-S), using the same
chemo agents but runs only 16 weeks.
During the course of his
treatment, I often re-evaluated my decision to continue with
treatment. I was committed to a promise that he would never
suffer. He was the most perfect creature that ever existed. Bullet had chemo side
effects
but recovered each time. At times he clearly didn't feel well, but I
believe he felt as I might if I had a
bad cold or the flu. I decided, on
his behalf, as we all must do for our pups, that as long as he was not
in pain (in my best estimation) and as long as there was a good chance
that the side effects would be short lived, he could tolerate a little
discomfort.
I developed a diet and
supplement regimen for Bullet to give him the best chance
of
surviving cancer and chemo. Knowing that I was a medical
animal writer, the wonderful veterinarian who provided chemotherapy
treatments for Bullet insisted that I must write a book to help others
who have dogs
with cancer.
Through the book, "Help
Your Dog
Fight Cancer,"
Bullet's story
is helping
thousands of dogs with cancer and thousands of caretakers who are
living with, caring for and loving those dogs. It's a primer, a crash
course for the caretaker of a dog with cancer. The book has won awards
and is the top selling book on canine cancer (for the layperson - the
caretaker) at Amazon.com.
I often thought about
how very
lucky I was to be able to pay for Bullet's treatment and how devastated
I would have felt if I could not. In concert with the
publication of this book, I founded the Magic
Bullet Fund, to
help people who have dogs with cancer but cannot
afford to pay for treatment.
On
November 20th, 2004, I lost
my sweet boy to renal failure. He was
nearly 14 years old. Bullet was one shining
moment
that graced my life for 12 years, 2 months and a day. The Magic Bullet
Fund is Bullet's legacy.
With the
assistance of people
like you, the fund will give many
more more dogs a chance to survive cancer and follow in Bullet's
big pawprints.
Please
read Help Your Dog
Fight Cancer.
Please help us fulfill this
dream by donating to the Magic Bullet Fund.
Laurie
Kaplan
for
Bullet
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