Showing posts with label Morris Animal Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morris Animal Foundation. Show all posts

August 5, 2014

#GiveCancerThePaw: Our Beautiful Angels

Today is our last Give Cancer the Paw blog hop. My co-host Peggy of the Writer's Dog and I invite you to join in and pay tribute to a special pet you've known and loved who has/had cancer. You can write a tribute post, share an old post about a beloved pet, or even just share a photo. Today I'm posting about our beautiful angels.

If you've been around the blog for a while, you know we lost both our beautiful girls, Bailey and Abby to cancer. Bailey had hemangiosarcoma, and Abby had osteosarcoma.

February 12, 2014

Guest Post from MAF: Help Save Dogs and Kids!

As you know, we lost our angel Abby to osteosarcoma. 
Pamela Anderson had nuthin' on our beach babe.

It was while Abby had cancer that we discovered Morris Animal Foundation when we participated in their K9 Cancer Walk with our girl. We also entered her in the Orvis Cover Dog contest which raises money for MAF. We've been supporters ever since, and attended their gala, and I've pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds from Rescue Me, Maybe to them. 

So, when MAF contacted me about doing a guest post, I was happy to agree! I asked if they'd specifically write about a new project they recently started. Thanks very much to Katie and MAF for sharing this info with Pooch Smooches' readers! 

Take it away, Katie: 
~ ~ ~
Every year, ten thousand American dogs are diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. This is a number that Morris Animal Foundation, a nonprofit working to further veterinary science, would like to change. Even more devastating than the sheer number of dogs with this terrible disease is that this type of cancer develops in young dogs—those between two and three years old. Osteosarcoma does not let up, either, as this cancer will commonly come back in dogs that have already had this ailment.
Photo provided by MAF

Owners can often tell that something is wrong when their dogs start to show symptoms of lameness. At this point, it is highly likely that the cancer has spread to other parts of the dog’s body. The current treatments for osteosarcoma include amputation and extremely strong chemotherapy drugs.

In order to combat this terrible disease, Morris’ 5-5-5 Project will fund five osteosarcoma studies. This project as a whole will last five years and will provide the chosen five studies with approximately $5 million. Every year for five years there will be a new osteosarcoma study bringing hope to dogs affected by this illness.

This study even has the potential to help kids, too. Finding the most effective cancer drugs for dogs, could potentially mean finding the most effective treatments for children affected by osteosarcoma. Morris is continuing the fight against cancer with this new project; join us and donate to Morris Animal Foundation. Thank you to all of our donors and those spreading the word about Morris studies!

Author Bio: This is a guest post by Katie F. on behalf of Morris Animal Foundation. Visit morrisanimalfoundation.org/ to learn more about the animal health research that Morris Animal Foundation participates in.

~ ~ ~

With Abby, she was hit even younger by the disease, being only 15-months old when she was diagnosed. As Katie writes, it was the limping that caused us to take her to the vet. With such a young, goofy dog, we figured she'd just overdone it. But when the limp didn't go away, x-rays confirmed osteosarcoma. 

We opted for amputation (obvi, from the above picture!), and also a lotta chemo (both IV and at-home pills) plus holistics treatments. We had another amazing 15 months with her and lost her at age 2 1/2. But she lives on in our hearts, and now in the character of Maybe in Rescue Me, Maybe.

Here's hoping the research funded by MAF can find some answers and bring hope for parents of both dogs and kids who get this horrible disease!

Thanks again MAF for the post and for everything that you do for the animals! #CancerSucks!

Thanks to Heart Like a Dog and 2 Brown Dawgs for hosting the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog hop. 

January 17, 2014

Follow Up Friday: Beggars Still Choosing, No 1, and Not My News But...

I had this post almost completely done. And then I hit some strange key combination on accident and lost the whole thing. Even though I'd already saved it several times. ARRRRRGGGGHHHH.

Anyway....... It's Follow Up Friday... the blog that lets you wrap up your week.

Beggars Are Still Choosers
I posted about Rita turning down an offering of some lobster. She continues her choosy ways in this video:
{Please ignore the dog hair on the floor. I bet you have no experience with that sort of thing...}




October 22, 2013

Really Wordy Wednesday: Black Tie with Betty White

I apologize in advance for how wordy this will be, but I wanted to share my pics from the Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) Gala of Hope and tell you all about it. 

I also apologize in advance for how crappy our pics are. (!) My sis and I are new to having iPhones. (Do all iPhones take crappy pics indoors if the lighting isn't great, or is it just us? It's just us, isn't it...) If I'd known, I would've brought my "real" camera! Darn it.

Anyway... here goes the full report! 

My "date" and I checked into our lovely hotel room and got dolled up.

October 20, 2013

Monday Mischief: Even More in Awe of Betty White Now

Okay - I'm going to start right out by saying the mischief is all on me today. I am too beat to give you a full report on the Morris Animal Foundation Gala of Hope today! But... I'll give you some teasers and answer the Big Question.
Terrible photo - but that lady in red is Betty!

October 11, 2013

Follow-Up Friday: We Get To Go!!!

If you read yesterday's post, you know I was soooooo bummed about not getting to go to the Morris Animal Foundation Gala of Hope... but we ARE going!! I just found out a few minutes ago that it's 100% for sure happening!!
It's all thanks to entering my beautiful angel in a photo contest!

October 10, 2013

Feeling Blue on Mirth Watch Thursday

You guys! You are not going to believe my tale of woe...

You know I love Morris Animal Foundation and Betty White right? (If not, I mentioned it here, plus mentioned my donation pledge to MAF in my book trailer that I posted yesterday.) So, imagine how excited I was when I got a phone message inviting me and the hubs to the MAF's "Gala of Hope," featuring Betty White - we're talking free tickets!

Since we donate to MAF, we get their mailers so had seen that the event was happening on Oct. 19. I had said to the hubs how much I wished we could go, but (a) it's in L.A., about 2 hours from our house (that's with NO traffic), (b) the tickets for the 2 of us would have been $600, (c) it's not the hubs' favorite thing in the world to get dressed up and go somewhere fancy. So the mailer went in the recycle bin.

But they called yesterday and said they wanted us to come for free!! We were chosen because of Abby's entry in the Orvis cover dog photo contest. If you've been following the blog for a long time, you'll remember that I entered this photo of her in the contest way back in Feb. of 2011.

February 20, 2011

Canine Cancer Walk

On Saturday, Mike, Abby and I as well as my sis, Terry, and her corgi, Lou, all participated in the Canine Cancer Walk in Walnut Grove Park, San Marcos. Funds raised are going to the Morris Animal Foundation Canine Cancer Campaign. We were a little worried we might not make it, as the forecast was not good and we didn't want to drive the 50 min. to get there in pouring down rain, but the weather held for the most part and it ended up being really nice during the walk.

The walk itself was pretty short - only 1 mile on a flat path, so definitely not enough to wear our girl out - but there were a lot of dogs there and lots of vendors handing out goodies for the dogs. Mike and I scored some free T-shirts that say "Cancer Bites" which were really supposed to only be for the team from the Veterinary Specialty Hospital. We offered to buy them, but she said they were just extras and gave them to us. (Technically, they were not free since we easily spent about five large there when our last dog, Bailey, got sick...) Anyway, the organizers said they'd hoped to have 100 dogs and raise $15K, but they ended up with ~250 dogs (I think that's what she said) and raised $23K! Our family has lost many great dogs to cancer, so we were happy to take part.

I'll let the pics tell the story (if you want to see any of them larger, just doubleclick):
Lou on the way. Silly boy hates car rides, so we were surprised and happy that he came along.

At the start, the organizer said 25% of dogs will get cancer and 62% (!) of Goldens!
Our familial unit.

The walking hoards

Lou and Abby on the trail

Abby bursts into the lead!

Left this one a little bigger so you can see the crowd streaming along waaay in the background

Celebrity sighting: Chopper!

A hoard of happy Goldens

We met another tripawd!

Lou, happy & tired, on the way home.

"I got this cool ball and a bandanna!"

"Here's all my swag."

"The Blue Buffalo folks gave me a frisbee! (Not everybody got one. They thought I was special."
The best thing would be if Abby's able to go again next year...