We Are The Cure Blog | Canine Cancer Information

The 2^nd Annual Canines for the Cure Texas Agility Shoot-Out held in Fort Worth, TX, on August 13-14, 2011, was one for the history books. Once again, the North Texas agility community showed the world what can be accomplished when everyone comes together for a common good. This year the Shoot-Out once again surpassed all expectations by raising $42,300 for canine cancer research, bringing the two-year total to $71,500!! Way to go Texas!! Many of us have lost dogs to cancer, but as a direct result of the efforts of each and every person who attended the Shoot-Out, we are confident that eventually many of our canine companions will be saved from this terrible disease due to the research that we helped sponsor.

All the passionate supporters of the TX Shoot Out!!!

Each year the Shoot-Out spotlights a local dog that has been lost to cancer. Our first year we honored Ranger, the dog whose death inspired the creation of the Shoot-Out. This year, we honored Libby, an Australian Shepherd loved and missed by Pamela Meeks. Libby was an extremely shy rescue that blossomed in agility and became the first rescue dog in ASCA history to be ranked #1, and she held her #1 ranking for two years. On January 30, 2009, though, Libby lost her life to hemangiosarcoma and that loss is what drove Pamela to become an integral part of the Texas Agility Shoot-Out trial committee.

Libby

Obviously, one person, not even one club, can pull off an event of this magnitude. The core team of Christi Farley, Pamela Meeks (Fort Worth Agility Sports Team), Linda Knowles (Gold Medal Agility), and Nikki Heep had numerous individuals and clubs step up to lend a hand with an astounding 104 people volunteering to work at the trial. There were 266 handlers with 382 dogs running a total of 1,975 runs over the weekend with one handler coming all the way from Sherwood, Arkansas! We could not have pulled this event off if it were not for the agility community totally embracing the concept. Everyone – trial committee, judges, chief ring stewards, course builders, raffle organizers, memorial wall creators, raffle ticket sellers, ring crew, competitors, vendors, and anyone who bought a raffle ticket -  was an integral part of making the 2^nd Annual Canines for the Cure Texas Agility Shoot-Out a smashing success. We look forward to seeing what next year’s event will bring!

Ranger, the original inspiration dog

Lucky, a seven-year survivor, at the Cynosport World Games where she did the agility

demo before our memorial wall presentation. She was offering the crowd a reason for

hope and her mom, Martine, tells her inspiring story here.

“My heart broke on March 9, 2004. I numbly listened in the veterinary office as the

diagnosis, treatment plan, and statistics regarding late-stage lymphoma hung in the air

while Lucky, my four-year-old, super-fast Sheltie, sat at my feet. My erratic outbursts of

‘Are you sure? She doesn’t seem sick’ interrupted but didn’t

stop the vet from finally saying, “She will die of cancer within

a year.” A silent ’No, Lucky won’t’ comforted me until a mental

reprimand reminded me I was in denial. “She is on today’s

schedule to start chemotherapy and by the way, no more

agility.”

Lymphoma survivor, Lucky (Photo by: Tien Tran)

Our war began with a potent cocktail of two drugs and

followed a variation of the Wisconsin/Madison protocol that

lasted 36 weeks. Lucky’s body responded well to the drugs and

her lymph nodes immediately returned to normal. As quickly

as Lucky had gone into a clinical remission, she had also gone

into a depression.

Chemotherapy was working, but Lucky was dying of boredom. I honestly felt that she

should die happy doing what she loved best, agility. Returning to agility, Lucky’s mental

and physical health improved and mine did too. I stopped crying and started to fight the

cancer. Lucky brought home blue ribbons and defied lymphoma’s death sentence. Agility

is the one place where Lucky is Cancer free. There are no needles or prodding, she is just

a dog running agility and winning smiles and ribbons.

I knew the fight wasn’t over so I continued to research

treatments globally with a focus on new human therapies

since dogs and humans share similar DNA, environmental

exposure, ingest the same foods, and have the same cancers.

Researchers considered her a gold mine because she

was young, fit, and fighting off cancer.

Four days before the 2005 USDAA Chicago Regionals,

Lucky came out of remission even though she had far

exceeded treatment expectations. My vet was undeterred

and gave Lucky her first chemotherapeutic drug in seven

months and said, “Go compete!” And yes, we qualified. Thank you, Kirsten and Dare!

Unfortunately, this time the lymphoma was really bad and the drugs were not

working. Lucky’s body had become toxic to some of the drugs while the cancer had

become resistant to others. Lucky’s first round of chemotherapy had been so successful

that we withheld the most powerful drug so that drug was in our arsenal, but only for five

doses. Additionally, one of the researchers I had found used an ancillary therapy (similar

to one used with breast cancer) that he believed would work well with the chemo.

Lucky’s last chemotherapy appointment was October 15, 2005. Upon finishing the

chemo, the vet said, “That’s it, no more chemo. Thank goodness she’s in remission.”

Huh?! Yes, Lucky was in her second remission. I was stunned. No one knew how long it

would last. That was seven years ago and she is still in remission. Lucky will be 12 years

old on August 28, 2011. She is fit, still doing a little agility, and running around and barking

at everyone just like any Sheltie. Lucky dog indeed!”

Lucky, Agility Superstar (Photo by: Tien Tran)

You can see this story and other survivor stories on our website at www.wearethecure.

org/survivors. If you have a survivor, please let us hear about them! We encourage you to

read this article each and every month, as we bring you a reason for hope.

Gary D. Nice

President and co-founder