She raised a puppy and was the best big dog for a little boy to have grown up with.īy December, I knew her time was near. Along the way, she taught us a few more lessons about caring for others, staying positive, and enjoying a limited time on earth. Incredibly, with plenty of ups and downs, she lived 16 more months, well beyond the average survival for such a condition. Our perfect dog who had been aging so graciously had suddenly had the wind taken out of her sails. In August of 2009, we diagnosed Kaya with stage 5 lymphoma (a cancer in the immune system) and were devastated. Kaya was with me through my immature bachelorhood, an engagement and a new marriage, our move to our Crozet home, and for the first four years of our son's life. And I got something more special back: loyalty, love, devotion. The food, the walks, the gear, the vet bills, the house repair, these were never a trade-off for having a great companion, this was for the great companion. But for me, the biggest lesson was learning how to simply give part of myself away freely to help someone/something else. And don't forget joy, enthusiasm, and peace. Lessons about loyalty, love, and devotion. Her MO was to sit in front of you and stare with her soulful eyes, demanding that you hold her paw or pet her. Over the years, Kaya continued to come out of her shell as she began to trust her new world. Slowly but surely, she and I bonded as we spent hours upon hours hiking the nearby national forest and with her sitting at my feet while I studied. Only when I came home did she cautiously emerge from her hiding place, still so unsure if she could trust her new situation. She would hide under my bed when I left the house and would not come out when my roommates tried to get her outside. In our first few weeks together, Kaya had all the markings of a previously abused dog. She had the sweetest, most terrified expression on her face, and as soon as I got her out of her cage, she just sat down and handed me her paw, as if to say, "I'll be really cute if you don't hurt me!" It was love at first sight. After class, I went down to the lab cages and there, cowering in the back of her cage, was our Kaya. Apparently this dog was very sweet and so a meeting was set up. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) was in that lab and knew I was thinking about a dog. She was supposed to be spayed by the third-year veterinary students but had already been spayed. Kaya came to me from the Roanoke SPCA at the start of my second year of veterinary school. It's funny how a dog?a dog?can so profoundly impact our complicated lives. On the other hand, we have an acute sense of how blessed we were to have her in our lives. Our home is simply not the same without her presence. On one hand, my wife and I are incredibly sad at the loss of our beloved friend. It's odd sorting through mixed feelings at the moment. She was an incredible companion and gave us 11 memorable years of her life. Sadly, we lost Kaya just after Christmas. A humble tribute to my girl.)Ī few months ago, I saw a bumper sticker that had a paw print next to the words "Who rescued who?" It stuck with me as a profound thought as I had been dealing with what I knew were the last few months of my own rescued dog's life. Andersenįebruary 3rd, 2011: (here is my "Gazette Vet" column for February. I am hoping Kaya's story can help shine some perspective into this process for you. But battling a diagnosis of cancer is a unique challenge, as we are often faced with the choice of putting our pets through a procedure, whether chemotherapy or surgery, in hopes of a longer and more fuller life. If you have a pet, you'll likely outlive it, and that is a painful experience anyway you slice it. I started writing about this journey back in August of 2009, and you can follow how things went from then to the present by starting at the bottom of this blog. Looking back, I have no regrets in treating her cancer with chemotherapy and we were blessed to have been able to care for her after all she has given to my family and I. More importantly, she lived a great quality of life during that time, minus some bad days here and there. The average survival of lymphoma with chemotherapy is about 10-12 months, so I was pleased for Kaya to have lived so long. It has been an emotional journey filled with plenty of highs and lows, and an incredible learning experience for myself. During the course of diagnosing this disease and treating it with chemotherapy, I was compelled to write this journal as a way to help our clients understand the real life ins and outs of chemotherapy treatment in pets. Sadly, Kaya finally lost her battle on December 27th, 2010, after 16 months of fighting. This is the story of Kaya, my 11 year old mixed breed dog who was diagnosed with leukemic lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.
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