Maintaining Hope

It has been awhile since we started our campaign for our therapy dog. We will have a lot of time dedicated to doing this once it is on its way.

We want to do this because we have seen so many people in need at the hospitals and cancer centers that need our service. We will be responsible for the training, certification, licensing and all the other factors involved in the set up stages of this effort.

Once we start, we will have to visit the hospitals and get the access we need to allow us to visit patients with Hope, our therapy dog. We will be responsible for continued training, supportive training, bathing, grooming and also the transportation to and from the hospital visits.

In other words, we have agreed to many hours of volunteer work that will bring happiness to many patients and provide them with maybe some of the hope that is needed for recovery.

We have made that commitment now we need your help.

http://www.gofundme.com/if3c5w

The birth of our therapy dog service

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

I have had a series of medical issues in the last few years. It caught me guard since I had gone about 60 years without any problems except for a broken arm when I was in junior high school.

The first episode happened about 4 years ago when I was photographing the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention fundraising walk. While waiting for the walkers to make their way back to the starting point near Lake Baldwin, I rested comfortably against a tree.

When I caught first sight of the walkers, I changed positions and suddenly realized there were hundreds of fire ants swarming my feet and scores were making their way up my leg, biting me as they climbed. I was there to photograph the event, so I took off my shoes and socks and rolled my pants up as far as I could to brush all the ants off.

The severe itching became overwhelming and I started sweating and became disoriented. I knew I had to leave, but the event was almost over, so I finished up and left as quickly as I could. I felt like I was a little rude, perhaps, to some people there since I left so fast, but I had to go. In the car, Vida, my wife, noticed my lips were swelling and wasn’t paying attention while I was driving. We made it home and I took everything off and started finding anything and everything I could to stop the itching.

Nevertheless, I took several Benadryl capsules that allowed me to sleep and that’s about all I did for the rest of the weekend. By the time Monday rolled around, my right leg was so swollen I could barely bend it at the knee. Eventually, I had to check into the hospital and ended up staying there 14 days.

It was not fun, but the one thing that brightened my day, other than Vida visiting me, was bedside call from Oliver, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He was so warm and friendly and acted like he knew me his entire life.

That was my first encounter with a therapy dog and I have never forgotten it.

Just recently, I have had several visits to the hospital visits including daily

Chemotherapy Room

radiation treatment and weekly chemotherapy treatment for the head and neck cancer I was diagnosed with in March of 2014. Again, a therapy dog came to visit as we chemo patients laid back in our recliners finding things to do. Everyone turned their eyes to the dog and smiles replaced the bored stares that most of us had.

And just when we thought I was clean and free of cancer, we learned my oral area was clear but a cancerous mass was found in my right lung just last week. We will be meeting with my oncologist to determine the treatment program for this round.

Vida and I are both animal lovers and a couple of weeks ago, we started tossing around the idea of us getting a therapy dog so we can bring the same cheer to patients that were brought to us.

We decided on a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel just like Oliver. We discussed finding a very young female from a rescue group and have started to line up necessary training, certification and are learning hospital rules and guidelines. Her name will be Hope, for the hope that has sustained us for this last year.

We are eager to do this, to perform this community service so others can benefit from the warmth and comfort a therapy dog can provide people that may be feeling alone or lost or afraid in the hospital. My own cancer has left me on medical leave from my full time job without pay since March of this year. We cannot afford the dog or the training so we have enlisted the help of “gofundme” in the hopes some or all of these initial costs so we can be of service. Therapy dogs and their human counter-parts are not paid for doing this. We would do this as a community service.

If you would like to help, please visit our GoFundMe page and let us know what you think. We appreciate your concern and while we pray we will not have to visit you in the hospital, know that we will be here if you need us.