This year has been one of the worst years we have faced in a very long time. On February 19 our whole world was turned upside down, my sister in law had surgery to remove a lump in her throat, as I waited for her to come out of surgery I began to realize that the news would not be good, the surgery was taking longer than it was suppose to. I was go out for a smoke, when I ran into her doctors who were coming to find me, one look I knew it was bad and how right I was she had Cancer and they had not expected to find a tumor so big, The tumor was around the voice box nerve, and her the parathyroid as well had to be removed, this makes it hard for her body to maintain a calcium level (if the calcium level is to low it can cause heart problem). I asked the Dr to let me be the one to tell her, which they agreed too. Before she started treatment, it was important to her that the girls only see a healthy mom, because should the Cancer beat her she wanted them to have good memories of her doing fun things with them. My three nieces came to live with me from January until the end of August.
We had hoped that our puppies would help them stay busy, the girls where with me when I whelped the liter Nicole the oldest was the one who was very hands on during the whelping she a very strong bond with not only Mulan the puppy she is training to be a Hearing Ear Dog but all of our Dogs. Nicole is the only other person who knows are dogs as well as I do. Nicole just turned 11 years old and she would put a good number of adults to shame.
I was very busy with three girls two of which where in School (Their School is close to their home but about fifteen minute drive from my house.) which meant that they needed to be taking to school every day and picked up again. My niece Sayde is home schooled because the Edmonton Public School Board refuse to allow Dusty her Seizure Alert Dog to go to school. I also had to be there for my sister in law as she when thought her treatment. The Cross Cancer was really wonderful they let me take the girls into the treatment room to see what they where doing to their mom. The treatment had taken a great poll on their mom and she was having trouble keeping her calcium level up and the radiation treatment also was doing here in.
The rest of the year has been spent trying to get the dogs who are close to being ready finished and the puppies watching them to see which ones where best suited for service dog work.
February 2003
We are two months into 2003 and it is shaping up to be an interesting year. Our puppies are already one year old and they have kept us hopping their do not have legs they all have springs instead ,they can clear the six foot mark. We are now working on them doing something good with their jumping, this will coming in very handy for them to be able to get things.
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Smokey's Assistance Dogs Foundation
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Revised: June 26, 2005
