July | 2013 | bernerjazzlife

I’ve been somewhat inactive in blogging of late. There’s a reason for that. My buddy Doc has been diagnosed with Lymphoma and unfortunately that’s taking up a lot of my time right now. Doc is an 8 year old Labrador Retriever. I got him last year right after the passing of my previous dog, Sam.

I’d had Sam since 1999 and he lived to be about 14 and a half years old, which is pretty good for a lab. Deciding I still needed Canine companionship, I soon (a matter of days) went to the Humane Society and got myself a new friend.

Doc, was a 7 and a half year old lab who didn’t have much chance of adoption. He seemed utterly depressed and had been surrendered twice by different owners for behaviour issues. Older dogs don’t get adopted out as easily and he wasn’t particularly playful, but I figured “What the heck-maybe we can cheer each other up.”

Well, Doc certainly wasn’t the dog I thought I was getting! Within a few weeks he’d decided we were his new family and had perked right up and had a constant(possibly exhausting) puppy-like playfulness! Also, none of the aforementioned bevaviour problems ever manifested with us, so if they ever existed they were gone now!

Before Doc was around my wife had a beautiful dog named Kona, a chocolate lab. She passed away from lymphoma two days before Christmas, 2011, so we knew exactly what we were in for when we got the diagnosis. After Kona passed, my wife adopted an older lab named Shadow, who has just been best friends with Doc.

We’ve decided on a course of treatment including chemo and radiation. With this course of treatment, 47% of dogs are still in remission in three years time. Also, new breakthroughs are made in this field almost daily. Unfortunately (or fortunately-depending on how you look at it!), the only veterinary radiation/chemo lab in Western Canada is in Calgary, a bit f a ways a way. So once a week I have to give a day to taking him down for treatment. It’s been exhausting and expensive for me (so if anyone needs a sax player or a band please let me know!lol), but totally worth it as he is happy, healthy and responding well. I also have to thank ACTSS for the subsidization that is helping make treatment possible.

So that’s pretty much how my summer’s gone. That and a few nice gigs. More to come-over and out.

Doc and Shadow