We don’t have our “official” pix yet, but here’s one I snapped of Bryce with his C-ATCH ribbon … and his friend Hat, who thought it was actually a CAT-CH . An honest mistake. (Bryce wasn’t in a posing kind of mood and he’s horribly out of coat besides so it’s a pretty crappy picture, but for now it will have to do.)

I went into last weekend feeling pretty good. I’d managed to get an appointment with Bryce’s physical therapist the Monday before and he had cleared him to run. We’d been doing our walks twice a day, and Bryce seemed to be feeling pretty good. The bonus was that the weather was supposed to be decent (for January in the tri-state area). We had two chances to get that remaining Jackpot Q.

When there are 2 Jackpot runs in a CPE trial, I think one of them HAS to be a “non-traditional” Jackpot, which is *usually* (depends on the judge) easier than the “traditional” kind. My plan was to avoid contacts as much as possible for the sake of Bryce’s back and stick to “safer” obstacles like jumps, tunnels and weaves.

Saturday was the “traditional” variety. A traditional CPE Jackpot is similar to USDAA Gamblers – there’s an opening “point accumulation” period, then a buzzer sounds and you have a few seconds to complete a distance challenge. There were plenty of point accumulation opportunities that didn’t involve contacts, however there was an A-frame in the distance part.

I was more nervous about Bryce reinjuring himself or having any weird “episodes” than I was about him qualifying. As long as he stayed sound, it knew it was just a waiting game.

Time came for us to run. He dropped the first bar, which totally unnerved me because I can’t REMEMBER the last time he dropped a bar! Then I sent him into a tunnel and he popped back out! He seemed very tentative – like he wasn’t sure he was “allowed” to be doing agility. Either that or he’d forgotten a LOT in the last 3 months!

We got enough points in the opening but he didn’t have the impulsion to go out and complete the distance challenge, so we didn’t qualify, but the sky didn’t fall either. He seemed none the worse for wear and didn’t drop any bars after that first. Game on for Sunday!

Which brings us to the non-traditional. In a non-traditional Jackpot, pretty much anything goes, as defined by the judge. For this one, you had the standard point accumulation period, then when the buzzer sounded you had to do 2 different jumps and a tunnel (in any order) and go to the table without doing anything else. The tricky part was that there were a lot of straight lines heading towards that table, designed to tempt Certain Dogs into throwing in an extra obstacle or two before (or in lieu of) the table!

They were using the same course for all levels, and Bryce was after both Raven and Jayda in the run order, so I had 2 chances to practice.

Raven turned out to be one of those “Certain Dogs” mentioned above, and got sucked into an extra tunnel (and then some!).

With Jayda I did exactly what I planned to do with Bryce and, being Jayda, she did it perfectly, finishing her last Level 4 title.

Finally (after a LONG, nerve-wracking wait after Jayda’s run) it was Bryce’s turn. I *shouldn’t* have been nervous about this run, given the course, but running a dog with serious health issues really ups the bar on the mental game! I was counting on two 5-point jump combos for 10 of his opening points so I had my fingers crossed that the bar-dropping incident of the previous day wouldn’t repeat itself!

He started out really well – a bit faster than the day before. No tunnel popouts, no dropped bars. Got through the 5 point combos, I only needed 3 more points to have enough for the opening. I went to turn him towards a 3 point double …

…and he turned the OTHER way and stuck his NOSE to the mats!! There was a collective gasp from everyone and some (er … MANY) humiliating moments from his youthful days flashed before my eyes!

Fortunately, I got his attention back quickly enough to do the double and a few single jumps for good measure before the buzzer sounded. Then he did his jump-jump-tunnel-table as perfectly as Jayda had .

In retrospect, it wouldn’t have been a true “Brycey moment” if his evil twin “Bubba” hadn’t put in a cameo appearance!

There was a lot of cheering and a lot of crying. I hugged him for a long time, crying in his fur a little bit, then we did our victory lap. He was obviously happy and faster on his victory lap than on his run – he knew that applause was for him and he was lovin’ every minute of it !

We got our ribbon, we got our victory run, we got our jump bar AND we got our cake !!! Details to follow – it was a long weekend, I barely slept last night and am pretty fried!

Meanwhile, Bryce has just one thing to say …

As of January 14th, a little more than a year after starting treatment, Bryce is clinically in remission!

With this disease, it doesn’t mean it’s gone and it doesn’t mean forever. It just means we swept it under the rug for a while.

But for however long or short that may be, it feels good to be able to finally say that we kicked some cancer ass!

A few months ago I spent some of my Amazon mad-money on a video input adapter, with the intention of copying all my old videos off tape and onto DVD’s,. Unfortunately, I was too busy to do anything with it when it arrived, so I decided why not save it for Christmas. I finally got around to messing with it today!

Still not familiar with the software and having problems getting my REALLY old VHS tapes to copy, but I got it working with my 8mm tapes.

The first tape I’ve copied is from 1996-1997 – before Bryce was so much as a glimmer in his father’s eye! It features my “second generation” – Tiffy, Sally, Jasmine and Kacey. Of the 4 girls, only Kacey is still alive. Watching it, at first I didn’t know whether to smile or cry – smiling won out . There are some classic clips on it, a few of which will be going on youtube, but meanwhile here are a few still frame captures from way back when:

Tiffy at 8-9 years old. When she was 5, Tiffy was badly injured in a household accident so she was a little lopsided the remainder of her 15.5 years. Hard to tell from this angle and the grainy image, but she was a very pretty girl. She was only about 13.5″ tall – Raven’s height. Doesn’t look that small, does she? She was built like a tank!

Sally at 6 – just a sweet young thing! In this clip, she wanted me to get out of bed and FEED her! Instead, I laughed at her and grabbed the camera. (She was a little annoyed – can you tell?)

Jasmine, the 3rd of my 3 little “redheads”, shown here at about 3 1/2 years old. (Jasmine never did like having her picture taken.)

Kacey … as a kitten! (7 months or so)

Proof that I once had a dog with a start line stay …

… but really crappy contacts!

(Not that my handling was anything to write home about either …)

More on the way !

Happy 2010!

Here’s the obligatory New Years dog photo (the cats never cooperate)…

(Yes, it looks like Raven may have either had some personal hygeine issues or was passing gas since the others refused to sit that close to her… but at least they’re all looking nicely at the camera and it only took me 4 tries ! )

2009 had it’s good points and it’s bad points. On the good side, Bryce is still with us and doing pretty well. On the minus side, Jasmine is gone. Wasn’t a bad agility year.

It was however a very EXPENSIVE year right up to the end ! The week before Christmas, Kacey suddenly got sick – frequent vomiting, not eating, acting miserable. Now since Kacey’s tongue is always in places where a cat’s tongue shouldn’t be, she gets a nasty GI upset or two every year (though it’s usually the other end that’s affected) so I went with my usual strategy – took her to my vet for fluids and some shots to help her stop vomiting.

Eight hours later, she was still vomiting every 1.5-2 hours, so on the recommendation of my vet, off she went to the $$$ 24 hr hospital. $$$ Got there just in time to catch the $$$ ultrasound technician $$$ on her way out the door. The good news was that there were no blockages, however she had a mildly inflamed pancreas and a VERY badly inflamed stomach. $$$ Spent the night there $$$ on IV’s.

Of course, she didn’t vomit once after she was checked in! The next morning found her biting the techs – not something you usually want to hear and I’ll probably burn in hell for giggling about it when they told me, but it was the best sign possible that Kacey was feeling well enough to act like herself. She wouldn’t eat for them, so I went over and managed to coax her to eat a few licks of baby food. After a few hours to make sure that stayed down she came home – indignant, freaked-out, and sporting what can only be described as a semi poodle-clip (apparently they needed to shave THREE legs to find a vein?) but as happy to be home as I was to have her back!

So far so good – what a relief but what a scare! Kacey’s my oldest (2 yrs older than Bryce) – she’s kind of a badass, but I really love her and am not ready to see her leave us any time soon!

Coming right on the heels of Bryce’s “episodes” this was really rough on the already-hurting checkbook as you can well imagine! If you’re ever in a similar situation, I highly recommend checking out CareCredit, which lets you make payments interest-free as long as you make monthly payments and pay off your balance in full within a certain time period (in this case, 90 days).

So here’s to a slightly less-crazy 2010!

So I finally got around to doing one of my 2009 New Years Resolutions and set up a fundraising page at the National Canine Cancer Foundation (WeAreTheCure.org) with Bryce’s story.

Many people set up these “friends” pages in memory of dogs they have lost – since Bryce is all about living life to it’s fullest, I felt it more appropriate to set set one up now in his honor. Silently, my page is also dedicated to those other dogs I know who are fighting the fight or who have left us recently – there are far, far to many of them !

The NCCF is a non-profit 503c that funds grants for scientific research into improved treatments and diagnostics for various canine cancers. They fully funded several research grants in 2009 and will be funding more in 2010.

January marks one year of Bryce being on treatment for his Myeloma. As of his last bloodwork, his numbers were very good but appear to be hitting a plateau now. I don’t think his numbers are quite good enough to qualify as full remission, but his globulins are down to well below where they were when we started and just a skooch above normal range, which I think makes it a good “partial response”.This is the point where I hold my breath and hope they stay there for a long time, dreading the day they turn and begin to climb again.

Every now and then I scan the news for the latest in multiple myeloma research - which is encouraging but frustrating at the same time. There have been SO many promising advances in the treatment of Multiple Myeloma in humans, but virtually NO mention anything new in veterinary medicine! No studies, no clinical trials – nothing. Nothing but the standard protocol, previously used for decades to treat humans … with mediocre results.

Probably the case for many other canine cancers as well. This is why we NEED to fund the kind of research that can lead to similar breakthroughs and more quality time with our beloved companions!

Visit Bryce’s Page at WeAreTheCure.org »