Day 1: Do Over

So many nights on the road I woke up not knowing where we were or when we were.  That same dazed disorientation has descended upon me since Hudson’s diagnosis yesterday. 
But I’m starting to work my way through this mad, miasmic maze to the stone cold stark reality that Hudson has cancer.  
Shit, didn’t I just give a speech about this the other day?  
‘Oh woe is me’ is the pity party we throw ourselves sometimes but it’s absolutely essential. It means that you care enough to take it on 100%.  200%.  1,000%.  I’m not good with math so I’ll stop here.  
I made many mistakes with Murphy’s cancer and they haunt me still but I own them. There are no ‘do overs’ in life.  
There’s only today and tomorrow.   Tomorrow is Day 2.  

Highway 40

Just as I was driving to Dr. Blackburn’s vet clinic this morning, I was thinking of a funny way to punk everyone about Hudson’s lump on his rump.  I intended to write, ‘Well, it’s bad news for Hudson.  The vet informed us that he’s really a French existentialist with a penchant for Clove cigarettes, berets, beatnik poetry, and menage-a-trois. 

After aspirating the tumor and examining it under the microscope, Dr. ‘B’, as he’s affectionately known, returned to the room and said, ‘I’m 100% sure…’ and I was about to do a ‘Whew’ until he continued…’It’s a mast cell tumor’. 

Hudson has cancer and is under the knife as I write, to remove it.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as there is a chance, ever so slight, that when the tumor is excised, the massive release of histamines from the agitated B cells can be fatal it seems though I’m still trying to process the unprocessable.   

But what we do know is that we won’t know until it’s biopsied what exactly we’re up against nor what the plan is for four or five days.  

I will not be on FB or reachable here at the earliest until the results or back.  Ginger will keep you updated probably here and the 2milliondogs fan page.  However, my blog will chronicle every aspect of Hudson’s cancer.  

I have to go now and learn everything there is to know about mastocytoma.   
I wondered why I’ve had nightmares recently about Highway 40. 

I am inconsolable

The Couch Potato Kidz

Bittersweet to be back in Memphis even if for a little while.  It was 2 years ago that I was here to live out the lives of both Murphy and Buddy as both had terminal cancer.  
The two of them plus me & Hudson had a helluva time in Ginger’s living room back then in the final stages of their lives. 
I posted the nearby note on her living room door,as though we were members of an exclusive club, and around these parts we notoriously became known as the ‘Couch Potato Kidz’.  
2 years later, Ginger still has the note I posted on the door to the living room, pictured nearby.   Only Hudson remains.

It’s hard to return here.  To see this.

John Donne wrote, ‘Thy firmness makes my circle just and makes me end where I begun’.  

This Is

Here are pics from our recent travels…

This is Dr. Sue the cancer vet lovin her some fuzzybutts…






This is Hudzers hammin it up and a toeheaded kid playing paddy cake on his belly








What Price Fame?  This is Hudson on day 4 of the conference.








At the Mall of America, this is?????

These are the Puppy Up! ladies of Des Moines.  From L to R, Julie, Chris, and Brooke (whose dog Gunner has cancer).





This is Beth in Madison whose beautiful Pyrenees, Czar, has metastatic bone cancer and one of the calendar boys in the 2014 Cancer Can’t Keep a Good Dog Down calendar.







This is where the fat cats (again, sorry for feline references) sit above everyone else in Madison.  It’s a law – no structure can be higher than the capitol.







This is Yer Big Dog dancing with Lil Nana.  Yep it gets lonely on the road… and FYI – he can two step.









This is the beautiful Memorial board that the folks in Ann Arbor created from their recent Puppy Up! walk.






This is Indiana pooping on a Church bush thereby damning his soul to an eternity of reruns of Garfield and Squirrel infomercials.

The Murphy Mobile Rides Again

It’s great to be back on the road again educating and raising awareness of cancer in pets and people and promoting the cause that we all so passionately believe in.  
Two weeks ago, the Fuzzybutts and I drove from Newport RI, crossed the Berkshires, transversed upstate NY on into Erie and Northern PA, down to 80/90 to the Twin Cities to get to the Veterinary Cancer Society Conference in Minneapolis.
From there our travels took us to Des Moines IA onto to Madison WI then horseshoed up to Grand Rapids MI and did a slingshot around Ann Arbor MI back to the Chicago area for the upcoming Puppy Up! Walk next Saturday, the 2nd.
The only reason I bring up geography is that, when added to the 12,000 plus miles of the Summer of Murphy Tour last year, the Murphy Mobile has pretty much circumnavigated the Continental US, except for a few swaths here and there.
Next blog… ‘This Is’ –  Pics from our travels!

Press Release from AMC

AMC Awarded Research Grant From 2 Million Dogs Foundation

(New York, NY – September 17, 2013) 


The Animal Medical Center is proud to announce that it has been selected to receive an $80,000 research grant in comparative oncology by the 2 Million Dogs Foundation, an organization committed to discovering the common links between canine and human cancers and the causes of these cancers through comparative oncology research.

In dogs, transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most common tumor of the urinary tract.  TCC typically presents at a very advanced stage and the majority of dogs diagnosed with this tumor are euthanized due to failure to control the local disease within the urinary tract.  Current therapies include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgical debulking but none are able to consistently produce lasting remissions.

The AMC research study being conducted in affiliation with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will be led by Dr. Chick Weisse, head of Interventional Radiology Service.  This study will compare systemic chemotherapy levels experienced by a canine patient following intravenous (typical route) versus intra-arterial (image-guided) routes of chemotherapy administration in the same patient.  

“At The AMC, recent advancements in interventional radiology techniques enable us to administer different drugs into the arteries feeding the actual tumors via minimally-invasive approaches – in order to achieve very high regional drug concentrations within the tumor – without the systemic side effects that would occur had these levels been administered  intravenously,” said Dr. Weisse.  The investigators hope to demonstrate higher achieved levels of chemotherapy within the targeted tissues as well as improved tumor remissions in canine patients with naturally occurring transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary bladder and urethra.

“2 Million Dogs is proud to be working with the Animal Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, two of the most prestigious institutions in comparative oncology,” said Ginger Morgan, Executive Director and President of the Board of 2 Million Dogs Foundation.

About 2 Million Dogs Foundation


2 Million Dogs Foundation is committed to discovering the common links between canine and human cancers and the causes of these cancers through comparative oncology research.  The organization will accomplish that mission through education and awareness, empowerment and mobilization and investment in research.  For more information:  http://www.2milliondogs.org

About The Animal Medical Center


The Animal Medical Center (AMC), located on the Upper East Side in New York City, is a non-profit veterinary center that has been a national leader in animal care since 1910. As an academic veterinary hospital, The AMC promotes the health and well-being of companion animals through advanced treatment, research and education. The AMC staff is comprised of over 100 veterinarians who utilize an interdisciplinary team approach combining expertise across specialty areas and services to care for your pet 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For more information: http://www.amcny.org
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YBD’s Notes 1:  Chip Weisse, the principle investigator provided us with a Power Point Presentation that I wanted to share with you.  However, how to convert it  and post it here has been a serious pain in my arse, hence the delay.  


On God and Google

This isn’t the first time my I-Phone has altered the course of things for me.  One of our supporters asked for my help on a cancer related issue and in my haste, I texted my reply as ‘At your service’ but autocorrect sent it as ‘At your cervix’.  

Sunday, I was on my way to the flagons, dragons, and wenches of the Renaissance Festival in Connecticut and when I typed in the address for it at 14 Stott Avenue, Google Maps autocorrected it for 14 Scott Street. 

And that took me to a place I’ve never been to before, but to a known yet forgotten land.

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The Saint Peters and Saint Paul Church sits atop a rolling Northeastern hillside in Norwich, and it was there I found the 14 stations of the Cross.  It’s a beautiful, bucolic place of pray and it’ll now and always be one of my just circles.  

I walked the grounds, reflected on its grace and glory and historical significance, wept for our loved ones lost by cancer, then got back in my car and carried on to the Renaissance festival.  

Our path isn’t up to us.  I forgot about that.  Shit.  I forgot about a lot of things.   But I just got reminded.  It’s up to Google.  And God.  

Non Resectable

“I’m sorry.  It’s inoperable.”

How many of you have heard these words? That diagnosis from Steve Withrow about Murphy’s nasal tumor still haunts my thoughts some two years post mortem.  

2 Million Dogs is funding a two year, $80,000 drug delivery study with Animal Medical Center in Manhattan and Sloan Kettering.

The first phase of the study is urogenital cancer in dogs since, at the point of diagnosis, the prognosis is pretty grim.  Less than 30% of bladder cancer patients respond to traditional treatment and since surgical intervention isn’t a viable option, the need for target therapeutics is essential.  

We all know that dosing chemo in dogs is drastically less than that of in humans and if we can get the right drug directly into the tumor, we may achieve therapeutic drug levels at 40X the current regimen.  There are other potential benefits such as cost savings but they are ancillary to our aims.  

Speaking of… here’s my press release statement:

“It is an honor to work with two prestigious institutions in the fields of veterinarian medicine and cancer research.  2 Million Dogs’ scientific objectives in funding cancer studies are collaborative and comparative in both spirit and scope and this study is a shining example of that.  Cancer touches us all.  It is a cross species disease and now more than ever it is imperative for us work together to end this epidemic.” 

More importantly, I’ve come to know the principal investigator, Chick, on a more personal level and I feel he has the vision, fortitude, and fire to make significant strides in the field of comparative oncology.  

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Photo from left to right:  Drs. Richard Goldstein and Allyson Berent; Yer Big Dog; Chick Weisse; Kate Coyne (CEO of AMC); Ginger Morgan; Nicole Leibman and Ann Hohenhaus.  

YBD’s Notes 1: To date, we’ve funded genetic or lab research with long-reaching prospects.  This study represents our first foray into the clinical setting.  

YBD’s Notes 2:  Ginger amazed Chick with the fact that the $80,000 was raised $20 at a time.  To me, that’s a perfect testament to the courage and conviction of all of the volunteers, city organizers, the board members of 2 Million Dogs, and all of those who keep the faith and puppy up!

THE ROCK: Chapter 13: Ridiculous Part 3

“Cast before a silver sheet,
Tracing lines that never meet.”

Those are the first two lines to a poem I wrote a long, long while ago, even way, way before Malcolm was diagnosed, and they made little sense to me at the time. 

They do now.

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YBD’s Notes 1:  Though I have plenty more ridiculous things to say and do, I’m done with this chapter and it’s time to move on and bring the first book, The Rock, to its conclusion.  

YBD’s Notes 2:  Sailing is an inexact metaphor for life.  Ashore, the time to jibe or tack doesn’t always translate but I’ve come about now.

YBD’s Notes 3:  Next chapter I’ll talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of sponsorship and that’ll set the stage for the final chapter.  

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