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Holly

Holly was a pure bred Australian Shepherd who was about six years old when we adopted her from a neighbor in 1998. Australians are the Ritalin kids of the canine world in addition to being very loyal, protective, and affectionate. Holly was also very attached to Fred, with a string about a foot long. That was a little surprising in some ways after a battle of wills as to who was boss, that frequently included snarls (by Holly - Fred growls). But out of that grew a bond between the two that was extremely strong and trusting in both directions.

For some reason Holly had an unreasonable dislike, one might say hatred, of those big brown UPS trucks. In early summer 2000 she caught Fred off guard, went after one and tried to knock it right off the road. Since she was well out of her weight class the truck won the confrontation. It was then we learned how tough she was. After hitting the truck, she ran up the road a bit, around the houses and returned to our back yard. As she lay in the grass the UPS driver, who ironically is a friend of ours, came hurrying down towards us. Holly, with a crushed front leg and a broken rear leg, growled and tried to drag herself toward him to finish what she had started. A few moments later, she laid quietly as Fred picked her up and carried her to the car to rush to Valley Animal. Once stabilized, we went to Colonial Animal in Ithaca for surgery, Valley having the skills but not some needed supplies and Dr. Crowell felt it best to have the surgical repairs done ASAP. Thus Holly became a bionic dog with a steel plate and 9 screws in her right front leg.

On the morning of April 21st, 2005, Holly was extremely lethargic and was taken to see her friends at Valley. She had emergency surgery that afternoon and Dr. Wittner removed a spleen "the size of a basketball". A biopsy taken during the operation showed her to have hemangio sarcoma, a very fast moving cancer with an expected survival period of 4 weeks after diagnosis and with no known effective treatment. Dr Wittner referred us to the Oncology Department at Cornell Vet School who had a new protocol with some apparent success. The first chemo treatment resulted in very severe side effects so Dr Flory (the oncologist) reduced the dosages for the second treatment three weeks later. This time there were no real side effects and outwardly for these three weeks Holly was healthy as ever, but there was no third chemo round because in spite of the drugs, the cancer had metastisized to her liver.

At that point, she'd already doubled the forecasted survival period and we very nearly gave up. But Holly was so full of life and so excited with it, that when Dr Flory suggested a totally untried treatment we had to at least let Holly have a chance. To make a story we wish had been longer short, the new treatment allowed us another 4 happy months together but she succumbed on October 20th, surrounded by her friends at Valley. A few fond memories - her enthusiasm; coming to love truck rides and long walks; accepting Sara's affection after her anti-cat reputation; winning over Wilma and other folks she once scared; the 2 second meal; the growl, bark, then up and out game at bedtime. Of course, the UPS trucks and the mailman. The little kissies that came so easily the last few years, and most especially, the one she somehow mustered up for Fred in her final moments.