Wordless Wedneday

Goodbye, Yogi.

I am sad to tell you all that Yogi-bear of Yogi's Journey has succumbed to his lymphoma. Yogi and his mom Fiona fought a very brave, very difficult fight.

As someone who knows that it's like to say goodbye to a good friend, there are no words.

Rest in peace, little guy.

He does not get tired

Of course, the "he" in the subject line is Waldo. We received about 9 inches of snow on Friday and have been making the most of it. I've taken him out for several off-lead jaunts in the woods and he is loving life. I am bone tired, yet he naps for an hour and is ready to go again. It must be great to be young!!

Wordless Wednesday

Overworked Tuesday?

The worse thing about calling out a specific day of the week in a post (e.g., Wordless Wednesday) is the marker of time. I usually have no idea what day it is since I work almost 7 days a week. Today I realized it's been an entire week since I last posted! Oy. And you know what has happened around here? Nothing exciting. =(

I quietly marked the 6-month anniversary of Watson's passing on Saturday with a brief visit with this ashes. I try not to be too morbid or dramatic about it since the rest of the world has moved on. I do miss him still. He was always by my side; no matter what I was doing or what room I was in, he would do his best to be near me.

These days, Peanut the cat could care less (I swear she's one of those cats who are waiting for one of us to die so she can eat our eyeballs - evil, she is) and Waldo cuddles only when he is tired. Otherwise, he is on a mission to chew on something.... anything.....

So here we are, another week ahead. Best to all for a good week!

Wordless Wednesday

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Petscreen newsletter

As you may remember from this previous post, I had signed onto the email list for Petscreen, a company based in the U.K. that is working on a canine lymphoma blood test. I just received my first newsletter with some interesting info (in bold). Here it is below (note: I did not edit the newsletter except to embed URLs):

Some time ago you registered on the PetScreen website and asked to be kept up to date with our progress. This e-mail message is therefore the first of periodic updates that we will be sending to you.

It has already been a very busy year for us. We have recently returned from the North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC) where we met up with many friends and collaborators in addition to meeting new potential partners to help us develop our range of tests and to supply them around the world.

Notably, we had a very enjoyable meeting with Dr Patty Olsen, President of the Morris Animal Foundation – an exceptional person who is making great strides in the fight against cancer in dogs. If you have not already seen the MAF Canine Cancer Campaign website, take a look here.

We discussed the progress on the research projects into osteosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma to which our Chairman, Graeme Radcliffe has provided donations. We have attached the Morris Animal Foundation’s press release to give you more information.

Straight after NAVC, Dr Kevin Slater (our Chief Executive) travelled to The Veterinary School at Columbia Missouri for meetings to discuss the collaborative work we are doing with Dr Carolyn Henry. Some exciting new ideas emerged which should help in the application of our DCA test to the treatment of lymphoma in dogs.

Later in February Kevin will be going to Copenhagen where he will give a paper describing the latest results from our lymphoma blood test to leading canine oncologists at the First World Veterinary Cancer Meeting. Dr Henry will also be giving a key note address on the subject of cancer screening in veterinary medicine. You can find out more about this meeting here.

Straight after the Copenhagen meeting it will be Crufts. We have a stand in Hall 5 number 132. If you are planning to attend Crufts this year, please come to see us. It would be good to meet you and to tell you in person more about our work.

Recruiting blood samples to enable us to develop new screening tests for cancer in dogs and cats continues to be a major focus for us. If your dog or cat has been diagnosed with cancer and you would be willing to donate a small sample of their blood, it would go a long way to helping us fight this disease. You could either let us know directly by replying to this e-mail or by going to the donation section of our website.

Finally, we thought you might be interested in the attached article from the Australian Shepherd Club of America which talks about fighting cancer in their breed and also makes specific reference to our lymphoma blood test in this capacity.

We hope to see you at Crufts, but if you cannot make it, we will be sending you another e-mail update in the coming months.

Kind regards
Renu Tuli

Operations Manager

Petscreen Ltd

I had no idea that they were asking for blood samples!! I'm not sure what I would do, even if I had known of this when Watson was sick. What do you think? Would you ever donate some of your dog's blood? Why or why not?

Green cleaning, revisited

I was in the car yesterday and happened to catch an NPR segment about Clorox entering the green cleaning market (listen to the segment here at NPR.com). Even though the green cleaner market is very small, it is a fast-growing segment of the overall market. As you all know, I have been doing my best to green up our household for a while now.

According to the Clorox web site, Green Works cleaners are not tested on animals and use recyclable packaging. The packaging looks eco-friendly with green liquid and a giant yellow daisy on the label. However, there are a few things that strike me as being a bit off about these products.

1) They do not disclose the ingredients. According to the NPR story, Clorox will not disclose the ingredients for several reasons. A look on their web site also comes up empty. As I said in this post, I don't use cleaning products without an ingredients list.

2) It is not made from post-consumer recycled plastic. You would think that a large, wealthy, multinational company like Clorox would have the resources to use recycled plastic in their packaging! Perhaps that can be a next step for them.

3) As a selling point, lists "Powerful natural cleaners that work as well as conventional cleaners." This perpetuates the myth that natural cleaners do not work very well. I disagree totally; in fact, some of the best cleaners (like ammonia and water, or baking soda) are considered natural cleaners.

I am a fan of seventh generation, method and Mrs. Meyers cleaners. If you want to clean up your house without creating a toxic environment for you and your pets, please check them out*!!!

*Note: I do not benefit in any way by referring people to these companies.