Vicki Nussbaum

The count stands at 11. That is how many dogs I have adopted so far.  All but one have been adult dogs. One puppy was enough to wear me out. Out of the 11, five have died of cancer. CJ was the one who brought me into the world of chemotherapy. At the same time CJ was undergoing treatment for mast cell tumors, my father, Ray, was getting treated for lymphoma. I decided that nobody should ever have to go to get chemotherapy alone, so off we went. I also decided that since neither of them seemed to feel too sick after their chemo, that we were going to live it up a little. CJ got to go through the drive through at A&W after her appointments. Dad and I always went out for barbecue. 

Dr. Shiu somehow managed to add 2 ½ years to CJ’s life and she lived it up during her extra time. That is 17.5 human years, and she squeezed in that much fun. We walked, she dug holes and swam and rolled on disgusting stuff. I bought a shirt that said “Dirty Dogs Have More Fun” because it seemed to fit how she liked to live.

Dad is still going strong. We enjoy flipping houses together. It is something I can take the dogs along to when I am working. Plus, I learn a lot from Dad.  We enjoy our time together. My current dogs, Marco and Rose are both rescue dogs. Marco is from California and Rose is from Missouri. I enjoy my dogs so much that I will always have a dog (or more).