Bailey's Story (Part Four)
A letter written by me in October
to the owner of Bailey's sister, Geuine Jznight helped us locate Skyla
in Spanaway WA who not only had a new name but a new owner as well.
I managed to persuade a reporter from the Tri-City Herald to do a story
on our search for Clever Clifford, a brother who had been given to a
young couple who lived in the Tri-City area four and one half years
earlier because he didn't have what it took to hunt rabbits according
to his original owner. The story ran on a Monday morning last
December. At 7:34 AM I got a phone call from a woman who excitedly
told me, "Cathy, I have Clifford!"
We learned in February that
Clifford was the one, the one in four chance of being a match.
We were overjoyed--Bailey had a shot of beating her cancer!
The transplant was scheduled
for April 26th. Clifford would come and stay with us--he
had to do his part by being immobilized and getting injections for a
week at the clinic before his stem cells could be harvested for the
transplant. The total body irradiation would be done at WSU, followed
by Bailey being given the donor cells from Clifford. After the
transplant Bailey was to spend sixteen days in isolation at the clinic
in Bellingham until her red and white blood cell count was back to normal
i.e. until her immune system built back up. We did not see her
for over two weeks, but were given daily updates on her progress.
Perhaps, one of the most amazing
pieces of Bailey's story is on the Friday that Clifford came to our
house, a few days before the transplant, we got an e-mail from a couple
who live in Covington, WA. They had run into an acquaintance at a shopping
mall earlier that day who had seen a story on the local news four months
earlier about a woman with a sick dog who was trying to locate a dog
named Tito. They had adopted him over a year earlier at a local
animal shelter and had kept the name on his chip. We decided to
have him tested in June, as well, for a back up and are still waiting
to hear if he is a donor match for Bailey.
Bailey's transplant appeared
to be a success! She was thriving and managed to escape suffering
from any noticeable Graft Verses Host Disease(GVHD)--a little bit is
necessary to kill the tumor cells, but too much can kill the patient.
However, we were always told that there was the possibility that the
transplant would not work. There was some concern that Bailey
had shown little signs of GVHD, and in the fact that Cliffy and Bailey
were so similar in appearance and personality that Clifford could be
possibly too close of a match. Dr. Sullivan said he believed Clifford
was as close to being a clone to Bailey as one can get without cloning.
They mirrored most everything they did, and I have to admit we felt
so connected to Clifford and he to us that it was difficult to give
him back to his owners. As we were getting ready to leave his
house last May after taking him back home (my daughter and I were in
tears), his owner said that we would always have a little part of Cliffy
in Bailey.