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Brandon, 13, has cancer. For six months, he has been corresponding
with Ram, a lab/doberman mix from Colorado Springs, about
120 miles from Brandon's home in Loveland, Colo. Ram also
has cancer.
"I never knew dogs could get cancer," Brandon
told Anne Ingalls, RN, a pediatric oncology nurse at
The
Children's Hospital in Denver and co-director of
a program that matches children with cancer with dogs
who have similar health problems. "She's even getting
some of the same chemo drugs I get."
Brandon and Ram are one of six pen pal pairs in the
Youth and Pets Survivors (YAPS) program, created by
Ingalls and members of the Animal Care Foundation's
Community Outreach Committee, a nonprofit organization
of the Veterinary Referral Center of Denver. The program
aims to help children learn more about their cancer
and adjust to their illness, as well as give them a
sympathetic and nonjudgmental soft, floppy ear.
"They will write in letters to the dogs things
they would never tell another human being," Ingalls
said.
The program began in November 2001, and Ingalls expects
to have more matches in coming months. Children selected
for the program receive a portfolio with pictures and
biographies of dogs, and choose one to write to. Most
of the canines are cancer survivors, although at least
one in the program was born without a front leg and
with dysfunctional hips, and spent the first year of
her life in surgery or recovery.
The program works best with children aged 10 to 13,
Ingalls said. They are old enough to read and write
letters articulating their emotions, but young enough
to enjoy the fantasy of a dog writing to them. Co-director
Colleen Chambers, a veterinary technician at the referral
center, recruits the dogs and their owners. Owners must
commit themselves to writing letters in their dog's
voice regularly. They must be emotionally prepared to
handle a relationship with a child with cancer, as well
as their dog's battle with the illness, Ingalls said.
Ingalls decided on the pen pal approach rather than
face-to-face meetings because the dogs and kids come
from all over the state. Getting them together would
entail a logistical nightmare and many more people than
her all-volunteer staff. Instead, they arranged a group
meeting of dogs and kids in May at a dog festival called
Bark in the Park. The group met in a special enclosure
set up for them.
"It was just a riot," Ingalls said. Dogs
and children immediately recognized each other from
their pictures, and bonded quickly. They hugged, played
and had their pictures taken together. The kids' parents
talked to the dogs' owners. Some went out to lunch together
after the gathering. Some now meet regularly at each
other's houses or a halfway point, Ingalls said.
She would like to expand the program to other hospitals
and animal care centers around the country. "The
benefits have gone beyond anything I ever would have
believed," she said. "The kids really get
a kick out of the fact that a dog is going through the
same thing they are."
Brandon's canine pen pal gives him hope, he told Ingalls.
"If Ram can do it, I can do it, too." She
also has brought him closer to his younger brother,
10-year-old Brett, who is pen pal to a springer spaniel
named Max. Max's sister, Annie, lost a leg to cancer.
Max's experience "has helped me not to be so scared
about Brandon," Brett told Ingalls. "I know
that he is going to make it."
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