By Lou Anne Vaughn-Bremer (Amare')
April 6, 2005

This story begins Memorial weekend 2003. We were showing in a local cluster. Motor home, dogs galore, etc-and a overall very nice weekend. Don (my husband and designated "DDH"-designated dog holder-) ALWAYS holds dogs ringside for me whenever he can be there and I'm showing multiple dogs. So suffice it to say, he recognizes behavior patterns of them all. That day, when Fancy would normally watch and react while I was in with my Open bitch(she was Bred By), Fancy would only lay quietly ringside, not watching, and almost sleeping. When I came out of Open, he asked me what was wrong with Fancy. She wasn't acting herself. What? I checked her over, found nothing significant, her mood seemed to improve later, and so it goes. Perhaps a bug........?

June 14th, I had to head for JFK airport. Incoming import-of which I was REALLY excited. All was well at home, everyone was playing and normal, no diarrhea, etc-and I left for NY. I was gone 2 1/2 days. I was entered to show again the weekend I returned-to leave actually the following day. When I put Fancy on the table to groom, I noticed these HUGE lymph nodes. I called the vet, she said to come right in, and so the rest of the story.

We put Fancy on antibiotics right away. Other than the size of the nodes, she was acting quite normal. There was some redness in the throat area, other nodes of relatively normal size, etc. We headed out to show the following day-with Fancy on antibiotics.

Fancy was a very "pretty" bitch. Nice body, nice mover, lovely face and expression-but shy. Because of her "shy", she began her show career "late"-as in a mature adult. Lovely silver coat, black mask, TONS of coat, etc. As time passed and Gracie (Ch.Landwehr's Bayou Blues Amare) became her very BEST friend and show partner, she learned to love shows and all that went with.

With the antibiotics, the nodes seem to decrease in size somewhat. But during the month of June, we were back & forth, back & forth to the vet. It became our second home. After hoards of antibiotics, still enlarged nodes, and testing which all came back negative for cancer, I finally agreed to biopsy the still swollen nodes and send to Colorado. When the results came back positive for lymphosarcoma, I was absolutely devastated. By that time, Fancy was my show buddy in a big way, had learned to love the shows, and she and Gracie had become not only show partners, but bosom buddies to say the least. In her yard with the others, she was a little wild thing and very active.

After opting for treating her with diet and meds rather than Cemo, we did the steroid thing, the Baytril thing, the 3V Cap thing, the Pet Tab thing, the Hill's "nd" food, broccoli, health food store salmon, green tea-EVERYTHING that could sustain now losing body mass Fancy and still offer quality of life. Her show career had abruptly ended, with about 12 reserves, broken major wins, etc-needing that last major to finish. Although I will always be heart broken that she never finished, my heart aches for her every day-and every single time I put a show lead on someone else. I always turn to look for her while I'm in the ring to do that familiar "conversation" we did while I had someone else in the ring other than her. She was always watching intently, reacting, and wagging when I came out-until the day before Thanksgiving, June 2003.

Dogs and people alike get cancer of one sort-and it never seems fair. I assumed for whatever reason, this time it had been Fancy. Fancy was born at my home-my first litter of puppies ever and I'll never ever forget that beautiful face from day one. I also had/have her mother, brother and a sister. All of her other littermates were all doing well and living happy, healthy lives. Almost 1 month to the day later, her brother dropped dead at my feet. I was then absolutely devastated AND mortified! The autopsy showed hemangiosarcoma-the silent killer. The only sign that Walker had shown, was that he didn't eat his food the day before and now that I think back, I had noticed a "yellow pallor" in his eyes prior. They were both only 7 years old.

I then began doing a little pedigree research and asking questions. I notified everyone who had littermates of the trauma that had happened here. Only 1 out of the 7 babies have ever been bred/used. BUT, I found out while researching the pedigree that on her mother's side, there is a considerable amount of cancer and/or bloat of one kind of another. If I could name them all here I would, but I'm still working on that part for participation in the new oncology dept. at MSU. I need to try and find the time to do the entire pedigree research; it's important. There are just never enough hours, though, for me lately.

Her mother is living-happy and healthy-now 11. Her father died at a ripe old age. Fanny (her mother however) has lost siblings to both bloat and cancer. The other 5 siblings are still living as well. I believe that both the bloat and cancer has shown up significantly enough to cause "worry".  MSU is still working on their new oncology program (and building) so as yet, I've not "rushed" to gather all the information for the entire pedigree work-up. I vow to do that though-for both Fancy, her brother, and the breed as a whole.

The day before Thanksgiving 2003, Fancy's body left us-her soul will always remain.

Amare's Flight of Fan-C now runs with her brother and the others who went before her-and all too soon.

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