It Was Love At First Sight!

PLEASE SUPPORT ME IN MY QUEST TO BREAK THE WORLD RECORD FOR THE FURTHEST DISTANCE RUN ON A TREADMILL IN 12 HOURS : ALL IN THE NAME OF RAISING FUNDS TO HELP CALLIE THE LABRADOR BEAT LYMPHOMA!

I'm Claire, and I am racing to help my little Callie the Labrador beat lymphoma. I am attempting to break the world record for the furthest distance run on a treadmill in 12 hours and I am hoping that you will be able to support me!

Why am I doing this?

Well, let me introduce you to Callie.

Callie is 10 years old and is our heart and soul. Seriously, she's my first born child, my best friend and my soul mate. We are completely in love with each other and you really don't see one of us without the other. She joined our family as a 4 month old, rambunctious puppy, a couple months after we started our life in Fort Lauderdale. Not only does she know almost all of my friends, she is actually the reason why I met most of them. She is in her own right a VERY valued member of our community. Everyone on the Boulevard knows her. One of my neighbors told me that Callie is an "Icon" in the building. I think that's pretty special.

Callie was just diagnosed with lymphoma. In order to try to raise some funds to pay for her chemotherapy, which will hopefully enable her to go into remission, I am attempting to break the world record for the most miles run on a treadmill in a 12 hour period.

Callie is the sweetest, most loving little girl you could meet. She's always loved her walks (she actually had an article written about her in the 'paper, calling her the Walkingest Dog in Fort Lauderdale). So, when she started not enjoying them as much we were pretty worried. On St. Patrick's Day, she suddenly lost her vision. It was terrifying, but however scared we were, I can't imagine how frightening it must have been for her. We of course went right to the veterinarian, and also to a wonderful opthamologist. There were two main options as to what caused this; tick borne disease or lymphoma. It was decided she had a tick borne disease that didn't show up on the tick panel. We were told categorically that she didn't have lymphoma. We were elated at the news! Callie continued visiting the eye doctor once a week and although we never got the sight back in her left eye, her right one came back just fine - phew! Her opthamologist was FANTASTIC and we cannot thank him enough.

At first she seemed to pick up a bit, and started loving her walks, and her trips to the Italian bakery, again. Then in June, she got a little more lethargic. She didn't want to walk as far. The vet thought it was the extreme heat out, or her arthritis, so we didn't really read anything into it. She picked up a urinary tract infection, so we thought her lethargy might be related to that, or to the anti-biotics she was taking to get rid of it.

In July, there was a little lump near the lymph nodes at the back, where the "groin" is, but one of Callie's vet team dismissed as a lipoma - that's the fatty lumps labs tend to get as they get older. Four weeks later, the lump was bigger, and finally a needle aspirate was done. The worst news imaginable. Callie has lymphoma - ironically the one thing we were told this absolutely wasn't.

WE ARE HELPING HER TO BEAT THIS! Of course, we are aiming for full remission. Her oncologist is amazing, and Callie seems comfortable with the Animal Cancer Care Center where she will be having chemotherapy for 16 weeks, with a week's break every fifth week in the treatment. She is extremely brave and very ballsy, but we feel so horrible for her that she has to go through this. Every Thursday she will have her chemo, and hopefully, we will get her a little bit closer to remission.

BUT CLAIRE, WHY ARE YOU ATTEMPTING THIS FUNDRAISER?

You're probably wondering why I'm posting up a fundraiser and attempting to break the world record for treadmill running. I racked my brains how to do something to help Callie, and running is pretty much my main talent. I'm no Olympian, but I'm probably better at it than the average non-Olympian. I've been talking about attempting to break this record for almost a year, and I realized it's probably time to stop talking about it, and actually go for it instead.

Here's the thing; Since March 17th, Callie has had weekly visits and blood tests with her primary vet and in March was seeing the vet twice weekly. She has also been prescribed over $700 PER MONTH of medication for tick-borne disease, and for herbal integrative suppements. Basically, with this schedule, the money that I would have been able to use for her chemotherapy treatment has been spent on treating wrongly-diagnosed tick borne disease. So that's why I'm attempting this fundraiser. I know it won't be easy, but if I can muster up one half of the courage and resilience my little labrador is showing, I should do ok. It just would not be fair for her to be denied treatment for what she DOES have because of the money that was spent treating what she never had. So that is why I am attempting to break this record and to undertake this fundraiser.

Callie has already had two weeks of chemo. Basically the chemo schedule is as follows: once a week for four weeks, with the fifth week off, repeat four times, so that she is getting 16 weeks of chemo, which will hopefully get her into remission. It's probably not going to get her to her sixteenth birthday or make her the world's oldest ever labrador, but it will give us all more time, more walks, more smiles together. Callie loves life, and she wants you to know that she wants to experience a lot more of it.

If you have ever met Callie, or seen us walking down the street chatting away to each other, please consider helping her out with this fundraiser by pledging whatever you feel comfortable with to my record attempt. Asking people to help me is not in my nature but this isn't for me, it's for the most wonderful pup God ever put on this earth. Callie and I have an incredible bond, and we are so incredibly appreciative for anything that you are able to pledge to our respective efforts. She is the center of our family, and we love her beyond words.

If you don't know us, and would like to make sure that we really are using the money for her treatment ( I understand, I'm cynical too) the clinic will also accept donations directly, over the telephone. Their telephone number is 954-527-3111.

On behalf of our family, and specifically, it's four-legged superhero, thank you so very much for even reading this whole thing. Please pray for Callie's remission and return to good health.

Paw-tographed Picture of Callie the Labrador

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