This blog is all about hope and helping our furry friends have the best quality of life possible.  But eventually, we all reach that point where we have to decide if it is time to say goodbye.  In each of our lifetimes, we may have to tread this path 4-5 times, or more for those of us with multiple buddies.

My wife, Sue and I had to make this decision this last week.  Our border collie, Ritz, was 13.  A sudden paralysis of her hind end was the first symptom.  Since we are in the stem cell business, I immediately took her to a quality clinic here in San Diego, and Dr. Nancy Hampel did a complete examination.  Being the “stem cell guy,” I was sure that we would be treating Ritz for arthritis or something orthopedic….a cinch for stem cells, I thought!  Lucky for me, Dr Hampel did a thorough and complete assessment, and to our surprise, Ritz had cancer that had already spread to her liver and spleen.  As all of you know that have read our website information, stem cells do not treat cancer.  And with the combination of the cancer and the orthopedic problems and the advanced age, we felt it unfair to subject Ritz to all of that treatment, with really very low chance of recovering.

We took a long weekend to make the decision.  Last Monday, Dr. Hampel helped us to calmly and quietly let Ritz go in peace.  Ritz left the most wonderful footprints in our memories.