Pet Memorials

Dear Dr. Sabhlok and Staff:

Veterinary Oncology Inc.
5522 Sepulveda Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91411

Dear Dr. Sabhlok and staff:

I want to thank all of you for everything you did during Art’s treatment. The personal and professional service that was provided goes beyond words. Art would have agreed. I received a letter from the ACVIM Foundation that a donation was made from your office on Art's behalf. That touched my heart more than you will ever know.

If my big boy had a last wish it would be that he could give everyone he met something in return for what they gave him. Art earned his wings in life and left a legacy after he was gone.

Art's Legacy

Just knowing there are people who care does make a difference. That alone will lead to a cure some day. I know it in my heart.

The cancer didn't take his life but he let me know on his own terms that life wasn't fun anymore and it was time to leave the building. I had to do the compassionate thing to let him go. Did he beat this terrible disease clinically? No he didn't. He did beat it on his own terms in his own way. Art lived his life on his own terms unconditionally. Pretty lucky for a dog considering. Art was different. Everyone who was involved in his treatment realized this. Everyone who ever met him in his 10 and three quarter years knew this.

It was never about the treatment. It is about life. It’s why we are all here. Life is the all important. The quality is what matters the most and I truly believe your work provided that quality. It was a step. We must crawl before we can run.

I want to thank you and your staff. I do strongly believe in the work that you do. It must continue until a cure for Melanoma is found. The research is so important. Please don't give up even when facing adversity. The easy way out is to throw in the towel. Its hard, emotional work. Some days I am sure it must be very trying since you are dealing with life and mortality. You deserve credit as you have chosen not a career but a life path of unselfishness. No amount of thanks can ever re-pay you for what you have given. Art would have licked you all until you were chapped in the face. The thanks is knowing you tried.

From a clinical standpoint Art's treatment was not considered a success. Even know it was shorter than I had hoped for it gave him some of the best days of his life. It gave him quality of life. Only four rough days in all. That isn't bad considering the odds. I couldn't imagine what it would have been with no treatment at all.

Arts legacy lives in the labs and classrooms at the University of Wisconsin, The Morris, ACVIM Foundations and most of all in each of you. That faint bark in the distance is Art and all of our pups who have gone before. They live forever in all of you knowing that hope has a place.

-Arthur Hailpern-
1994- 2004