Tfu-tfu-tfu - Haaretz

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Thu., October 18, 2007 ,

Israel Time: 21:36 (EST+7)

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Tfu-tfu-tfu

By Avner Bernheimer

Our dog Beverly's struggle with lymphoma upset all the building's tenants and other residents of the neighborhood. At the beginning, they were full partners in the anxiety, asking if the operation was a success (yes) and whether the disease had metastasized (no); admiring Beverly's upbeat spirit, which endured throughout the six months of chemotherapy, and politely refraining from commenting on her excess weight. When a new neighbor dared to complain that Beverly barked too much in the garden and woke up his young twin girls, he was immediately silenced by my husband, who admonished him that this was a dog with cancer and she was allowed to bark as much as she wanted. "Look," he said, petting the dog and fixing the neighbor with an accusing stare, "she has bald patches behind the ears and has already lost her mustache." He made the guy feel so bad that he went and brought Beverly a whole package of pastrami.

Only after the initial shock, pain and tears did we come to see that there are also quite a few advantages to having a dog with cancer, especially one that, tfu-tfu-tfu, is on the way to recovery. The side effects of the chemo were minimal, the treatment was expensive but not impossibly so, and Beverly remained just as peppy and happy as always, if not more so, because we spoiled her nonstop. When deep anxiety began to give way to cautious hope, we learned to make the most of this horror.

The city official who patrols the beach lets her roam around without a leash, since "this may be her last time here," as I told him in a whisper, so she wouldn't hear. "This agitation is a side effect of the chemo," my husband said to Gulo's mother, who had chased her out of the garden, nearly spraining her leg in the process. And to the security guard watching over the globes exhibition on Rothschild Boulevard, I explained in great detail, as befitting a venue displaying such lofty works of art, the constantly changing regimen of pills she has to swallow.

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But it didn't all go so smoothly. When my husband and I moved beyond the period of self-pity and began to grapple with the routine of our beloved's illness, we started hearing words of criticism. These weren't addressed to us directly, but kindly relayed to us by our spy in the stairwell - Anat from the front penthouse.

Evidently, not everyone agreed with our decision to treat Beverly with chemotherapy. Asaf from the third-floor rear thought that organic chemotherapy, namely, some sort of Japanese seaweed combined with mountain herb massage, ought to have been tried first, "instead of poisoning the dog with chemicals that will kill her and the environment." He argued, with a certain logic, that the carcinogenic substances now passing through Beverly's urine could upset the neighborhood's ecological balance and damage its flora and fauna. But since, thanks to the municipality, the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv enjoy flora mainly in the form of garbage heaps and fauna mainly in the form of cockroaches, I thought that the dog's carcinogenic urine could only help.

Ido Arviv, the Mizrahi video artist from the third-floor front, thought it was immoral to spend so much money on a sick white dog, when there are so many healthy black dogs awaiting adoption in the kennels and at risk of being put to sleep. He claims that Israelis rarely adopt black dogs and that our insistence on sustaining our genetically inferior dog was leading to the execution of black puppies.

Re'ut and Miki, from the fourth-floor front, also frowned upon our monetary outlay, conveniently forgetting that both my husband and I had volunteered to test whether there was a genetic match between us and Miki the homophobe, when he was in need of a kidney donor. Anat heard Lieutenant Colonel Re'ut grumbling that with the money we spent on the dog, we could have fed a poor family for an entire year. "With the kidney your husband received you also could have fed a small family," I wanted to tell her, but I'm not about to get into an argument with the parents of Yaron, their good-looking 16-year-old, who is actually helpful and takes Beverly out for walks sometimes. Apparently, even the supermodel found an excuse to trash us, claiming that all the publicity Beverly was getting was hurting the dog's privacy and humiliating her.

Even though I explained to anyone who asked that the side effects were negligible and that Beverly was in excellent spirits, some people thought it was wrong for us to let her suffer and that we should have her put to sleep without further ado. All I can say to those people is that it's very easy to give advice when it's not your pet who is sick. This week, as we mark the one-year anniversary of the disease's discovery - after a first month of diagnoses, surgery and recovery, six months of chemotherapy and another five months of close monitoring, it's obvious to anyone who was involved in Beverly's treatment that we made the right decision. That's what family is for. From a dog sick with cancer, who was given a bleak prognosis of just two to four months to live, she has - tfu-tfu-tfu - become a healthy dog who submits to a non-intrusive ultrasound once every three months, and once every six weeks undergoes a physical examination for swollen glands and suspicious lumps. I'm not sure that Beverly enjoys the rectal exam the way we might, but like I said, that's what family is for.

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1.	beverly	05:36	\|	miri	13/10/07

2.	Compassion	11:40	\|	British Leftie	13/10/07

3.	A dog. the most noble creature	16:14	\|	Sabra	13/10/07

4.	Uncoditional Love	19:02	\|	Irene	13/10/07

5.	My dog	22:29	\|	Jacob	13/10/07

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