The Dogs
Comet
In June 2004, Comet had his groundbreaking stem cell transplant with the hope of curing lymphoma, a cancer with a dismal prognosis in dogs. Chemotherapy could possibly extend a dog diagnosed with lymphoma for another year or so. Comet's owners, Darryl and Nina Hallett, of Seattle, WA took their beloved dog to veterinarian, Edmund Sullivan of Bellingham, WA and asked him to please save their dog. Dr. Sullivan consulted with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle as doctors there used dogs in their research to develop transplants for humans as a cancer cure which won them the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1990. Comet was given his life saving transplant at the F.H.C.R.C. and then taken back to Dr. Sullivan's clinic in Bellingham for after care. This transplant gave Comet and his owner another four years to be together.
Bailey
Bailey, a beagle, from Seattle was Dr. Sullivan's second transplant dog. Five days after Cathy was given the devastating news that her five year old Bailey Girl had lymphoma, Comet's story appeared on the front page of a Seattle newspaper. Bailey's transplant was performed by Dr. Sullivan at his clinic April, 2006 which was shown on CNN, but she received the necessary pre-transplant irradiation at Washington State University. Unfortunately, Bailey relapsed five months after her transplant. Cathy was told that the transplant gave Bailey a 70% chance of beating her cancer. She was given another groundbreaking treatment, a donor lymphocyte infusion, after her donor brother, Clever Clifford, was given a series of tumor vaccine injections December, 2006. Though this procedure looked promising her kidneys failed her, and she lost her battle with cancer January, 2007. She did eat tainted dog food from China, but test results were inconclusive that this was a factor in her death.