This story is true... About two summers ago, my best friend Guss was diagnosed with AIHA which is basically a form of cancer in dogs, and from which few recover. Those that do usually suffer a relapse in a short period of time. For two three months Guss underwent almost every possible test and treatment in an effort to stop the disease. X-rays, ultrasounds, a bone marrow biopsy(which was by far the worst for both him and me)and unending blood draws. We fed him pills after pills from predisone to drugs used in humans(and dogs) to prevent organ rejection after a transplant. At one point Guss was taking over ten pills each day, but his weighjt continued to drop(from almost 80lbs at the onset to close to 30lbs at his darkest hour) but nothing seemed to help as he continued to become weaker. Although many of my closest friends encouraged me to put Guss 'out of his misery'my vet assured me that the disease caused no pain to Guss other than his pain of trying to understand what was happening to him. Each and every day we would clean up his 'accidents'(predisone causes a significant increase in thirst-up to 2+ gallons of water a day-and a corresponding decrease in bladder control as muscle mass wastes away, but after all those years of being so patient with me, we intended to be patient with him-no matter what.(Besides we really did need new carpets anyway...) But seriously, as Guss continued to fail and our vet suggested two final drug choices which are rarely, if ever used except when all else fails, and even then with little hope of a positive outcome. One of the choices, cytoxin, is given to women diagnosed with breast cancer as a front line treatment, and as my own mother had passed away just six months earlier from the same disease(and took cytoxin) I did not want Guss to have to endure a chemotherapy drug with potential side affects that could themselves be the cause of his death. The second and last choice was a rarely used drug called cyclosporin, and our vet had never tried it in part due to the cost, and effectiveness after the front line treatments failed, but as Guss's last hope we decided to take a chance.The vet repeatedly warned me that this drug had little chance of helping but in 'miraculous' cases it had come through once or twice. We started Guss on the drug, and after three more weeks little had changed.If anything he continued to fail. Coming home from a trip I stopped into the St. Jude Cathedral in Baltimore MD. and said a prayer for Guss. When I asked to have a Mass said for him I was told that Father was reluctant to offer masses for animals, but a wonderful sister who listened to my tale about Guss suggested I simply place Guss's name on the Mass request and leave it at that-after all, there really was no place on the Mass request to indicate the gender or whether Guss was human or animal.... And by now you should know that Guss is MORE HUMAN than any one I know. Anyway, I left the Mass request and was told I would receive a card in the mail letting me know when the Mass would be said if I wanted to attend, and sure enough, two weeks later I received the card with the Mass date for the following Friday. On Thursday prior to that Friday Guss kept his weekly appointment with the vet, but we left with little good news-his blood counts were still falling and he could fail at any time. I do not think I have ever felt so sad, helpless, and confused in all my life, and as I took Guss home I cried... Two days later Guss seemed to eat just a little bit more than he had been eating. When I came home on Tuesday Guss walked up to me wagging his tail and I knew something was different-so I called the vet and in we went..... For the first time Guss's blood counts had not only stabilized, but were going up!!!!!!!!! AS the vet appeared as puzzled as I at first, I remembered the Mass the previous Friday- could it be????? Today is January 3rd 2002. Guss is laying at my feet, fat as ever(75lbs now-the evt says we should watch his weight, but after all hge went through he can eat anything he wants), and very much back to his old self(except two years older.....!!!!!!!) AS his counts improved over the course of a year we slowly decreased and eventually eliminated all of his daily meds-today he gets a multi-vitamin, drug for his arthritis(he is, after all, 12 years young, and some things just come with age), BUT most importantly, his blood work is normal and all signs of his disease are gone!!!!!!! Iam Roman Catholic, and was taught that St Jude is the patron saint of 'hopeless cases' to be asked when all else fails. I assure all of you reading this, that Iam not the best at practicing my faith, and could certainly use alot of improvement- so I really do not 'deserve' to have had this prayer answered-but I firmly believe it truly was.... Even our vet can offer no medical reason other than'miraculous' and she refers to Guss as her 'miracle boy'. SO don't give up HOPE. Whatever your faith, try St Jude-I believe they even have a web site, StJUDE.org or something similar so you don't have to travel to baltimore, or even attend a church. Try it-it worked for Guss(and me)-maybe it can work for you too.... I love my Guss as much as anyone else loves their friends, and I know he can't be with me forever, but I've been given a second chance to spend a little more time with him and for that, I'll always be thankful until we both meet up again at the Rainbow Bridge. For everyone who needs hope, I HOPE this (true) story helps... A miracle?...you decide...... Take care, and hug them tonight....