First Dogswalk for cancer

It was a dog day afternoon in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park recently, as people and pups came out in droves for the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) first Dogswalk in Queens.
More than 100 pooches paraded around the boathouse, bordering Meadow Lake, as part of the fundraiser for both human and canine cancer.
“That’s what makes this a special event,” said John Link, one of the organizers from ACS.
Cancer accounts for almost half of the deaths of pets over the age of 10 and dogs get cancer at roughly the same rate as humans, according to studies posted by the National Canine Cancer Foundation.
The Dogswalk raised $12,000 for the ACS, which plans to donate the funds to cancer research.
Although the event held on Saturday, April 28, was scheduled as a walk, fierce rain the day before forced organizers to create a makeshift festival - where pups could play in the shallow edge of the lake and fraternize with other dogs. Some owners dressed them up, like Forest Hills resident Judi Strassburger who strapped a cowboy hat on her black Lab Jake.
Pat Onrablo’s three-year-old Austrian shepherd mix friskily frolicked in the foot-deep water, while two pets from Ozone Park, Fifi the bulldog and Rocky the pug, tried to make a four-legged friend of Gino, a three-month-old mini-pincher.
Many of the dog owners who attended the event were animal rescuers. Paul Kowacki and his wife, Chris, a cancer survivor, drove down from Orange, Massachusetts with two of their four dogs - golden retrievers that had been abused and rehabilitated.
Diane and Howard Siegel, of Bayside, brought their rescued bijan frises, Rudy, 9, and Cody, 12. They saved Rudy through Small Paws Rescue, the largest bijan frise rescue group, and found Cody, who was wandering in their neighborhood.
Four years ago, Cody had jumped up onto the Siegels’ bed, somehow hurt his neck, and was temporarily paralyzed.
“When we brought him home from the hospital, he could only blink,” Diane Siegel said, explaining that after two costly spinal cord surgeries and four months of constant care, her pup was later able to move his legs. Then last year, Cody was diagnosed with cancer in his front-left leg.
“After all that, what did they tell us to do?” Diane Howard said. “Take off his leg.”
Instead, the Siegels opted to treat the tumor with radiation, and Cody has completed 18 sessions of therapy. Now the couple is trying to decide whether to go ahead with a surgery to remove more of the tumor, but an oncologist said during their most recent visit on Wednesday, May 2, that the remaining mass might be scar tissue instead of cancer.
“We are hoping that maybe they are right and taking a watchful, waiting approach … right now we have a little bit of hope,” Diane Howard said.
A few feet away, Banjo, the golden Labrador mix, sat basking in the sun with her owners, 14-year-old Joe Calabrese and mom, Diane, of Middle Village. Banjo was diagnosed with a grade-two malignant tumor by her tailbone last July and underwent three surgeries to have the growth removed. The Calabreses said that the surgeries cost them upwards of $8,000, but to them, their dog is more like a member of the family than a pet.
“We didn’t spare any expense,” Diane Calabrese said.
During the treatment, Banjo seemed very sickly - she dropped 25 lbs, and she spent a few weeks in the intensive care unit at the animal hospital. However, Banjo’s vet believes the surgeries have so far been successful, the Calabreses said.
“Knock on wood, she’s cancer free,” Diane Calabrese said.
Still, their experience with the disease pushed them to get involved in the cancer-fighting cause, hoping to spread the word about treatments and raise money for research.
“[The cause] It’s as close to us as you can imagine,” Diane Calabrese said.