Rusty, a golden retriever companion of Chris and Chuck Coslet, Ringwood, NJ, succumbed to cancer a few years ago. Today his name lives on at Rusty’s Place, their pet supply store.

“These collars are a great idea – much like the silicone bracelets that everyone wears.  I would love to have these for our July 22 One Year Anniversary celebration. I’m going to put out the word in advance that they will be coming in to get it going.  I love that $2 goes to the ACF and that will help the sale. We will have the local radio station there, 3 different dog rescues, and a couple of pet food reps.  I’d love to include the fact that we have them on our on-air radio spots prior to the celebration. 

“I hope that we can help raise money and awareness for animal cancer research.  We lost our Golden, Rusty, to cancer the day after his 7th birthday. We didn’t know until that day that he had it. Vet said that even if we did we wouldn’t have been able to save him since it was such a fast-progressing cancer. 

“Another sad thing is that my sister lost her 9 year old Golden, Corey, to the same cancer just 3 months earlier and a friend lost her 9 year old Golden to the same cancer 9 months earlier.  So we lost 3 Goldens, all in the same year to the same cancer.  What are the odds of that?  They all passed within 2 weeks of showing signs that they were sick, but blood tests showed everything but cancer, it showed diabetes, thyroid, etc.  So no one looked for cancer.  I had a slight thought it might be since Rusty had the same “illness’” as Corey, but I prayed I was wrong.  After we saw the vet and he was there for 3 days he came home as alive and as “healthy” as he was before, almost 2 weeks to the day he couldn’t even get up and we ran him to the hospital.  X-ray confirmed he was loaded with cancer.

racer, Lucy, and we lost our other, Romeo, back in November.  We had rescued Romeo only 3 months earlier, he was 11 ½ years old when we got him.  Great, great dogs!”

Chris Coslet
Rusty’s Place
Ringwood, NJ

How can I summarize a life on a page? How can I express the unbearable grief I felt? How can I explain to you the uttermost joy I experienced for 15 years with Smokey? The words on this page are but a pale attempt to convey both unbelievable joy and unbearable sadness.

Dr. Gerry Post

Post's personal experience shows how cancer research can extend the lives of beloved pets.  His miniature schnauzer, Smokey, a constant companion through years of veterinary study, was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma.

"When I saw the radiographs and read the biopsy report I was devastated."

Most dogs with this cancer survive 3 months. Putting Smokey on experimental cancer vaccine with chemotherapy agents added more two and a half years to their companionship.  As the owner of a veterinary oncology practice, he sees pets and human caregivers in this predicament every day. So he is passionate about supporting research to cure cancer, in pets and in people. 

Although the emotions we felt upon our golden retriever’s diagnosis of lymphoma are practically beyond verbal description, the experience can best be described as devastating, characterized by emotions including sorrow, anger, and grief.

David & Kelly Gerstenhaber