Kobi's Story
The San Jose Mercury News asked me to write a story about Kobi. Here it is in it's unedited form...
We finally decided to take the plunge and get a dog. We were all set to pick up the female yellow Labrador Retriever from the breeder. There was only one problem. She didn’t want anything to do with us. Immediately she hid and couldn’t be coaxed. So, we were left to pick another one. There were three others left and the breeders already knew they wanted to keep the white puppy.
They let the three of them in with us and we just sat and became entertained. I was immediately drawn to the white puppy that they named Polar Bear or Po Bear, for short. He actually picked us. As the other two were wrestling, jumping on furniture, chomping on plants and going potty in the house, Po Bear just sat at our feet taking in the excitement, as well.
The breeders felt bad that we drove so far to be turned away by the female that they told us that we can have Po Bear, if we wanted.
He was ours! We already picked out a name for the female but decided to keep it for him….Kobi, named after Kobe Bryant prior to the notorious scandal.
Prior to picking up Kobi, I knew that he had to be in a doggie daycare while we were at work. After searching the internet, I came across EZ Train, a dog training and boarding facility in the next city. Little did I know that decision would be life-changing.
It turns out that Kirk Turner, the owner of EZ Train, was involved in a Cancer Detection study. Kirk was in charge of training the dogs used in the program. Kobi, it turns out, was too late to become involved. However, that didn’t stop me from giving Kirk hints that Kobi would be the perfect candidate for the program.
A couple months later, it happened. Kirk asked if he could use Kobi. One of the dogs in the program was more involved with chasing butterflies than focusing on detecting cancer. And so, Kobi was official.
For a few weeks, I would drop Kobi off in the early mornings and pick him up after work. Each time I asked how he did. And each time Kirk said he did fantastic. I couldn’t be prouder.
After the training was over, Kobi graduated from doggie daycare and stayed at home, with a daily visit from a dog walker. He would make daily trips to Pt. Isabel for his hour run and swimming excursions. Like every Lab, he absolutely loved the water and his dog walker had to practically drag him out. He was a healthy and athletic dog.
Kobi had a huge presence, both in personality and size. By his first birthday, he was almost 100 pounds! At a fundraiser for the Marin Humane Society, there was a doggy psychic. For fun I decided to try it and she amused me when she said, “Kobi knows you’re worried that he’s growing too fast. He wants you to know that he’s done growing.”
As for his personality, I can think of 2 words: anal and quirky. When we go on walks, he would run ahead to the first shaded area, wait for us, and then go off running to the next. On gravel roads, he would only walk on the worn out pathways. If he climbed onto the bed with us, he would wait until we cleared things off his blanket. He would hesitate jumping into the car, if there was something on the floor near his way. He wouldn’t go into the sunken living room unless there was a rug laid out on the steps. But it was those quirky habits that made us love him more.
One of the scariest moments I had was when he was attacked by another dog while he was sitting next to me. It took 4 people to finally get the other dog off his neck. He underwent emergency surgery but the damage was done. Not physically but emotionally. From that moment on, he became skittish and became startled by any unexpected noises and nervous whenever he was approached from behind. But all of these factors made him who he was, and it was quite endearing. In fact, my cousin dubbed him “Baby Huey,” after the large cartoon duck in diapers.
A year after leaving EZ Train, he was asked to come back for more training, which lasted a couple of weeks. Shortly, I took him with me to LA to visit my family. My sister-in-law’s mother had ovarian cancer. Kobi had met her before and although she already had cancer, he never reacted. This time was different. At this point, her cancer was in the advanced stages. He reacted in a way I never saw before. He barked and barked and barked some more. His normally mellow personality was now exploding with excitement. He followed her from room to room and barked even as she shut doors behind her. A month later she passed away. It was then that I looked back and realized that Kobi may have been reacting to her cancer.
Then I began to take notice. Every now and then, Kobi would hone in on an individual at a dog park and react the same way. I don’t know if he was detecting cancer because we never had the courage to tell the person about Kobi’s ability. It was a moral dilemma.
But it was the cancer detection that became the focus of our existence the past few months. “Diagnostic Accuracy of Canine Scent Detection of Lung and Breast Cancers in Exhaled Breath,” a study led by Michael McCulloch of the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, and Tadeusz Jezierski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding was published in the March 2006 issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies, a peer-reviewed journal.
Kobi made a cameo appearance in a “60 Minutes” piece last year and a BBC piece that was filmed last year, finally aired in January. That was the beginning of the media blitz.
In January, we got a call that the “Today Show” wanted to do the story. We were excited but nervous at the same time. Kobi had not been in training for over a year. We brought him to the clinic for a practice run. Unbelievably, he hit it 100%. From that day, Pine Street Clinic became our 2nd home as we brought Kobi back for all the media coverage: The San Jose Mercury, Comcast, International TV stations from Japan, Mexico, and Russia, NBC11, the NY Times, and CNN. He loved to go to work. Just the mention of “work” brought him dashing down the stairs and barking at us to hurry up.
At first Kobi was nervous with all the cameras, lights, and fuzzy boom mics pointed in his direction. He was distracted by all the unfamiliar gadgets. But then he became a pro: posing for pictures, detecting the samples at a 100% accuracy rate, and just being adorable for the camera. Kobi was a natural born star.
As the media blitz died down, Kobi contracted a cough. His vet gave him 10 days of antibiotics. It didn’t work. We brought him in for reexamination and they decided to take x-rays. I got a call that afternoon. …a call I’ll never forget. His x-rays were abnormal but she couldn’t be sure what it was. I was leaving for NY the next day.
The next day, his vet emailed the films to a radiologist who determined it could be 1 of 2 things: Valley Fever or Cancer. We got the news on Valentine’s Day while we were in NY. After arriving back home, we brought him to an Internal Medicine Specialist that confirmed he had Lymphoma.
All the research I found was grim. Although Lymphoma is the most treatable of canine cancers, the cancer will most likely return. With chemo, dogs will live an average for 12 months. TWELVE MONTHS! My 3 year old baby was given a sentence of 12 months.
We were determined to fight this with everything we had. We changed his diet, we gave him supplements, we tried acupuncture, and Dr. McCulloch from Pine Street Clinic developed a protocol to go along with his chemo.
It seemed to work. After his first week of chemo, our baby was in remission. I couldn’t believe the news! It was one of my happiest moments. But like antibiotics, he still had to continue with his chemo even though he seemed better.
That was what did it. After his 2nd chemo session, it started. Not unusual, he started to vomit and diarrhea. We brought him to the emergency room to get hydrated and they administered anti nausea and anti diarrhea medicine. We took him home that night. We woke up alarmed to see that the medication didn’t work. We brought him back to the hospital. He never came home.
He developed complication after complication….from a fever to low sugar in his blood to pneumonia. We live only 20 minutes away from the hospital. But the last night, we stayed at a motel next door just in case. It was one of the worst nights of my life. We left Kobi at the hospital with IVs and an oxygen tube hooked up to him. He couldn’t even stand.
That morning, we decided that he couldn’t keep suffering and it was time to let him go. We didn’t have to make that decision. He did it for us. Kobi passed away even before we could make it over there….within 15 minutes of us making our decision. We didn’t get 12 months. Instead we got 14 days.
We buried him on Tuesday at Bubbling Well in Napa. It’s perfect for him….an open meadow where he can run free, deer and llama that he can chase, a great big pond that he can swim in, but most importantly no more cancer and chemotherapy.
It’s a devastating irony that what he worked so hard to detect ultimately took his life. His work is so important and I hope that something will be developed so lives can be saved. Knowing that our baby was a pioneer in the study makes us so very proud. Our 3 year old accomplished so much in his short life, more than most humans I know.
The folks at Pine Street clinic named a star after him: “Kobi: Friend and Master Scientist.” So, the next time you look into the sky, you too can see our shining star Kobi.
We finally decided to take the plunge and get a dog. We were all set to pick up the female yellow Labrador Retriever from the breeder. There was only one problem. She didn’t want anything to do with us. Immediately she hid and couldn’t be coaxed. So, we were left to pick another one. There were three others left and the breeders already knew they wanted to keep the white puppy.
They let the three of them in with us and we just sat and became entertained. I was immediately drawn to the white puppy that they named Polar Bear or Po Bear, for short. He actually picked us. As the other two were wrestling, jumping on furniture, chomping on plants and going potty in the house, Po Bear just sat at our feet taking in the excitement, as well.
The breeders felt bad that we drove so far to be turned away by the female that they told us that we can have Po Bear, if we wanted.
He was ours! We already picked out a name for the female but decided to keep it for him….Kobi, named after Kobe Bryant prior to the notorious scandal.
Prior to picking up Kobi, I knew that he had to be in a doggie daycare while we were at work. After searching the internet, I came across EZ Train, a dog training and boarding facility in the next city. Little did I know that decision would be life-changing.
It turns out that Kirk Turner, the owner of EZ Train, was involved in a Cancer Detection study. Kirk was in charge of training the dogs used in the program. Kobi, it turns out, was too late to become involved. However, that didn’t stop me from giving Kirk hints that Kobi would be the perfect candidate for the program.
A couple months later, it happened. Kirk asked if he could use Kobi. One of the dogs in the program was more involved with chasing butterflies than focusing on detecting cancer. And so, Kobi was official.
For a few weeks, I would drop Kobi off in the early mornings and pick him up after work. Each time I asked how he did. And each time Kirk said he did fantastic. I couldn’t be prouder.
After the training was over, Kobi graduated from doggie daycare and stayed at home, with a daily visit from a dog walker. He would make daily trips to Pt. Isabel for his hour run and swimming excursions. Like every Lab, he absolutely loved the water and his dog walker had to practically drag him out. He was a healthy and athletic dog.
Kobi had a huge presence, both in personality and size. By his first birthday, he was almost 100 pounds! At a fundraiser for the Marin Humane Society, there was a doggy psychic. For fun I decided to try it and she amused me when she said, “Kobi knows you’re worried that he’s growing too fast. He wants you to know that he’s done growing.”
As for his personality, I can think of 2 words: anal and quirky. When we go on walks, he would run ahead to the first shaded area, wait for us, and then go off running to the next. On gravel roads, he would only walk on the worn out pathways. If he climbed onto the bed with us, he would wait until we cleared things off his blanket. He would hesitate jumping into the car, if there was something on the floor near his way. He wouldn’t go into the sunken living room unless there was a rug laid out on the steps. But it was those quirky habits that made us love him more.
One of the scariest moments I had was when he was attacked by another dog while he was sitting next to me. It took 4 people to finally get the other dog off his neck. He underwent emergency surgery but the damage was done. Not physically but emotionally. From that moment on, he became skittish and became startled by any unexpected noises and nervous whenever he was approached from behind. But all of these factors made him who he was, and it was quite endearing. In fact, my cousin dubbed him “Baby Huey,” after the large cartoon duck in diapers.
A year after leaving EZ Train, he was asked to come back for more training, which lasted a couple of weeks. Shortly, I took him with me to LA to visit my family. My sister-in-law’s mother had ovarian cancer. Kobi had met her before and although she already had cancer, he never reacted. This time was different. At this point, her cancer was in the advanced stages. He reacted in a way I never saw before. He barked and barked and barked some more. His normally mellow personality was now exploding with excitement. He followed her from room to room and barked even as she shut doors behind her. A month later she passed away. It was then that I looked back and realized that Kobi may have been reacting to her cancer.
Then I began to take notice. Every now and then, Kobi would hone in on an individual at a dog park and react the same way. I don’t know if he was detecting cancer because we never had the courage to tell the person about Kobi’s ability. It was a moral dilemma.
But it was the cancer detection that became the focus of our existence the past few months. “Diagnostic Accuracy of Canine Scent Detection of Lung and Breast Cancers in Exhaled Breath,” a study led by Michael McCulloch of the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, and Tadeusz Jezierski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding was published in the March 2006 issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies, a peer-reviewed journal.
Kobi made a cameo appearance in a “60 Minutes” piece last year and a BBC piece that was filmed last year, finally aired in January. That was the beginning of the media blitz.
In January, we got a call that the “Today Show” wanted to do the story. We were excited but nervous at the same time. Kobi had not been in training for over a year. We brought him to the clinic for a practice run. Unbelievably, he hit it 100%. From that day, Pine Street Clinic became our 2nd home as we brought Kobi back for all the media coverage: The San Jose Mercury, Comcast, International TV stations from Japan, Mexico, and Russia, NBC11, the NY Times, and CNN. He loved to go to work. Just the mention of “work” brought him dashing down the stairs and barking at us to hurry up.
At first Kobi was nervous with all the cameras, lights, and fuzzy boom mics pointed in his direction. He was distracted by all the unfamiliar gadgets. But then he became a pro: posing for pictures, detecting the samples at a 100% accuracy rate, and just being adorable for the camera. Kobi was a natural born star.
As the media blitz died down, Kobi contracted a cough. His vet gave him 10 days of antibiotics. It didn’t work. We brought him in for reexamination and they decided to take x-rays. I got a call that afternoon. …a call I’ll never forget. His x-rays were abnormal but she couldn’t be sure what it was. I was leaving for NY the next day.
The next day, his vet emailed the films to a radiologist who determined it could be 1 of 2 things: Valley Fever or Cancer. We got the news on Valentine’s Day while we were in NY. After arriving back home, we brought him to an Internal Medicine Specialist that confirmed he had Lymphoma.
All the research I found was grim. Although Lymphoma is the most treatable of canine cancers, the cancer will most likely return. With chemo, dogs will live an average for 12 months. TWELVE MONTHS! My 3 year old baby was given a sentence of 12 months.
We were determined to fight this with everything we had. We changed his diet, we gave him supplements, we tried acupuncture, and Dr. McCulloch from Pine Street Clinic developed a protocol to go along with his chemo.
It seemed to work. After his first week of chemo, our baby was in remission. I couldn’t believe the news! It was one of my happiest moments. But like antibiotics, he still had to continue with his chemo even though he seemed better.
That was what did it. After his 2nd chemo session, it started. Not unusual, he started to vomit and diarrhea. We brought him to the emergency room to get hydrated and they administered anti nausea and anti diarrhea medicine. We took him home that night. We woke up alarmed to see that the medication didn’t work. We brought him back to the hospital. He never came home.
He developed complication after complication….from a fever to low sugar in his blood to pneumonia. We live only 20 minutes away from the hospital. But the last night, we stayed at a motel next door just in case. It was one of the worst nights of my life. We left Kobi at the hospital with IVs and an oxygen tube hooked up to him. He couldn’t even stand.
That morning, we decided that he couldn’t keep suffering and it was time to let him go. We didn’t have to make that decision. He did it for us. Kobi passed away even before we could make it over there….within 15 minutes of us making our decision. We didn’t get 12 months. Instead we got 14 days.
We buried him on Tuesday at Bubbling Well in Napa. It’s perfect for him….an open meadow where he can run free, deer and llama that he can chase, a great big pond that he can swim in, but most importantly no more cancer and chemotherapy.
It’s a devastating irony that what he worked so hard to detect ultimately took his life. His work is so important and I hope that something will be developed so lives can be saved. Knowing that our baby was a pioneer in the study makes us so very proud. Our 3 year old accomplished so much in his short life, more than most humans I know.
The folks at Pine Street clinic named a star after him: “Kobi: Friend and Master Scientist.” So, the next time you look into the sky, you too can see our shining star Kobi.
posted by Mur at 4:48 PM
7 Comments:
Mur, That is so beautiful!! What a perfect story! I will never forget the time Kobi ate mine and Nelson's shoes. We will miss him...
That was a very touching story. It really brought a tear to my eye. He will surely be missed.
I almost want to give Oprah a call because it's a story that would definitely interest her.
Hope you guys are doing okay. :)
Thank you for sharing your story of Kobi, Mur. my condolences to you and yours...
your story made me choke up. thanks for sharing.
You have a lot to be proud of. I cried whem our dog Bruno died (he was with our parents). I never thought I would have reacted that way when I heard the news, but he was part of family.
It is apparent that his services were needed above.
BTW, Happy Birthday :-)
Thank you for sharing such a great story, Kobi was truly a gift. Kobi was lucky to have great owners like you to notice how gifted he was. My thoughts are with you and Kobi.
It was a pleasure to know Kobi and to be able to play with him. He really did touch a lot of "us" with his playfullness and quirky ways. But most of all it was his love of life that shone through.
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