“For cancer patients and their dogs, a weekend escape”</p>
<p>On the first Sunday of every month, people who have cancer, or loved ones with cancer, can escape with their dogs to the country, arriving at a place far removed from thoughts about suffering and fear and grief.</p>
<p>On a 10-acre farm in Pleasant Grove, Calif., that doubles as a dog-training operation, there is a low-key program called A New Leash on Life.</p>
<p>“Being around your dog helps you focus on something other than yourself and what you are going through,” said Nola Jones, dog trainer and owner of Performance Dogs in Action.</p>
<p>Her facility, 25 minutes north of Sacramento in Sutter County, provides obedience training, an agility course, sheep-herding, dock-jumping and, perhaps best of all in the dog days of summer, a pond for dogs to splash and swim and chill in.</p>
<p>All of the activities are part the business Jones started 18 years ago. She charges $75 a month for agility lessons, $45 per session for herding, and $15 for 30 minutes of flying leaps off the dock.</p>
<p>The new cancer program, however, provides participants with access to the facility at no charge. It’s something of a fantasy world for the dogs and an escape for their human companions.</p>
<p>Recent visitors to the farm said their dogs helped them through the worst of times. A cold nose, a wagging tail and unconditional love have a way of doing that.</p>
<p>“You know dogs love you no matter what,” said Jamie Swanson, taking a break from the obstacle course with Daz, a hairless Chinese crested dog. “Your dog always thinks you’re the best cook in the world and the best person in the world.”</p>
<p>Swanson wore a yellow Livestrong wristband. She had cervical cancer 15 years ago and has long considered the cycling star Lance Armstrong an inspiration.</p>
<p>“I’ve worn it for years. I mean, Lance Armstrong - come on,” she said with a smile.</p>
<p>Dennis Driver went to the Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals not long after he had surgery for prostate cancer.</p>
<p>He walked out with a border collie named Babycakes. That was four years - and a gazillion tosses of the Frisbee - ago.</p>
<p>In the dog world, that would be called a rescue. But Driver saw it the other way around.</p>
<p>“I frequently think of our relationship as being one of divine intervention. I felt an empathy that existed within my dog,” he said. “My dog was the one that rescued me. She made me focus on something other than myself.”</p>
<p>Driver added: "I experienced cancer as a journey, one that has taken me down many roads, several I would not have chosen for myself. It has actually proven to be a very enriching experience.</p>
<p>“It has heightened my personal level of compassion, made me more in tune with my surroundings and has helped me know there are people who care.”</p>
<p>About 18 months ago, Driver, a human resources vice president for a Bay Area biotechnology company, began looking for a place to board his dog and found Jones’ facility. He and “Cakes” soon became a fixture at the farm.</p>
<p>Not long after Driver shared his story about cancer with Jones, A New Leash on Life was born. Jones had already planned to use her property for community outreach.</p>
<p>“I was reminded of how many women I have known through dog agility who have had cancer,” said Jones, 52, who has been showing and training dogs since she was a child.</p>
<p>Jones lives on the property by herself - but not alone. In addition to her eight border collies, she has 30 sheep, 22 geese, 27 ducks, a pot-bellied pig, a couple of rabbits, three guinea pigs and a variety of birds: pheasants, doves and a parakeet.</p>
<p>Pam Lunsford, whose husband died of cancer seven years ago, wishes her husband could have seen the farm and all the dogs.</p>
<p>“He was sick for seven years and I was all the care at the end,” she said. “When he passed away, there was a big void in my life.”</p>
<p>She now has two dogs. She first visited Jones’ farm four years ago for agility training and has since won a national agility title.</p>
<p>“It’s a whole new, wonderful family of people that I never would have met,” she said.</p>
<p>**Harold Toback made the trip from Fair Oaks to Performance Dogs in Action after hearing about A New Leash on Life. A nonsmoker and regular jogger for years, the 57-year-old has been going through chemotherapy for lung cancer since he was diagnosed four months ago.</p>
<p>He has an 8-month-old Labradoodle - a poodle and Labrador retriever mix - named Josie.</p>
<p>“I’ve never been scared by anything until this. I’ve had to experience that,” he said as Josie played with several dogs near the pond and his wife looked on.</p>
<p>Along with the fear came change.</p>
<p>“I’ve learned to be more receptive and aware of life around me,” he said. “I’m not just going through the motions. I’ve had to look inside and find out who I really am. In doing that, I’ve become a better dad, a better companion, a better friend.”**</p>
<p>Standing nearby was Diane Russell, only days away from her final radiation treatment for breast cancer. Her chow-Australian shepherd mix named Shadow has gotten closer and more intuitive as her treatments have progressed.</p>
<p>“He’s been my buddy, my companion,” she said, noting that he used to sleep next to her but on the floor, then began sleeping across her feet.</p>
<p>“When I got my last treatment,” she said, “he slept right across my chest.”
You’re a total rockstar!</p>