A tribute to Madras (aka Mr. Badger) Madras came into my life when he was already 7 years old and his emaciated body, hypervigilance, and dog aggression indicated that he had quite the story to tell. But border collies are reserved, reticent dogs and he never shared much of his story with me. It took years of training to overcome his “issues” but he never ceased to amaze me with his courage, resilience, desire to heal and to trust. He became a gentle, happy, bossy dog who loved long walks, any kind of training session, time off leash, treats, all people but especially the mailman, UPS man, and even most dogs. He worshiped our friend with a cabin in the mountains where he could run free and he even risked his life to save her when she appeared to him to be drowning (she wasn’t). At 15, a routine exam detected an oral tumor which was diagnosed as an acanthomatous ameloblastoma with a 6 month prognosis without treatment. The decision to treat or not to treat was a difficult one. At 15 he was clearly an old dog but he was still full of life and had barely begun to slow down. Especially difficult for me was knowing how hard most of his life had been, how much he’d overcome, and how few happy years he’d had. But then the good news came, the tumor was not only treatable but curable with just radiation treatment. It meant traveling to WSU from Seattle for 4 weeks but that didn’t seem too difficult for us (although I did need to buy a new car - a source of much mirth when people asked me about the cost of treatment). Alas, the daily anesthesia was harder on him than I realized it would be and he became fearful of everything including the kind, gentle vet techs and even taking walks. But, being a dog, once it was over he quickly recovered physically and emotionally. It helped that upon completing his treatment, we went immediately to his favorite place on earth - the cabin in the mountains. After a few trips to the vet which didn’t involve anything worse than a rectal thermometer, he even overcame the fear of vets that he’d developed. He lived almost exactly three more years from when we started treatment - a good long time for a dog, allowing for many, many trips to the cabin in the mountains. He died at the ripe old age of 18. Although he gradually slowed down and was quite frail his last six months, he still loved his walks and running after the UPS truck in the hopes of getting a biscuit. This formerly aggressive dog became the beloved senior statesmen to many of the dogs in our neighborhood, especially dogs that didn’t generally like other dogs. The nervous, aggressive dog transformed into the gentle, calming dog. We were so fortunate to have these three extra years together. Thank you WSU vets, technicians, and staff! I’m so grateful to the vets in Seattle who diagnosed Madras and to everyone at WSU who were so supportive of us at a very difficult time. I also want to note that last year I needed to have similar radiation treatment involving nearly the same area of my body. As the doctors explained what it would entail, I kept thinking “yeah, yeah, been there, done that, the vets at WSU have already explained all that to me!” Elizabeth W.