Not long ago, we had the pleasure of introducing our readers to Pixie’s Pen Pals, a nonprofit that takes dogs from shelters and pairs them with incarcerated individuals to learn basic training skills. Pixie’s Pen Pals almost folded after the founder passed away and her children were not in a position to take it over. So, a group called FETCH a Cure, another nonprofit that helps improve the quality of life for pets—especially those diagnosed with cancer—stepped in and took Pen Pals into their fold.
We recently had a chance to chat with Amanda Brzostowski, Director of Programs for FETCH, Manager of Companions in Crisis, and Volunteer Coordinator for FETCH, to find out more about what FETCH does and how their different programs are helping animals and their human companions. Here’s what she had to tell us.
Tell us more about FETCH a Cure.
FETCH is primarily a pet cancer awareness nonprofit. FETCH is actually an acronym for Furthering Education and Treatment for Companion Health, and we have been around for about 17 years now. It all started in 2006 with our founder, Mike Holland, whose dog Hannah was diagnosed with osteosarcoma—a type of bone cancer that is common in dogs, particularly in larger and giant breeds that typically affects the limbs, causing pain and lameness, and can lead to swelling and even fractures. She needed to have extensive treatment for her tumor type and location. Her doctors originally only gave her a prognosis of two months.
Mike said, “That’s not going to be okay; we’ve got to do more than that.” So, he ended up going up to Northern Virginia for radiation treatments because there wasn’t any radiation available in Central Virginia at the time. So, he was driving back and forth in all that traffic up and down I-95 and he thought, “We’ve got to do better. We have got to find a way to get radiation here in Richmond and we want people to have more access to treatment for their pets.” So, that’s where it all started. And Hannah ended up living for two years with osteosarcoma, after pursuing advanced treatment.
How has that blossomed into what you’re doing now? Are you reaching out to the public to tell people they have better options now?
A big part of what we do is participate in community events to help spread awareness about early detection of cancer in pets. We participate in as many community events as we can in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. We luckily have a huge volunteer base that helps with that. At many of these events, we’ll host wellness exams, where we’ll have veterinarians come with us to discuss the early warning signs of cancer and how to perform routine lump and bump exams at home.
They will also check for any kinds of lumps and bumps that may be suspicious and mark it on a body map. Then they encourage the dog owners to take that body map back to their primary veterinarian to have the lump aspirated and potentially removed if needed. Early detection is one of our primary goals, because, unfortunately, one in four pets will get cancer. But, the earlier you catch it, the more treatment options you’re going to have available and the longer the survival rate of the pet will be. So, yes, we do a lot of community events.
We also do a lot of signature events that are fundraising opportunities, but they are also a way for us to get the word out because I don’t think a lot of people realize that many dogs and cats are going to get cancer. In fact, once dogs become seniors, that one in four actually becomes more like 50 percent that will get cancer. And one in five cats will get cancer. For cats, it’s probably even more prevalent than that.
But it’s less likely that folks will pursue treatment for their cats because a lot of times cats will hide their cancer and the owners never even realize they have it until they’ve already passed from it. So, those are the main goals for us—early detection, pet cancer awareness in general, and preventative veterinary care; getting your pet into the vet at least one time a year and if they are seniors, going in every six months.
In the past, the only option for pets with cancer was euthanasia. I’m guessing things have improved dramatically since FETCH started.
Oh, yes, absolutely. If our Companions in Crisis program is a measurement of the trend towards pursuing treatment, then we are absolutely seeing an increase. Our Companions in Crisis program provides funding assistance for people who have a pet with a confirmed cancer diagnosis in Virginia, Maryland, and DC. We help offset the cost of treatment by 20 to 40 percent.
I have been with FETCH for five-and-a-half years and that program has grown significantly over that timeframe. When I first started with FETCH we were awarding approximately 30 grants a year. Now we are closer to 100 grants a year, because we’ve been getting the word out that there are treatment options and they can be affordable, if you get a grant.
We are also happy to connect people with other organizations that can also help offset the costs, because a typical treatment for a pet with cancer is more than $10,000. And, for most people, if they don’t have pet insurance, that $10,000 expense is just sticker shock and they’re like, “I can’t do this.” Especially if it’s the type of thing like radiation, which usually needs to be paid up front, all at one time. So, there isn’t even an option for a payment plan.
We offset that cost to make it more accessible, to make it something that people are able to actually accomplish and give them a sense of hope. Because, when you first find out that your pet has cancer and you start reading about side-effects of treatment and the prognosis, it’s a lot of scary, daunting language. Then you see the amount it’s going to cost. So, we hope that we’re able to provide a sense of relief and hope and lighten the burden a little bit.
That said, if our Companions in Crisis program is an indication of our success rate, as far as getting people to seek treatment for their pet, then I think we’re making a lot of progress because the program has grown so much. As a side note, I think that COVID really made people see their pets as family. I think there was a real shift there where people were home with their pets, they found so much comfort and love, they spent so much time with them, and that’s when they started thinking, “You know what? If something were to happen to my pet, I’d be devastated. So, I’ll do whatever I need to do.” I think the more time people were spending with their pets, and the deeper the relationship they started to have with their pets, that’s where we ended up having so many people saying, “I’ll do ANYTHING I can to save my cat or my dog.”
Are cancer treatments generally effective?
It really depends on the type of cancer, the location, and then if the dog or cat has any other co-morbidities that would prevent them from having the most aggressive form of treatment.
For most cancers that are on the skin, ideally surgery is going to be the best treatment and that can be curative. If doctors are able to remove the tumor and get clean margins, it can often be successful, and they will never have another recurrence.
However, if it’s something systemic—something like lymphoma or leukemia—then doctors are going to need to pursue chemotherapy and there are lots of different options when it comes to that.
For instance, the CHOP protocol, which is typically for lymphoma, is the gold standard of chemotherapy. It is a multi-agent protocol where doctors use a variety of chemotherapy drugs in a certain order, and they space it out—it’s usually about a 25-week protocol. The idea is to basically keep the cancer guessing, which is why they change the drugs from week to week. That treatment, for lymphoma, can usually get a dog or a cat at least another year, sometimes two years in remission. And sometimes, in rare cases, up to five years in remission. It all just depends on how soon the cancer is diagnosed and what the dog or cat’s response rate is to treatment.
Other types of cancers are harder to fight. One that is sort of the scariest diagnosis is called hemangiosarcoma. That is a cancer of the blood vessels that often spreads very quickly, especially to the organs like the spleen. A lot of times there are no symptoms leading up to it and the pet will just have a rupture and they’ll pass away. Often, with hemangiosarcoma, it can be treated with surgery—doctors can usually do a splenectomy and remove the spleen—if you can catch it early enough. And then the pet will have a longer prognosis.
Then there’s radiation. A lot of times radiation is going to be for things like a nasal tumor or a tumor on the skin where doctors weren’t able to get clean margins, so they need to go in through radiation to help kill those cancer cells. In that case, there will be a risk of some side effects, but they aren’t life altering to the point where the risk is not worth the reward.
All this said, with chemotherapy, it’s not like it is with people where doctors do such strong doses. With pets, doctors always want to keep quality of life, and they want to be as humane as possible. So, they do lower doses of chemotherapy for dogs and cats and it’s effective, but it’s not going to make the pet so sick that they’re going to be vomiting, lethargic, and losing their hair. Occasionally, a pet might have a little bit of hair loss with chemotherapy, but it’s not a given like it is with people.
So, there are definitely lots of different treatment options that people can pursue for their pets. Prednisone, a steroid, is one of those less expensive options. Another, for those who feel a multi-agent protocol might be too expensive or it might be too intense to return to the vet’s office so frequently, a doctor can prescribe a single agent, like doxorubicin, or they may prescribe an oral chemotherapy that the owner can administer at home. There are almost always options to choose from that fit the family’s goals and lifestyle.
If somebody finds a lump on their pet and they go to their primary vet for an exam, what happens if the vet diagnoses cancer? Does the vet recommend them to you, or can they come directly to you to ask what they can do?
That is a big part of our community events, getting the word out there so that people can either know directly about us because they saw us at an event or by word of mouth. But we do rely on our veterinary community to help spread the word as well.
One of the ways we reach out to primary vets is through continuing education courses where we have specialists that we work with frequently—oncologists, board-certified surgeons, radiation oncologists—who come in and do continuing education seminars to the veterinary communities, including vet techs and DVMs. That’s how a lot of them find out about our program, because they have attended one of our seminars, and they pass that information on to their clients.
When a person finds a lump on their pet, they typically will go to the primary vet, they’ll have an aspirate done or other diagnostic tests performed. If it comes back cancerous and it’s a straight-forward surgery, it’s usually something the primary vet can do, then that’s where it ends. But, if the primary vet needs a board-certified surgeon to do it, if it’s a more intense type of surgery or a higher risk surgery, then a lot of times they will say, “Who do I go to? What board-certified surgeon should I go to?” because there are options.
Sometimes people will call us to ask who we recommend. So, those kinds of relationships come into play when people call us to ask about referrals. But a lot of times, primary vets also have their own specialists that they refer to. So, that’s pretty much how it happens. As far as the actual application for funding assistance, some vets will just hand it to the family right there when they are giving them the diagnosis, sometimes they’ll direct them to our website, and sometimes people just find us through a Google search. A lot of times that’s how folks will come across the site. “My pet has cancer. What do I do?” and it pops up as an option in the search engine.
You talked about the grants that help to reduce the bills. Are there certain criteria or limitations on household income, etc.?
We try not to put an exact number on it because it is very subjective as to how a person can demonstrate a financial need. We basically say that if you feel like you need funding assistance, it’s worth applying.
Most grant recipients make approximately $75,000 or less, but it can also depend on their other circumstances. For instance, if a person makes $150,000 but they have four children in the home, are a single parent, or if there are extenuating circumstances that demonstrate a real financial need, then we’re very open to looking at their finances to see if there is a need.
On the application, we ask for folks to tell us what their monthly income is, what assets and liabilities they have, and we ask them to submit their tax return. It’s very, very rare that a person will apply and they have too much money. Because most people understand that we’re here to help the people who really need it. We do ask that folks have some sort of skin in the game, because if we cover 40 percent of the treatment cost, that does leave the other 60 percent for the family to cover. So, there has to be some sort of income demonstrated for us to be able to say “yes.” Some people will do something like CareCredit, they may put it on another credit card, apply for a loan, they may do a GoFundMe campaign, they may pick up a side job. There are a lot of options for people to be able to cover that other 60 percent.
Are you part of a national network or is this a very regional endeavor?
We are completely homegrown and local. We are only available, at this time, to provide funding assistance in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., but there is always room for growth and room to be able to expand to other states down the road.
But because our resource library is online, that is how people will find us internationally, nationally, etc. But we are a local organization. We’re a small nonprofit. We have five staff members and most of our Board members are local here to Richmond.
To your knowledge, are there other organizations out there doing similar things in other areas of the country?
There are. There’s one near Chicago that is called the Live Like Roo Foundation. I know they provide funding assistance for pets with cancer as well. And those are national grants. There are also a lot of these nonprofits that help in different regions. There are very few that will do grants nationally, just because the expense of cancer treatment is incredible high, so it’s hard for people to do grants of the size that we do for thousands of pets. So, most of the other organizations that do what we do are also regional.
Do you actually have a facility where doctors come in and perform procedures?
We have a building in Richmond, Virginia. There are two medical oncologists and one radiation oncologist that practice in the same building as us. The business is called The Oncology Service. We partnered with them several years ago to have access in the same building where they have offer medical and radiation oncology. We also partner in the same building with a holistic vet called Balanced Veterinary Wellness. We even have a grooming business on the first floor of the building called the Doggie Lama Salon, and then we, FETCH a Cure, are up on the third floor. So, if someone is referred to the oncology service and they have come there and gotten the diagnosis, the doctors are able to say, “If you need funding assistance or additional emotional support, there is an organization on the third floor, if you’d like to go up and speak with them.” So, we love having that easy access to the folks who we need to help right there in the moment.
And you mentioned emotional support. That’s another service you offer?
It is. We provide several opportunities monthly for a pet-loss support group. We have been doing that for about six years now. So, on the first, second, and third Tuesday of every month, we offer a pet-loss support group from 5:30 to 6:30. On the first Tuesday, it’s a virtual meeting that anybody can attend. That is led by Dr. Leslie Greenberg who is a psychologist, and she is a specialist in grief support, specifically for pet loss. She leads the first and second Tuesday meetings. We also have a medical oncologist named Dr. Melissa Miller from Partner Veterinary. She is also a grief support specialist, and she leads our meetings on the third Tuesday of every month.
We’ve also recently expanded up to Northern Virginia where we have meetings at Wholistic Paws Veterinary Services. They meet on the third Monday of each month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. there in Ashburn. And we offer a quarterly meeting in Chesapeake, Virginia at Ardani Farm. That one is led by Maureen Kelleher, a licensed professional counselor who does art therapy.
So yes, we offer as much emotional support as we can for pet loss, but we also have a pet cancer support group meeting on the third Thursday of every month, and that is completely virtual. We just have folks that will call in and tell us whatever part of the journey they are in—the beginning, the middle, having anticipatory grief if their pet is beginning to decline. Those meetings are also 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month. And I lead those meetings.
We noticed something on your website called the Steel Dog Project. What is that?
The Steel Dog Project is our pet cancer awareness art project that we have had since the very beginning of FETCH. For 17 years, we have had four-foot-tall steel dogs that are out in the community, painted by local artists, and they have a QR code on them that take people to our website. If someone sees one of these and wonders what it’s all about, they can scan the code and visit our website to learn about pet cancer, early warning signs, the symptoms, and that kind of thing.
We partner with local businesses to sponsor those steel dogs. They can have the dogs painted with their logo and branding if that’s what they would like, or they can have it as just a beautiful piece of artwork. Those are then paraded at Pets on Parade annually, which is our biggest fundraiser of the year. This year it’s November 7th where the new “litter” of dogs will be unveiled.
It’s typically 10 to 12 steel dogs a year and the businesses that have sponsored those will be in attendance, showing their support for our mission. It’s just a really unique conversation piece out in the community that gets people aware of and talking about pet cancer awareness. We have varying sizes. We have some that are even larger that are closer to five-feet tall that are out at local state parks. Those are not on wheels like the other steel dogs are, they are a permanent fixture at the parks so that, again, people can learn about pet cancer awareness, because it will always have our website listed on the dogs so people can visit.
What can we tell people about sponsorship opportunities?
We have our director of development who is Renai Bowers, and she is the one to connect with about sponsorship. We offer annual sponsorships for folks who are interested in getting involved with all of our Signature Events and our mission, then we’ll have specific sponsorships for specific events. So, if somebody wants to sponsor Pets on Parade or get a table or be a stage sponsor or any of that, there are options for sponsorships that Renai can tell them all about. The best way to get in touch with her is by email at [email protected].
There are multiple options with sort of an ala carte situation where we have things like if somebody wants to sponsor one of the support groups, they can do that level. Or, if they want to sponsor a Memorial Fund, they can do that. So, it’s very flexible and individualized.
Do you interact much with Pixie’s Pen Pals?
We’re all in the same office together and we’re all very involved. In fact, I have fostered some of the Pixie’s Pen Pals dogs myself. So, yes, we are very, very involved in that program, but it is a bit of an interesting arm of FETCH that people are like, “What does that have to do with pet cancer awareness?” Our response is that it has to do with the human/animal bond and the things that connect people to their pets. It’s truly a rescue effort that we were really passionate about getting involved with back in 2010 when Pixie made it available to us. It’s something we love very much, and we are very excited about getting it up and running again and extending to even larger audience than we are now. But yes, it is a bit of an interesting fit with the rest of our mission.
During COVID the program had to pause, so we’re so glad that we’re back in the prisons now. It’s just so life-changing for the inmate handlers to have pets in the cells again with them and to have a real sense of purpose, to feel like they are contributing and being able to follow the story of the dogs. A lot of times those trainers will keep in touch once the dogs have been adopted and be able to get updates. We’re so glad that it’s back up and running.
For additional information about Companions in Crisis, check out this video.