Kirby, Wheaten terrier

Young patient and lost dog reunited
By Brianne Dopart,
Mar 17, 2007 : 12:15 am ET

The 12-year-old visiting leukemia patient whose search for his missing dog became big local news this week was reunited late Friday with 3-year-old "Kirby."

Kirby, a Wheaten terrier, disappeared Tuesday after Kameron, his mother, Janet, and Kirby were involved in a serious car accident on U.S. 15-501.

For the reunion, Kameron, who is being treated on an outpatient basis at Duke Children's Hospital for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, wore a T-shirt bearing the image of a dog with a clover in its mouth accompanied by the phrase "Lucky Dog."

The shirt was a gift from Kameron's doctor, Joanne Kurtzberg, after Kameron lost one of his favorite shirts, bearing the phrase "Life Is Good," while he after being extricated from Tuesday's wreck by emergency medical technicians.

The 12-year-old California honor student opted to wear his new shirt Friday after nearly three full days spent worrying about the dog he says has helped him through the most painful part of his cancer treatments.

"I thought I could use some luck today," Kameron said.

After enjoying a few joyful licks from the visibly ecstatic terrier in the lobby of Duke Children's Hospital, the 12-year-old said he was pretty sure he'd found his new "lucky shirt."

He also found a few people to thank.

Duke Medical News Office officials Chris DiFrancesco and Tracey Koepke helped track down the dog whose story they had been helping to relay to members of the local media for the past several days.

The two were on a way back from a meeting when they decided to take a few loops around South Square just to see if they could spot the wayward dog.

Within minutes, Koepke spotted the wet, muddy Kirby "just sitting in the woods, almost like he was waiting for his people to come."

Koepke and Difrancesco tried to round up the pup, but just as Kameron had reminded folks earlier in the week, Kirby was timid and afraid to let them get close. The two spent nearly an hour in the rain trying to grab Kirby and then called Kameron's dad, Ali, who walked up and down the road calling for Kirby until the dog finally came to him.

Janet Kooshesh, Kameron's mom, is still suffering from injuries sustained in Tuesday's wreck, but took time to say Friday's reunion was one of the best things that have happened to her and her family in a long time.

"We've asked, 'Why us?' a lot, but we try not to stay there," Janet Kooshesh said of her family's struggle to cope, first with her son's two-and-a-half year battle with leukemia, in which he suffered a relapse after undergoing chemotherapy, and more recently had undergone a bone marrow transplant here.

Janet Kooshesh said she hopes to move her family back to California in late May so Kameron, who has missed two years of school while undergoing his leukemia treatments, can begin eighth grade.

Released Friday from Duke Children's Hospital, where he was being treated as an inpatient for injuries he suffered in Tuesday's wreck, Kameron said he was looking forward to getting back to his family's temporary Durham home to curl up and take a nap.

"He's probably tired ... we'll probably curl up together," he said, referring to his lost-and-found best friend, Kirby.

Source: http://www.doglover.biz/latest_news.php?id=402