Mike Mayo didn’t pick his canine Joe. It was Joe who picked him.
Mayo was at an Angels of Assisi foster dwelling in Roanoke in early 2012 a litter of 13 combined redbone-coonhound puppies he had seen on-line when Joe confirmed up at his toes gazing at him with soulful eyes.
“I felt one thing on my foot,” Mayo mentioned. “I regarded down and there was this little pet standing on my foot, wanting up at me. I reached down, scooped him up and regarded him proper within the eye and mentioned, ‘And who’re you?’ He stretched his neck out and licked me proper within the mouth. I mentioned, ‘Appears to be like such as you’re it.’”
Mayo and his spouse, Jeanne, took their new Joe and sister Maggie to their Salem dwelling to fill the void of canine that they had misplaced who carried the identical names beforehand. The Mayos had misplaced their 15-year-old canine Maggie on Christmas morning 2011 and her sibling Joe the earlier Could.
“The home was so quiet. We’d by no means been and not using a canine,” Mayo mentioned. “Like a dummy, as an alternative of sports activities and every kind of cool stuff on the web, I began puppies. I stumbled throughout these guys and a few them regarded so much like our Joe. I lastly satisfied Jeanne to go check out them.”
Little did the Mayos know the way their new pet Joe would take them alongside for a journey of life and dying, compassion and perseverance, on the hopeful frontier of religion and the slicing fringe of science at a Virginia Tech analysis hospital, a journey that might someday result in longer lives and higher high quality of life for canine and people alike.
“I didn’t notice it on the time, however I now really feel like Joe was put into my life by God,” mentioned Mayo, a nationwide account supervisor for Everon Options. “There’s been such a metamorphosis in me.”
Inspiration to everybody
With dogged perseverance from Joe and compassionate care from clinicians and employees on the Animal Most cancers Care and Analysis Middle (ACCRC) in Roanoke, Joe beat preliminary expectations of some extra months for his life after a lymphoma analysis, not simply lingering however thriving from spring 2021 to fall 2023, when he was overtaken by a second type of most cancers.
“He was so vigorous, happiness and love,” mentioned Mayo. “He was like that every one the best way as much as the very finish. He was nonetheless like a pet. He was ‘my boy’ and there’s no manner I used to be going to surrender on him.”
“Joe personified the spirit of our mission on the ACCRC,” mentioned Dan Vruink, administrator of the middle, a translational analysis middle and educating hospital of the Virginia-Maryland School of Veterinary Drugs. “His battle in opposition to most cancers served as an inspiration to everybody concerned in his care.”
Enjoyable and scary moments
From day one, Jeanne, Mike, Maggie, and Joe had been inseparable. Jeanne Mayo, a nurse within the Lewis-Gale Cardiac Cath Lab, would take the canine on hikes to Dragon’s Tooth, Tinker Cliffs, and Inexperienced Hill Park. Joe liked taking part in ball within the yard.
“They had been at all times collectively and at all times wished to be with us, it doesn’t matter what we had been doing,” Mike Mayo mentioned of Maggie and Joe. “They slept collectively and even went to the vet collectively as assist for the opposite one getting seen.”
Maggie was bitten by a rattlesnake quickly after the pups went dwelling. Mayo mentioned he and his spouse figured Maggie would find yourself being the “million-dollar canine” for veterinary remedies.
Mayo had his first scare with Joe on Nov. 8, 2020, when Jeanne referred to as immediately on his manner dwelling.
“I get a telephone name a mile from the home and he or she mentioned, ‘The place are you?’” Mayo mentioned. “She mentioned you’ve acquired to get right here as fast as you may. Joe has ripped his chest open.”
By some means in chasing one thing exterior, Joe had impaled himself, apparently on a pointy limb, and tore a big bloody rip in his chest. Whereas the wound required a deep cleansing and an in a single day keep at an emergency veterinary clinic, Joe was lucky that it had missed his jugular vein by lower than an inch.
The next 12 months, after recovering from the chest tear, Joe had one other second that frightened the Mayos and uncovered a deeper drawback.
“On this someday towards the tip of March, he got here in from taking part in ball and he simply stood there in the midst of our den,” Mayo mentioned. “I assumed, ‘What on the planet’s improper with you?’ One thing’s occurring. It was actually bizarre.”
“Wagging his tail”
Swelling present in the identical common space because the chest tear beforehand was biopsied and located to be lymphoma.
“I used to be instructed he might be placed on prednisone and a few canine do rather well with that,” Mayo mentioned. “He may stay six months or so.”
However not wanting to surrender on a canine that also appeared to have a lot vigor, Mayo was knowledgeable of different prospects.
“They do chemotherapy remedies and, in some canine, they’ve actually good likelihood of dwelling a 12 months,” Mayo recalled being instructed by Lee Metrey DVM ’98, Joe’s veterinarian at DeRolf Animal Hospital, based by Dirk DeRolf DVM ’84. “And the best way they administer the chemo, the canine aren’t struggling.”
The Animal Most cancers Care and Analysis Middle was among the many clinics instructed, and by June, there have been openings for the middle to take Joe’s case.
Joe was quickly put right into a 20-week routine of chemotherapy for his lymphoma.
“After we began the chemo, you may inform he was feeling dangerous,” Mayo mentioned, “However he was nonetheless taking part in ball and wagging his tail.”
“Cherish the journey”
Mayo was impressed by the extent of private care not solely Joe however the Mayos acquired from the middle’s employees and college.
“I requested Dan [Vruink], ‘Do you educate these folks this compassion and optimistic perspective that they’ve?’” Mayo mentioned. “And he mentioned, ‘We recruit these sort of folks.’ So hats off to whoever’s doing the recruiting.”
Ester Yang, now on the College of Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Drugs, would give Mayo updates after every week’s examination. “I used to be at all times on pins and needles ready for the decision,” Mayo mentioned. “Dr. Yang was at all times so optimistic and sort. She mentioned she actually started to bond with Joe after the primary couple of visits. She commented on how glad he was and the way expressive he was along with his eyes.”
Mayo mentioned he would typically discover out that Joe wasn’t in a crate on the the Animal Most cancers Care and Analysis Middle, however fairly in a physician’s workplace or within the college students’ lounge.
“All through the years he spent with us, Joe’s unwavering positivity and braveness had been contagious,” Vruink mentioned. “He would eagerly run again to the hospital for cuddles with the staff, leaving a long-lasting impression. His story continues to remind us to at all times cherish the journey.”
Mayo mentioned he instructed clinicians from the outset that Joe would beat the chances on most cancers – and he did. “For no matter it is value, the lymphoma that he had by no means got here again,” Mayo mentioned. “So he really did beat the most cancers he was handled for, 100%.”
The middle’s household
However by autumn 2023, some coughing by Joe alerted Mayo to what ended up being recognized as one other type of lymphoma, and Joe was taken again to the Animal Most cancers Care and Analysis Middle for radiation therapy with the clinic’s superior linear accelerator.
“When the most cancers got here again, we tried to do radiation remedy,” mentioned Ilektra Athanasiadi, assistant professor for radiation oncology, who described Joe and the Mayos as a “dream affected person and dream purchasers.”
“We noticed a superb response, however sadly it was very aggressive, and shortly afterward the most cancers was again,” Athanasiadi mentioned.
Mayo stays grateful for Joe’s journey and the Animal Most cancers Care and Analysis Middle.
“On the day after Thanksgiving 2023, Angela Richards [oncology technician] from the middle really met us on the vet for his closing go to,” Mayo mentioned. “I can’t inform you the love we felt from the staff there and in Blacksburg. It was actually humbling. They’re very particular of us.”
The Mayos stay in shut contact with a number of of the professionals who helped them on the middle in addition to on the Virginia Instructing Hospital in Blacksburg, the place they nonetheless take Joe’s sister Maggie for well being care.
“Mike and Jeanne Mayo have turn out to be a part of the ACCRC household,” Vruink mentioned. “Their unwavering dedication to Joe was evident as they collaborated intently with our total staff throughout his journey. Their steadfast assist for the ACCRC has left a everlasting mark, and we are going to without end cherish their friendship.”
