Mattie Miracle 15th Anniversary Video

Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Promotional Video

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to us that you take the time to write to us and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful to us and help support us through very challenging times. To you we are forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically stop writing on September 9, 2010. However, at the moment, I feel like our journey with grief still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with us, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki and Peter



The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation celebrates its 7th anniversary!

The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation was created in the honor of Mattie.

We are a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. We are dedicated to increasing childhood cancer awareness, education, advocacy, research and psychosocial support services to children, their families and medical personnel. Children and their families will be supported throughout the cancer treatment journey, to ensure access to quality psychosocial and mental health care, and to enable children to cope with cancer so they can lead happy and productive lives. Please visit the website at: www.mattiemiracle.com and take some time to explore the site.

We have only gotten this far because of people like yourself, who have supported us through thick and thin. So thank you for your continued support and caring, and remember:

.... Let's Make the Miracle Happen and Stomp Out Childhood Cancer!

A Remembrance Video of Mattie

July 20, 2019

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Tonight's' picture was taken in July of 2009. Mattie was sandwiched between his best buddy, Brandon and his physical therapist, Anna. The one thing we all learned quickly was that Mattie complied with physical therapy when he had a buddy. Someone to encourage him or to actually do the activities along side him, almost like a competition. To this day, I will always be impressed with Brandon, whose cancer treatment had finished months prior, but loyally came back to the hospital to visit with Mattie. I would define Brandon as a special friend!


Quote of the day: The dog lives for the day, the hour, even the moment. Robert Falcon Scott


We took Sunny to the vet today to get his annual vaccine for leptospirosis. Though this is not a standard of care, I demand Sunny get this shot! What is this? It's a bacterial disease spread through the urine of infected animals. The urine of rats to be exact. About a month into adopting Sunny, I met a dog owner by the waterfront on one of my walks. He told me about the tragic death of his beloved dog. All because the dog drank from a puddle, then contracted leptospirosis and DIED. The infection is that deadly and given that we live in the rat capital of the Country and we have a herding breed which is fascinated by rats, Sunny has NO choice in my book. He gets the shot! I will always remember that dog lover that I met and how traumatized he was, and how guilty he felt for not inoculating his dog. 



While at the vet today, we learned that Sunny lost a few pounds. Which was wonderful because I did not get the usual litany of..... your dog is overweight. 

While we were talking to the vet, we asked her what breed mixture she thought Sunny was, and we all started chatting about his DNA. I have to admit, I am NOT a big DNA analysis fan for many reasons. But in Sunny's case, she explained that taking our dog's DNA can help guide his medical care. In fact, some breeds require certain medications and knowing more about his background could potentially help us keep him healthy and living longer. So it was that medical component that appealed to me. 

They did a blood test on Sunny and we get the results in two weeks. The panel will generate a report that covers:

  • Extensive genetic health screening for 150+ conditions covering 16 major body systems, letting us know which, if any, he is at risk for, a carrier, or clear of
  • Breed detection for 350+ breeds, types and varieties broken down into a pie chart for percentages and into a family tree going back three generations
  • Extensive information about each breed and breed group found
  • A predicted weight profile
  • A genetic trait analysis


One thing is for certain, we all agree that Sunny is a herding dog of some type. Sunny was the ambassador today in the office. Making friends with everyone and was calm as a cucumber. I learned today as a senior dog, Sunny has to get a well visit every six months! That was a new one for me, and I chuckled because that is more mandated doctor time than even we humans face! 

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