Epi-Star "Riona"  & "Fearghas"       by Dorothy Wills-Raftery This month, for November's Epilepsy Awareness Month, I have been writing an Epi-Star series, based on the concept of my book EPIc Dog Tales: Heartfelt Stories About Amazing Dogs Living & Loving Life With Canine Epilepsy , I am highlighting some amazing dogs who have/had Canine Epilepsy, but never let that stop them from living life. A few starred in my book, including today's beauties, Kelly Robinson's Mastiffs "Riona" and "Fearghas." For many, when one of our dogs starts having seizures it is scary, lonely, and nerve-wracking. Can you imagine two? That is exactly what happened with Kelly’s two beautiful English Mastiffs. The first seizure moment arrived in 2012. “It was the morning after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl," retells Kelly. "I awoke to my beautiful brindle girl acting strange, her head jerking back and forth like a sprinkl...

 New 2022 cartoon of my FiveSibes created by artist Cameo Anderson   I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a healthy one filled with beautiful memories. Life changes so fast--and in a blink of an eye, a decade or more has passed. For me, this is the first Thanksgiving without any of my FiveSibes, as we are coming up on a year for Wolfie's passing. My life is blessed with family and grandchildren, but I do miss my dogs. As a matter of fact, it's been the first time in my entire life that I have not had a dog in my family! While I am still missing my Wolfie and my five, I'm choosing to look back fondly over the years spent with them. And boy, did they love Thanksgiving! All the delicious smells and their waiting for some turkey and baked sweet potatoes (plain, just for them!). They knew it was a holiday full of yummy things. And when I sat down at night in the living room, with all of them snoozing around me, it was one of the most content feelings. They w...

Epi-Star "Cheyenne"    Cheyenne with Hu-Dad, Mark       by Dorothy Wills-Raftery  Cheyenne was a beautiful eight-week-old Belgian Sheepdog when she became a member of Terry Kelley and Mark Pilant’s family in September 2009. “Months before, we had lost our first Belgian, Player, to cancer and wanted to honor his life by getting another Belgian,” explains Terry. “For the first five weeks with us, all was well. Cheyenne was a sweet puppy, played with our other dogs and was respectful of our cats. Then, at 13.5 weeks of age, she had her first focal seizure. We were out in our front yard, and I saw her suddenly become very unsteady and start to wobble. It was over in 10 seconds. Part of me dismissed it as just being a clumsy puppy, but part of me knew it was something more.” Four days later, Terry explains how she and her husband were in their front yard with Cheyenne videotaping her puppy antics, “when she suddenly froze, became disoriented, and started to sh...