By Stuart Fleming
Wow, when you hear stories like this it really changes your perspective of professional athletes. Maybe they really are human with real emotions and genuine interests. Whom might I be referring to you ask? Well, let me start by saying, I am not a baseball fan and most certainly not a fan of the overly paid athletes who play the game but when I read the story about Ken Griffey Junior and his three dogs I had to lighten up a bit.
According to an article by Seattlepi.com columnist Jim Moore, Ken Griffey Junior is a big dog fan and considers them apart of the family even going as far as researching what hotels accepts pets before embarking on the family vacation.
Particularly touching, is his love and devotion to his aging 12 year old Rottweiler. Akiba's been through a lot -- she had E. coli as a pup and almost died, and more recently, she had a basketball-size tumor removed from her chest.
Moore explains that Griffey and his wife, Melissa, were at a loss with what to do but weren't ready to give up, It's no different than one of your kids, you want to try everything you can. With the help of an experimental drug administered through shots given once every two weeks followed by a cycle of once every four weeks the tumor disappeared. Ken Griffey Junior lovingly talks about the rest of his dogs in the article and shows an honesty of emotions rarely shown by athletes, unless of course, they are found guilty of using muscle enhancements...sorry, but I had too. Haha.
Anyway, aging dogs always find a way of tugging on my heart strings and this story reminded me that we really must find ways of keeping them in our lives happy and active for as long as possible. They are great companions and when they give you 12 plus years (as in Griffey's case) of unconditional love we owe it to them to do what we can. Full story
