This story is one of three in a series promoting the college’s Grateful Client Fund, which provides Veterinary Teaching Hospital clients an opportunity to honor their veterinarian with a monetary donation. It also ensures the hospital is equipped with the most advanced equipment. This year the Grateful Client Fund is one of five college fundraising priorities for #CougsGive — WSU’s 24-hour annual giving day.
Whether working to add valuable time with their dogs or recommending it may be time to let go, Signe Olausen and Walter Kaminski are thankful for all Washington State University has done for them and their pets.
“It’s just been nothing but really positive experiences and a sense of real love that the people there express toward the animals,” Signe said. “And you can feel it and I know the animals can too.”
The couple’s first visit to WSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital was in 2004 when their yellow Lab, Rigley, couldn’t walk without limping in pain. Rigley received laparoscopic hip surgery to treat nerves in his hip joints that were behind his extreme discomfort. The change was immediate.
Rigley went from limping all the time, to never limping at all. So, years later, when the couple’s chocolate Lab, Wilson, named after for chewing the “Wilson” label off Kaminski’s high school baseball glove, required reconstructive hip surgery they didn’t think twice about bringing him to WSU.
The surgery stemmed from when Wilson was struck by a car and broke his hip and rear leg months before he was adopted by Olausen and Kaminski.
“He got hit by a car on Last Chance road in Walla Walla and he survived,” Signe said. “A local shelter there was so kind-hearted and helped but his leg and hip didn’t heal well. We would take him on hikes and he would just cry afterward.”
Even laying in his dog bed was painful for Wilson.
WSU orthopedic surgeons reshaped the hip joint by shaving the ball of Wilson’s incorrectly healed hip and creating an artificial one using bone and cartilage.
“He could race around. He was the happiest dog. Again, we saw their ability to treat special situations and at a reasonable cost,” Signe said, noting Wilson also had a successful surgery at WSU to treat a condition known as laryngeal paralysis, where the throat becomes paralyzed and begins to close.
But while every experience at WSU has been positive for the couple, the outcomes weren’t always.
Another one of the couple’s beloved dogs, a sweet black Labrador mix named Harley, was euthanized despite receiving chemotherapy at WSU. Looking for some direction, it’s a conversation with WSU veterinary oncologist Dr. Rance Sellon that has stuck with Signe.
“I love Rance, not just who he is as a doctor, but as an individual. I remember having a discussion with him about Harley and how sometimes the best gift you can give an animal is to let it go when the time is right, because people try to hang on too long. It was a very teary meeting, but I remember he was so compassionate,” Signe said.
What WSU has done for their pets, coupled with a sincere sense of empathy shared by WSU clinicians, is why the family continues to support WSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital today.
“We’ve always thought that’s where our money should go because we believe in the great work they do,” Signe said.