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Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Rescued cat now helps others

The Columbian
Published: January 28, 2011, 12:00am
2 Photos
Ridgefield's Barbara Crandall took in an eyeless cat, Sarah.
Ridgefield's Barbara Crandall took in an eyeless cat, Sarah. Sarah helps bring joy and comfort to residents of an assisted-living community. Photo Gallery

When Barbara Crandall heard about Sarah, a rescue cat who’d lost both eyes and needed a home, it tugged at her heartstrings. So she told her friend LaVerne Locey, a volunteer with Second Chance Companions, that she’d like to meet Sarah.

Two months later, the two are inseparable, and Sarah is even helping out as a therapy kitty at Carolee’s Assisted Living & Cottages in Ridgefield, where Crandall lives and works as activity director.

“She’s just the most wonderful pet,” said Crandall, 57.

Another friend gave Crandall a nonfiction book called “Homer’s Odyssey,” about a resilient eyeless cat and the owner who loves him. She is using the story in the book club she runs at Carolee’s and brings Sarah along to meetings.

“She walks around and she’ll get in (residents’) laps, or she’ll sit in my lap,” Crandall said. “They just love it. It makes them feel really great.”

Vancouver resident kicks cancer a second time

Vancouver resident Linda Mobley recently received the good news that she’s once again free of cancer.

The 48-year-old wrote a book called “Blessed With Cancer” about beating breast cancer nine years ago. It’s available online at http://www.blessedwithcancerthebook.com, as well as in the gift shop at Southwest Washington Medical Center and at Saffron’s Specialty Medical on Mill Plain Boulevard.

Soon after her book was released last summer, she learned the cancer had moved into her bones.

Doctors told her it was incurable.

Mobley participated in clinical trial exploring the use of an anti-estrogen therapy under the care of Dr. Alison Conlin, her oncologist at Providence Cancer Center.

Apparently, it worked.

“It’s a huge, major miracle,” Mobley said.

She plans to write another book: “Blessed With Cancer. Again.”

Bits ’n’ Pieces appears Mondays and Fridays. If you have a story you’d like to share, call Courtney Sherwood 360-735-4561, or e-mail features@columbian.com.

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