What Are You In For?

I wrote this piece about ten years ago, while sitting with my dog Grover in the lobby of the canine cancer center. Reading it again now — with Fleetwood curled up at my feet — I'd still write it the same way today.

The lobby of any doctor's office can be intimidating, and I'm just talking about the regular doctor. I start to sweat before my own appointments. So imagine entering the lobby of a specialist — in our case, a canine cancer center.

Grover, being Grover, decided to hold court. He was thrilled to see all the other dogs and their people. Meanwhile, I was quietly checking my own blood pressure.

"The lobby became part of our weekly routine — a new meet-and-greet for people and their pets navigating something really hard together."

It's an unusual space. The mix of emotions in that room — hope, worry, treatment plans, the weight of the inevitable — makes it unlike anywhere else. And yet, it became familiar. It became ours.

Most people in that lobby were using only their inside voices to ask the quiet question: What are you in for? The anxiety in the air was real. But I broke the ice and used my outside voice. Because everyone there loved their pet more than anything — and sometimes, that shared love is all it takes to make people laugh a little. And laughter is good for us.

It's one of the few places on earth where you can openly discuss treatment protocols, medicinal cocktails, and, yes, diarrhea solutions — and no one bats an eye.

Here's what I know now that I didn't fully know then.

The biggest thing? You are not alone. So many people go through this, and that sense of community was a really big deal for us.

Grover and I were intentional about connecting with the other dog owners in that lobby. "Good morning, how's your dog doing? What's your dog's name?" Small questions — but they got people to open up and, for a moment, clear the anxiety out of the room.

Cancer is, and always will be, a tough subject. But what works for one person might help another — and you'll never discover that without a community willing to talk about it honestly.

"I can't imagine not having a big dog life. Sometimes there are bumps in the road. But if we can make something good come from the bad, then it's okay."

That's exactly why Happy Aire, and all of its cancer awareness efforts, exist.

With love and a wagging tail,

Kim Opdyke  💗