STRAY MY PRAYERS
A MUM diagnosed with cancer says a starving pup she found by a church gave her the strength to battle the disease.
Rosalyn Palmer, 52, spotted little Tarpi in a bush just hours after she was told she had breast cancer.
Yelping in pain, Tarpi was lying next to the bodies of her mum and sibling – strays who had died of starvation.
Rosalyn, who was in the Bahamas with her husband’s family, said: “I followed the cries through a bush. I pulled her out and carried her home.”
The mum of two had sold her London PR agency and was 42 at the time, “super- fit, running 5km and going to the gym every day”.
Then she started to feel run down. She said: “I found a lump and tests revealed I had a type of cancer called fast-growing lobular carcinoma.
“I was sitting in a church on Good Friday. I felt swamped in blackness. The sermon was all about death.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to die. There is a beautiful world with my kids in it and I’m not going to see it any more.’ OUR vet Brian Faulkner, from Petplan, has 16 years of experience and is a freelance working all over the country. Send your questions to Brian at: Petplan, Great West House, Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 9DX or via Petplan’s Facebook page facebook.com/ PetplanUK. I got up from my seat and ran out of the church.
“Nearby was a bit of wasteland and from it I heard the most awful crying. What I found was a little puppy, lying by its dead mother and sibling.
“I felt she had been sent as a gift from God to make me live.”
Tarpi is a Bahamian mixed breed called a potcake – hardy and intelligent. Rosalyn spent the weeks leading up to her surgery teaching her commands.
She said: “When I got back she followed me everywhere. She’d lie across my legs or swim by my side in the sea. Tarpi is a very special dog.”
Rosalyn, now cancer free, had to leave Tarpi behind when she returned to the UK. She said: “Quarantine regulations and the fact I was renting meant it was impossible to bring Tarpi.
“I knew how much my sister-in-law loved her and would take good care of her, which she still does to this day. “Tarpi will always be in my heart.” Rosalyn is currently volunteering in Mozambique for the Leprosy Mission. Visit leprosymission.org.uk. MY kitten has started shedding fur, leaving patches of uncovered skin. How can I encourage the fur to grow back?
Heart