A woman that has poured her heart and soul into showing her dogs at Westminster for the last 12 years will be retiring after this year.
Loren Marino of the UK has decided to take her final bow and retire from the show-dog circuit because of her health. At 42, Marino is dying of cancer.
She was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, or “pre-leukemia” while in the Navy and soon it turned into full-blown leukemia. In September, she was also diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to the Asbury Park Press.
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She has chosen to forgo further treatments and live out the rest of her life surrounded by family, which includes a number of ceskys and west highland terriers she has raised.
“I always refer back to that commercial, no one has an expiration date stamped on them,” Marino shared with APP. “And the doctors can’t tell me, they don’t know how fast it’s going to progress, they don’t know — is it three months, a year? You just don’t know. … I do know that my body is failing, joints are just not what they used to be. I have migraines 20 days a month. I just can’t do what I used to.”
But today, she is going to give it her all at the Westminster show, where she will show her cesky terrier, Hector, who won an Award of Merit in 2014 and Best of Breed in 2015. And it is exactly where she wants to be.
“When I realized I couldn’t get any more radiation I said I was going to focus a little bit on (Hector), and having fun, and my other dogs, and getting in the ring,” she says.
