My cat Gatsby is quite the cosmopolitan character. Adopted from a Queens doorstep, he soon become accustomed to the fancy Manhattan lifestyle; he now appreciates the finer things in life – naps in the sun, staring murderously at wild birds, and the occasional backyard jaunt on his harness and leash. I adopted him when I was just figuring myself out a year out of college and he’s remained by my side through thick and thin. It is for this reason that when he was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma last year, I was horrified. How could my proud and 7 years young cat be experiencing this?! But I was determined to make sure he had the best quality of life possible; he immediately had his lump removed and did a month of daily radiation therapy. (Luckily I work from home so it wasn’t too hard to take him in daily; for Gatsby, however, having his breakfast delayed by 2 hours was apocalyptic.) But thankfully, almost 10 months later, he still remains cancer free! He’s returned to his usual nonsense of slapping people awake at 4 am and swatting them from under furniture. And it’s for this reason that I wanted to make a donation to the ARC – I really hope that other sassy cats and dogs can benefit from cancer research and continue to remain their sassy selves after getting even more revolutionary treatment – Sneha Inguva