A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sometimes the unfairness and cruelty of the world is too much to bear. And I'm not talking about this or this or even this (warning, this last link will break your heart).

Recently I've had three friends contact me with very bad news.

First, two of the therapy dogs that visit either a homeless family shelter or a retirement home with me and my dog have been diagnosed with cancer. Sydney the gentle Rottweiler has bone cancer and had to have one of her hind legs amputated, she's on chemo and is making good progress, but isn't out of the woods yet. Kozmo the lovable Bernese Mountain Dog has terminal liver cancer and had to resign from the organization. I'll never see him again. Yesterday I went to the shelter and it just wasn't the same without him.

Then, a couple days ago one of our closest friends told us he had been mugged on the streets of San Francisco by three thugs. He suffered a broken nose, several broken bones in the various bone groups around his right eye and cheek, as well as some relatively permanent nerve damage which has caused numbness in the right side of his face; surgery is scheduled for this week. For all that they got a valise that didn't even include his wallet or a laptop.

So let me get this straight: 1. vicious dogs that attack people are fine but therapy dogs get cancer and 2. sweet men without a violent bone in their body get several of them broken while walking home from work? Something isn't right.