Creatures comfort patients

Pets ... makeup ... lights ... camera ... action!

The stars are 13 dogs, two cats, a guinea pig named LilyPigLips and a small group of breast cancer survivors.

The women have gathered for a calendar photo shoot to raise money for others with cancer and provide wigs, transportation and some assistance with the bills. The organization behind the event is Critters for the Cure - and because its members recognize the therapeutic value of pets, the charity also offers help with such things as vet bills and dog-walking.

Ali Stark, 70, of Gaithersburg, Md., was the inspiration for the calendar. Having received her diagnosis 32 years ago, she's now in Stage IV: "I've had metastatic breast cancer all over the place, all over my body, my liver, my bones. It cracked a rib and (entered) the brain, and then I thought, ‘How dare you go to my brain?'" Stark credits her survival to Herceptin, which she calls a miracle drug, to her "angels" - her son, Cliff; her husband, Joseph; and her best friend, Clancy Kress (president of Critters for the Cure) - and to her two beloved dogs.

Stark lost her 9-year-old standard poodle, Molly, last year to cancer as she was struggling with her own illness, and it took her awhile to open her heart to a feisty Yorkie-poo.

"Molly was like my soul," she says. "It was very hard on me because the two of us were fighting cancer and Molly lost her battle, and I was grieving a tremendous amount. But along came Eloise. ... I think she is one of the things keeping me going."

Patricia Liberatore, who has two Maine coon cats, said, "The humans in my life were pretty spectacular. ... But in the quiet times, the middle of the night when the demons came out to whisper a dreaded thought, or in the day when a nap was essential, or when tears would flow for no apparent reason, it was the girls, my critters, who gave comfort."

Perhaps the most striking story comes from Bev Gilstrap-Noble, who credits her dog, Chevis, with detecting her cancer early. His relentless sniffing at her breast encouraged her to get checked again, even after a negative biopsy. He was, she says, "her second opinion."

Gilstrap-Noble's is one of many stories in Critters Speak, the nonprofit's magazine, which documents the women's cancer journeys, says Kress, who founded Critters for the Cure in 2006. Working together "makes us laugh, makes us cry a little bit. ... It's something that helps other women that might be going through the same experience."