LEXINGTON, Ky. — Katie Carmichael is a kid who handles her challenges with a paintbrush, a small canvas and dedication to the University of Kentucky’s assisted animal therapy dogs.
Katie is the young artist behind a series of canine creations at UK’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital. She painted a variety of different portraits, all including bright colors and attention to detail, “to capture the personality of the dog because I feel like this guy is super nurturing and also there’s flowers, so I put flowers in his background.” Carmichael said.
She is recovering from Osteosarcoma — a bone cancer the American Cancer Society says affects 1,000 people in the country a year.
Carmichael learned the news right before her tenth birthday and would undergo rotationplasty surgery. According to the Cleveland Clinic, Rotationplasty is a surgery for bone cancer near the knee. A surgeon removes the middle part of the leg, including the tumor.
“You know the excess bone that they have was like wafer thin. And that’s just a risk I wasn’t willing to take,” she explained.
The 12-years-old’s life changed, and she was going through chemotherapy and having long stays at the children’s hospital. Carmichael said she wanted an outlet with meaning.
She first started with her micro portrait of Lucy, her cat she hadn’t seen while she was away.
“So one day I came over to like the child life room and we painted in there and I painted a portrait of my cat, Lucy. I love Lucy and I’m not referencing the show here,” she said.
Carmichael discovered during her stays and visits with UK therapy dogs, painting and interacting with animals was essential to overcoming the tough reality of her illness and having to stay at the hospital.
“With all of these, I want people to realize that you aren’t alone. These guys are here. They should help you. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, there’s always a way to escape to get some relief and have some fun,” she explained.
Carmichael is surprised the project came to fruition in a significant way, but says patience is key.
She said, “When you’re so sick of things to the point where it just you lose all motivation—all of this, all efforts you just you just really need to wait and just take some time to yourself do what you and enjoy, like art, your hobbies but anything that you can do take a break and then go from there.”
Carmichael said the animals that visited were friendly and she appreciated pet owners volunteering their dogs for support at the hospital.