His knee is horrendous. It's big and lumpy and ugly. But with the way he's been ripping around lately, one would never know there was a problem.

Determined to find out more about stem cell treatments, I asked my friend Rose to get me a name. Rose works at the small animal blood bank up at Michigan State University. I finally got a referral to Dr. Caron today up at MSU and emailed him:

Dear Dr. Caron,

Please feel free to e me back or call. I look forward to hearing from you!

His response came less than ten minutes later:

Ms. Bailey,

We are not yet using stem cells for this purpose here, although it would not be that difficult to do so. I suspect that to compare your horse to Be A Bono might not be completely accurate - arthritis is a progressive disease and it sounds as if your horse has rather more severe disease. As such, results might not be all that you might anticipate. Nonetheless, I would be happy to examine your horse, discuss his past history and treatment and learn of your aspirations for him. An appointment can be made with our reception staff.

I immediately called the office and spoke to Carol the receptionist, who, it turns out, has heard of Clifford. "Clifford of Drummond Island, right? Aren't there TWO books?" she said.

"YES!" I yelped. I was so excited that someone had actually heard of the sequel!

"My daughter has them!" she said. "I'm going to have them call me when Clifford gets here, so I can come down there and meet him!"

So Clifford is going in on Tuesday at 10 am, possibly as a guinea pig, and our trot down the Stem Cell Trail begins. He's never visited MSU before. I can hardly wait to see what he thinks about this!

I was warned by my "horsey" friend Chris that MSU is expensive. (Hello?! I was up there every month two years ago for dog chemotherapy!) To be honest, I don't care. Any time you start thinking about veterinarians and drugs and therapy and experimental treatments, there will be words of caution from friends, not to mention the vets. It's Dr. Caron's job to be cautious. But he doesn't know Clifford.

I know this is the right thing to do -- I can feel it. The answers will come. The money will come. And I will have my horse back.