Doggy Wants a Bone...Transplant

Doggy wants a bone, and he deserves it too. Canines will soon be lining up at Washington State University for bone marrow transplants, enjoying a little payback after pooches made the procedure possible in people, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. But the cancer treatment won't come cheap: WSU will treat man’s best friend for about $15,000 to $20,000 each.

Because of their genetic diversity, canines were the perfect species to try the transplants when they were being developed in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Dogs, for instance, showed researchers the importance of a close match between the marrow donor and recipient. "We could never have done this in the first place without dogs," said one early transplant researcher. (More dog stories.)