You hear Leslee Kirkendall's story and it's easy to feel helpless.

But there's something you can do if you have a puppy and can spare 30 minutes or so to make a dying woman happy.

A week ago Kirkendall posted this on Craigslist:

This may sound silly, but I have adored and rescued dogs my whole life...I have stage 4 cancer and one of my last wishes is to simply..sit on the floor with a bunch of puppies and play with them for a hour and leave,,,thats all ..if you have a litter of pups around 8 weeks I can just play with no strings attached or be a bother let me know something in the milwaukie area,,,i am 56..and have ovarian cancer ..thank you Leslee

She received only two replies.

"One was from someone way out in Hillsboro," she said. "The other was someone who had a pit bull and wanted to meet me in a park. I decided not to follow up on either of them."

Kirkendall, now in home hospice care, isn't sure how much more time she has, but she wants to take her mind off her situation by playing with a puppy.

"It's not all that complicated," she said. "They're sweet and innocent. That's all. I can come to their house. My husband can drive me. Or they can come to mine. I promise not to be a bother. "

Kirkendall and her husband have no children. Her dogs were like family members, but she had to give all three of them away when the cancer spread. She said she and her husband had an amicable separation two years ago. She went to live on the Washington Coast. He stayed in their Milwaukie home.

"We were still friends," she said. "It wasn't an ugly thing. We never divorced."

Shortly after moving, Kirkendall said, she felt like she had a hernia and went to the doctor.

"I thought I'd injured myself moving," she said. "They found I had ovarian cancer. When I got sicker, I had to find a home for my three dogs. I'm a dog person. I love them."

A couple weeks ago her husband came to the beach to bring her back to Milwaukee. Her beach home is for sale.

"The cancer is stage four now," she said. "I know the end is approaching."

Her cousin, who lives in Hutchinson, Kansas, spent a week with Kirkendall last month, and plans to come again in May.

"It's been very difficult for her to give up her independence," Gayle Ferrell said. "She has a good spirit, and she refuses to give up. She's trying to live each day to the fullest."

--Tom Hallman Jr.

thallman@oregonian.com

503 221 8224; @thallmanjr

Fill out my

.