When the Wellness Community's new Lynn Stern Center held its grand opening last month, Judy Short was there. Naturally she brought along her big, white, spiky-toothed Killer Bunny.

        The Wellness Community, which provides support for people with cancer and their families, was a great help to Ms. Short in her battle with breast cancer. And so was Killer Bunny, also known as K.B.

        In a December 1999 “In My Life” column in Tempo, Ms. Short, a Mount Lookout resident, wrote about how K.B. served as her cancer-fighting visualization aid. Plastic monster teeth had been glued on the plush rabbit's mouth. K.B. represented her body's white cells, whose duty was to multiply and devour cancer cells.

        K.B. now seems destined to get even more exposure with the recent publication of an 85-page paperback by Ms. Short, K.B. & Me: The Tale of a Cancer-Fighting Rabbit With an Attitude (iUniverse.com; $10.95).

        She actually finished writing the book in July 1998, about 10 months after she was diagnosed. Then she began sending query letters to publishers.

        “The thing that kept me going was the personal letters I got from editors. It wasn't, for the most part, the standard "reject' slip. People took the time to write and say, "This is a great story. It just doesn't fit what our company is doing right now.' ”

        Ms. Short, 50, says she wrote K.B. & Me in part because she could find almost no uplifting books that dealt with battling cancer. In simple, conversational prose, she tells of having a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy.

        She also wanted to share some of the things she learned. Such as: It's important to be smart about your own health care, so ask questions. And, let other people do things for you. And, realize that some people — friends or family members — may find it too painful to deal with your cancer.

        Her health today, she says, is great, but she lives with the knowledge that cancer could return. “That gives you a crisper view of your life, of your priorities,” she says.

        If reaction to the Enquirer column is any indication, the book should strike a chord with many people.

        “I got so many phone calls from people I don't know,” says Ms. Short, executive director of Allied Construction Industries, a trade association. “People called me at work, people called me at home to say thank you. Which probably gave me even more of a belief in the need for the book.”

        The book is available at Legacies Gallery of Discovery, a Hyde Park shop.·Profits go to the Wellness Community. The book also can be ordered from bookstores.

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