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Today was very cold and I could not help but think at how well our little southern boy has adapted to the Northeast winters. In fact it was cold the March day we brought him home. We even had gotten a late March snow storm and had some snow on the ground. We tried to plan for a quiet evening for our first night together so Harvey could get used to his new people family, Mom and Dad, his new 9 year old sister and initially to the dismay of both sides, his new kitty siblings (they have since worked out an amicable arrangement!) Well, having a large extended family nearby and neighbors excited about our new addition, we arrived home to a “Welcome Harvey” banner framed with dog treats and a few folks just wanting to have a quick peak at our new boy. “We won’t stay long,” they said! A few folks turned to about twelve and actually an unexpected guest or two that thought we must have had Harvey for years as he was so at ease and happy to meet everyone there.
To look at pictures now we chuckle a bit as Harvey is prominent in every single one and, at some point or another, had found someone new to sit by (yes, we spoiled him right at the get-go and let him sit on the couch). His first venture out to the backyard found Harvey trying to catch snowflakes and seemingly not minding the weather at all. Then a few quick romps around the yard at full speed to run off the two-day-trip to the northeast as well as the additional 2 hours from the pickup site back to our home.
From the first instant, he made us smile, he made us laugh and now when anyone asks if we are happy that we got him, my answer is simple… Yes, he makes us smile (and I truly believe that he smiles back). I typically mention if folks are not dog owners, that dog ownership is not without work, but the rewards can be priceless!
Despite the
constant frantic terrier behavior that could rival scenes of the
“Marley and Me” movie (as so many of us can relate to), despite the
toilet paper strewn throughout the house, despite our slippers found in
various locations and never together, despite the gigantic vet bills,
occasional accidents, despite the fact that any tissue, wrapper, pen,
Barbie has to have their own security to save them from the wrath of our
little thief,
We got off to a good start diving into doggy parenthood and all that comes with it, puppy school (where he started off as the worst and ended up as the best), being the trainer’s demonstration dog the last few weeks where he so proudly pranced around the ring as if he were a show dog! My daughter and I could almost not believe that it was our Harvey! (at the onset, he just wanted to play rather than “be in school” who can blame him!)
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There was also making sure the yard fence was secure, and Harvey helped us with that as he quickly showed us any little breach in security. We also had the indoor gates, but they only lasted about a week. We continued the crate training and became experts at tweaking the potty training, we were coming along so well.
Our happy time was cut short though. Three months into our time together, we quickly learned the other part of doggy ownership and ended up in the emergency room with a grave prognosis. The happy smiles and laughs were fading away and our boy was in trouble. As sick as he was, Harvey still managed some weak smiles, a smile we loved… a slightly overbite smile with his little pearly whites teeth shining through.
The Doctor, the vet techs and office staff quickly became fans of Harvey and were all rooting for him. One tech in particular spent as many moments as she could nearly inside his crate comforting him. Harvey had bladder stones, some of which became obstructions. It seems like a blur now, there were complications, choices to be made about surgery options (whether to or not) and we knew what not having the surgery meant, decisions that we did not want to make. We got the cost estimate and had to sit down immediately and think for at least a few moments, this is a LOT of money, we also needed a new roof for the house, car repairs, etc… and then we snapped back to reality and thought about that smile. There is no way that we could not do whatever it took. The stones were ultimately removed, but there were complications and Harvey was not healing as he should. Two weeks of hoping for improvement and daily visits to the hospital, then additional surgery, but the little guy managed through the tubes and pain, to give us a little smile and weak tail wag at each visit.
The end result was a good one. Harvey came home after a couple of weeks in the hospital and had to be a cone head for 8 weeks. (He had to wear an Elizabethan collar most of the time to protect the incision site). He handled it well and actually made lemons out of lemon aide. Although it probably bothered us more, as the back of our legs were all black and blue from Harvey following us around, sometimes too closely, Harvey learned that the cone was actually a great benefit for catching balls. It acted sort of like a baseball glove! He could also push soccer balls around much more easily scooping them up a bit with his cone. We lost much of the summer for more active activities, but as soon as we got the go ahead, we tried to make up for lost time.
A year of firsts, fist kayak ride, first wheelbarrow rides, first swim in the lake, his first Halloween (Harvey Potter) his first Christmas (with us anyway) and this past winter, frolics in the backyard romping through the deep snow coming back to the house covered and loving it! (He is a northern boy now!) We could not imagine it any other way.
So as our year anniversary approaches, we are still smiling and laughing. He continues to amuse us everyday, whether it is watching him try to get his 22 lb body curled up in the 7 lb cat bed, his love to go for rides in the car, walks with his border collie cousins, his insistence to “dig” his little sleeping area at the end of our bed, he is part of our family and we love him. In fact, we are now thinking of getting him a little furry sister as he told us that he just can not understand why the cats do not like to play with him and that he has been a pretty good boy lately and he would love to have a playmate! We told him we agreed and are now looking!
Thanks, Good Dog Rescue for you great work and letting us be Harvey’s Family. Wendy Osterhout / Altamont NY
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Mike mike@gooddogrescue.com GoodDogRescue.com
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March
1, 2009 As Harvey and I were walking today, we were remembering that
our 1 year anniversary is coming up. This time last year my 9 year old
daughter and I were checking the computer it seemed like every 5 minutes
looking at our “Congratulations” email. We were soon to become a Good
Dog Rescue family. We printed out his picture and showed it to anyone
that would look. We were very excited to look at the cute little face
of the soon to be new addition to our family, Harvey, the 10 month old
wheaten terrier mix. In March 2008, our furry bundle arrived, 22 lbs of
Terror, I mean Terrier!
