Over the past couple years, I have been lucky enough to know Harley, a boxer dog with a huge tongue and an even bigger heart. I dog-sat for him a few times, the first time we met we got along so well. I always felt so honored that he was happy to see me.

A week and a half ago, his owner and i met because i was to be dog-sitting him again. The last couple times she needed someone i had not been able to, so i was thrilled to get to hang out with him. Harley had contracted Cushings disease and was not looking very good, but his owner was so excited at how he greeted me, “He hasn’t been this chipper in ages!”

A day before she left town, however, she called me to say that they would be putting him down. The staff infection was getting worse and his doctor didn’t think he would do well with them being gone for two weeks.

While I know it was best for him, I will miss him. I will miss him wanting to play with his leash more than walk on it, miss him laying down on top of a sprinkler on the extra hot days, miss him nudging me awake at 5 in the morning to go for a walk, and miss him leaning all his weight against me so i would pet him just a bit more.

one helluva dog

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 15th, 2006 at 19:23 and is filed under talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.