Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Happy birthday, Harry


Harry would have been 7 years old today!
Here he is, 5 years ago, celebrating his second birthday.
Harry nearly didn't make it to his second birthday.
He was poisoned.
He was in the hospital for a week on IVs and then returned home to suffer more before his torsion of the spleen was diagnosed.
Then, after the surgery to save his life, he suffered severe pneumonia that initially went undiagnosed by the hospital that had done the emergency surgery. After we disagreed over the pneumonia treatment that works on wolfhounds, I pulled Harry from the hospital and my now-retired vet saved Harry's life. This photo was taken shortly afterward. (The ER hospital cut off Harry's beard for "convenience," which sparked my lifelong campaign to educate vets about unneeded grooming and shaving.) Later, we discovered that Harry suffered terrible kidney damage as well in the poisoning incident.
So, this second birthday was a cause for celebration. Every day after this was a gift. We were truly blessed to have Harry with us for five more years. This is one of my favorite photos of Harry because one can truly see his beautiful spirit shining and glowing in his eyes and smile.
(and yes, Blake was honored to wear Harry's second birthday hat for his own second birthday photo!)

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