Harley 07-555 [1]

09/10/07:  We are proud to introduce Mr. Harley Bear to everyone.  Harley is a 12 year old Golden who doesn't act a day over 6 years.  Harley is active, shows no sign of arthritis, no problem with stairs, loves to run, chase tennis balls, and most of all crawl up in your lap for love and pets... I know, he sounds amazing.

Unfortunately, in January of this year Harley was diagnosed with cancer and told he had 6 months to live.  Harley obviously knows it's not his time to go and he beat the 6 month life expectancy and is now in his 8th month of living with cancer and not on any medication.  He shows no signs of being ill.

So Harley came to live with me to remind us how special life is.  Harley crawled into my lap looked me deep in the eyes and he asked me, "Will you love me for the rest of my life?"  I said, "NO, I will love you for the rest of my life."

Harley doesn't know he has the big "C" and if he does know he's not telling.  Harley wants you to focus on him and not the cancer.  I believe dogs like Harley are precious angels sent to us to remind us of how precious life is, to never give up the fight, live life to the fullest, and love a little harder each and every day...because you never know when your last day will be.

Our treatment plan for cancer is lots of car rides with the windows down so Harley can hang his head out, trips to McDonald's for hamburgers (I know it's not a good diet but why not spoil him while you have him?), playing fetch, and cuddling...it's not a curative treatment but it's the best humane treatment to fight cancer that I know.  My last long term foster (Amber 04-267) who came to me with a life expectancy of 1-2 months lived a 1.5 years with me and we only treated her with love.  She passed away on 2/3/06 and I still cry when I think of her.  When I mentioned taking in Harley to my son, he wasn't worried at all about the cancer because we went through this situation once before with Amber.  Amber taught us that it's better to love as many animals/people as you can.  Yes, it's hard and your heart breaks more and more each time, but like my son said when we first took Amber into our home,"If we don't love her, who will?" So with that we welcome Harley into our home for as long as he would like to stay.  He will for sure be another heart breaker but that is the chance we are willing to take and in return we get to know one great dog and give him the best life possible.

Harley is a true Golden boy who defines the term Velcro dog.  He adores my son and enjoys following him around, when my son isn't home then I'm the second runner up.  Harley gets so excited when you come home, he will actually grab on to your sleeve or pants with his mouth and do a whimper happy cry.  He also did the cry and bark thing when my alarm went off this morning at 5:30... it wasn't as cute at 5:30 in the morning but you know what I mean.  He was so happy that it was time to get up I had a hard time getting out of my bedroom because he got the whole gang riled up.

My pup Irish who is 8 months old adores Harley and gives him kisses all day long.  Sometimes Harley will growl and ask her to stop but she can't help herself and sneaks a few more kisses.  All the dogs follow each other around in the yard and play but Irish is quickly becoming Harley's side kick... not sure if Harley wants a side kick but he enjoys the company.

On Wednesday the 12th we will be taking Harley into the vet to have everything checked out.  After Wednesday I will know more about the type of cancer he has and how bad the cancer is.  I will send in more pictures and an update on Harley later this week.