A tribute to Dirty Harry

On a sunny Tuesday in October 2006, Harry was dropped off at the park near Bagel Bagel. He was left on the sidewalk in full view of pedestrians. At that time he had severe pneumonia and approximately a thousand ticks attached to his skin having themselves quite a feast. He could not walk further than three or four steps and suffered from diarrhea whenever he pooped.
After the vet shaved off all his fur, dealt with the ticks, tested him for both heart worm and distemper and dewormed him, he came home with us.

In the time that Harry spent with us we realized a couple of things about him that made him adorable. He was was wheezy and squeaky when he breathed so you always heard him before you saw him. He loved to rub his nasal passages against surfaces with rough textures and he had the ability to lose his footing and tumble down in a single sneeze. His right front leg was crooked due to a fracture that had healed without proper treatment and made him seem broad shouldered from the front. His right back leg however was weak and lacked muscle strength which led to a limp in his walk that made his head bob up and down. He ran sideways and couldn't turn right to save his life but he could corner a left at top speed. His floopy tail that bounced up and down in time with his head had the added feature of being hairless and curled at the very end in a piggy kind of way. He also had a particular kind of fur that attracted dust and dirt immediately. Being a short legged doggy with magnetic fur in a very dirty city was bad enough, but he had serious garlic-clove-diet kind of body odour, too. In short he really earned his name Dirty Harry.

James walked him every morning when Thandi and I went to the park and at night, Harry and I spent some quality time together while James and Thandi walked around the block. He really loved running and once his hair had grown back he was a very handsome dog.

His run slowed down to a walk and finally his walk slowed down to a crouch and a fall. Saturday was his last day with us and we were both very sad. We had him put down because he had been fading very quickly in the past two weeks. By Saturday his body ached too much to get up and he couldn't do things by himself anymore. We loved him so much in the end and now that he is no longer with us, we are thankful that we could spend his last months with him.