Harley became a member our family on May 3, 2000, he was the first born of the first litter of pups from our precious Lucy and sweet Patches. There were four in Harley’s litter, him and 3 girls. Harley was named for my mom because he was born around the time we found out my mom was sick. Harley was really big compared to his 3 sisters. I would have to watch and make sure that all of the puppies were getting to nurse because Harley was so much bigger than his sisters I was afraid they would not all be able to get to their mama. Harley always loved to eat. At times I would take Harley away from Lucy after a while to make sure every one of her puppies got to nurse. We always said Harley’s favorite thing to do was eat, he woke up ready to eat and if you didn’t watch him he would eat the others pups food as well as his. We don’t remember ever really house training Harley, we just took the puppies out when Lucy went out and they realized what she was doing and they followed suit. Harley never had an accident in the house. Harley was shy and did not care much about being around a lot of people. During holidays or when company came to the house Harley could usually be found in his bed in our room. All of our pups loved people and would always want to greet company but once they saw who was there they would go on about their merry way, Harley would go to his bed. It wasn’t until Harley’s daddy Patches went to the Rainbow Bridge that Harley would greet company that came to the house and then stay in the same room with everyone. When Harley's mama Lucy had her second and last litter of puppies all Lucy had to do was give birth and feed them, Harley did all of the cleaning and watching after them, he was like a little second mother. The puppies where born in a child's swimming pool in our bedroom. One day I was in the living room and looked over at our bedroom door and noticed Harley with a look on his face like YIKES what do I do now. I then noticed that some of the puppies had managed to crawl out of the pool for the first time while under Harley's watch and he was unsure as to what he needed to do with this new situation. Harley was really close and loving to Lucy his mama and Patches his daddy. Lucy and Harley were forever kissing each other. Harley would walk up to Patches and give him a kiss but Patches would turn his head as to say don’t do that, we are guys and guys are not suppose to be affectionate. Harley never spent a night away from Lucy until she went to the Rainbow Bridge. Harley loved his Lucy & Patches and us and he always showed his love. You could look at Harley’s eyes and see he was saying I love you. We could be walking across the room and we would feel a lick on the back of our leg and it was Harley saying I love you. Every day while I was getting ready to feed them I could always be assured Harley would be there giving me a kiss on the back of my leg as I walked across the kitchen floor, it was like he was saying thank you for feeding us. Harley loved to ride in the car and he didn’t care where you were going he just wanted to go too. He wouldn't really look around while riding, he would just lick the seat. We often said it was a wonder his tongue didn’t get sore. Harley became very protective of me once Patches and Lucy were gone. I was always fearful of a larger dog coming in our yard and hurting our pups because our's were so much smaller. My husband always said I was over protective but these were my babies. One day Harley and I were in our front yard and the dog from across the street was in that yard. When I noticed the other dog a sense of fear came over me, my first thought was what will I do if he heads in our direction, how will I protect Harley. The other dog had always seemed friendly but I thought you never know.
As I noticed the other dog heading towards our yard I was yelling at him to go home and with each step I took in the direction of the other dog Harley would always be a step in front of me, I finally saw that all I was doing was drawing Harley closer to the other dog so I turned and started walking towards our door and thank God Harley followed me. When my husband got home and I was telling him about what had happened, he made me realize with every step I took trying to protect Harley from the other dog, Harley made sure to stay one step in front of me in an attempt to protect me. We took Harley to the vet for a checkup about 3 weeks before he passed away and the first thing the vet did was listen to his heart and with a puzzled look on his face he said he didn’t know how Harley was still alive his heart beat was so weak. He had shown no sign of poor health. We brought our Harley home and made the best of the 3 weeks we had left with him and knew that (Love) is what had kept him alive even though his heart was failing him.
We will love and miss you forever Harley, but we thank God that we were blessed with you while you were here.
We will see you again someday sweet Harley.