Run free Harvey! No more leads, no more cars to worry about. Skip through fields of buttercups and chase the butterflies (or squirrels) and bark to your heart’s content! We will meet you there one day. Till then we are sending love to your family – hoping to patch up the void you have left in their hearts. xox
We don’t know Harvey but we knew he was lost for months. Everyone pitched in to help find him, hoping he will come home and be reunited with his owner. But yesterday she posted a simple message – “R.I.P My boy. You gave us the best 30 months of our lives.”
They have not located him but believe he must have been killed in a road accident. Mummy was really upset to read this. She thought about it when she went to bed and she woke up thinking about Harvey. I asked her why.
May’s comment: I remember one time we were in Central Park, NY and Darcy was a little over a year old. We were there early when dogs were allowed off lead. We were walking along a pedestrian path and Darcy had run ahead as usual and then she would come charging back. This happened a few times and then she must have come running back just outside the pedestrian path while I was speaking to someone about their dog and missed her. I kept walking ahead expecting her to come back but there was no sign of her. She usually never run further before checking in with me. I started to worry and asked people along that path if they had seen an apricot cockapoo. Finally someone had spotted her running back towards where I was. I began to retrace our path, running and calling her name when in the distance near the area where we had come in (close to the road for cyclists) I saw her dashing in a panic from one point to the other – frantically dashing with no direction. There were people trying to catch her as they suspected she was lost. I ran towards her, so worried that she would get onto the road of cyclists. When she heard me calling her, she charged towards me and then behaved like – Hi! What’s the matter?
There were other times when she was little and she would run in the distance and when she couldn’t see me, she did the same – running back and forth in a panic mode. My heart would be overwhelmed with maternal instincts of protectiveness as I ran towards her, calling her till she hears me.
The sight of her being lost and sensing her panic is what I think of every time I hear a dog is lost. How the dog must have felt when he could not find his way home. And I saw how Darcy did not want to go with anyone who called her – as she ran in a panic trying to find me, she was also trying not to get caught by a stranger – for fear of being taken away. And I was told by a dog trainer that after being lost for awhile, they behave feral and become wary of humans.
At first it might have been fun to run outside and explore. And then when he could not trace his way home – the fear, the panic, the desperation. And especially when I think of a furry cockapoo, out there in a world unknown to them, frightened of so many things and their furry coats getting all damp in the rain, shivering with cold. It breaks my heart.
And then that thought turns to the human owners. I think of how desperate one feels trying to find the member of their family. And then how heartbreakingly sad it must be to have lost such a true and loyal friend. And as Harvey’s owner said in his epitaph – they were the best 30 months of their lives. Those little furry beings bring such joy to everyday living. Maybe it is not always joy but their constant dependence on us take us away from being self-focused. When we start having to care for another is when our hearts bond. A lesson we can apply to our fellow human beings.
So I wept for Harvey having gone. I wept for the family’s broken hearts. And I wept for the poor little boy’s state of mind when he realised he could not find his way home. And even though I hope he may still be lost, (or stolen) it must have been such a terrifying time for him. But if you have crossed the Rainbow Bridge, Harvey, you must have been so loved and you brought such joy in the short time you were at your home. God bless you little fella.
