Unfortunately, on Saturday, our beloved Hara lost her fight against what was either advanced liver disease or cancer. Less than three weeks ago, she was acting totally normal and showed no obvious signs of being sick. The speed with which this took her astonished us and, frankly, left us unprepared for how much of an emotional blow it would be.
Hara, or “Hairs Bears” as we called her (oh, right, like you don’t talk baby talk to your pets ; ), was a rescue dog. My wife took our other dog, Kona, to the pound the with her and they introduced lots and lots of dogs but Kona turned her nose up at all of them and did her nails instead.
Then they brought in Hara (short for “Sahara”) who they called “Blondie”. Kona and Hara proceeded to romp and tumble and play and chase and it was obviously a friendship destined to be. My wife says that for the next several years, they played like that for hours upon hours per day.
Hara obviously had some pitbull in her but, because in Missouri you cannot rescue pitbulls (they must be euthanized), they called her a Pharaoh Hound, instead. She definitely did have some other dog breed in there which made her a bit smaller and and a bit sleeker, the perfect-sized dog, in my opinion.
We’ll miss Hara with all our hearts. I’ve often said here that she was the president of my fan club. Truth is, I was always the president of HER fan club.
Here are some photos of her, mostly taken by my wife Anne. We’ll be back to political blogging after this, I promise.
Me and Hara
Christmas Card Hara
Hara and Kona, aloha
SNOW!
Whatta face, eh?
She even made peace with the cat
One damn fine dog
“I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten to twelve years, what would it be if they were to double?”-Sir Walter Scott
