As a gentle late summer breeze blew, our beloved Harley passed peacefully outside at home today in the early afternoon, held by my daughter and I, and wrapped in so much love. Standing nearby their surrogate mother's side were Wolf and Bandit. While our hearts are truly broken again, after just losing our sweet Chloe in June, Harley is free now from pain and running with both Gibson and Chloe, North of the Rainbow Bridge.
“Dogs’ lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you’re going to lose a dog, and there’s going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can’t support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There’s such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price.” – Dean Koontz
Future FiveSibes Alpha Queen
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| My daughter and Harley. "They didn’t make a tougher more badass dog than her. Rest easy girl," my daughter said and it was so very true. |
Harley was our first Siberian Husky; my daughter's dog, actually. We fell in love with her and, unbeknownst to us at the time, that set us on the path of eventually adding four more Huskies to our family and inspiration behind this very blog.
Harley was the OG of the FiveSibes. The alpha queen of the FiveSibes Pack. She was "Momma dog" as she mothered the Pupsters Wolf, Bandit, and Chloe as though they were her very own from the moment we brought them home.
Harley was Gibson's true love...from the second we brought him home at four months, and two-year-old Harley knocked him furry butt over tea kettle into the side of the pool, the boy was smitten with her black and white, blue-eyed beauty. From that moment on, they became the "originals;" the "married couple."
The "Originals" ~ Harley and Gibson as puppies!
Always full of sass and spunk, she was an amazing dog. A highly intelligent dog, Harley was not your typical snuggly dog, but this beautiful girl would grace you once in a while with her snuffles (a sniffy-almost-kiss) and oh, how she loved to play "Husky-style" whether with the rest of the pack family, or us humans! Her and I would do our own fun game of "Slide-the-Sibe," where I would split my legs and call out "Come on, Harley, Slide-the-Sibe!" and she would run between my legs and come out the other size in full crazed Husky mode! Fetch was her favorite game of all time, and she could out run, out Fetch, out play all of our other Huskies.
In the summer, she loved the pool! As soon as we brought it out to fill up, she was the first pup in the pool and loved to splash, and jump, and run, and paw at the hose. Oh, the laughs we shared, even this summer, at 14 years of age, that girl could splash like a puppy! Always the first pup in and last one out, how she loved her pool time. This year, although a little stiff after the water play, she happily went in and out of the pool all day long, and sounded off her happiness with her low-growls of pleasure. Aside from watching her run in the snow, it was always a joy to watch her splash in her pool and then engage in play with the other Huskies. And these little snippets were of Harley just this summer, at almost 14.5! She rocked being a senior!
"It's impossible to forget a dog that gave you so much to remember." ~Anonymous
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| "Woo! Where to?! |
From the time she was a pup and we brought her home from over an hour away, in the pouring rain, she snuggled up on the back window and went to sleep. She grew to love sitting next to the window, buckled in, and watch as we drove. She was the best passenger dog ever! She accompanied my husband to work many times, with all the folks falling in love with her!
She was a spunky girl! She always chased her floofy tail, and did managed to catch it a few times! She loved to "grrrrrr" with the pups to get them to play, and there was not a bed she didn't like to try and tear up!
How I miss those Siberian "songs."
Harley, like Gibson, was a star (and knew it!) and accomplished so much!
From being on national magazine covers like American Pet Magazine and posing with Gibson on the cover of Ruff Drafts...
...to being a model dog for my articles both in magazines and in my blog, to having a book starring her!
She starred, along with all of our FiveSibes, in a music video written all about Siberian Huskies! Rock on, Huskies!
This girl was a queen, and naturally, birthdays were celebrated in royal style!
Last year, at 13, Harley began showing some signs of aging, besides being deaf ever since she had her seizures in 2012, arthritis and stiffness began to settle in her hind legs, and recently, she had a very difficult time sitting down.
This girl was a queen, and naturally, birthdays were celebrated in royal style!
Last year, at 13, Harley began showing some signs of aging, besides being deaf ever since she had her seizures in 2012, arthritis and stiffness began to settle in her hind legs, and recently, she had a very difficult time sitting down.
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| Harley and her favorite toy, her blue Peep. |
Dogs should be able to lie down and stand up, and for Harley, it was obvious of late that this was becoming a difficult thing to do. Hemp oil (CBD) was a godsend. Since she had gastrointestinal issues where as certain medications made her have bloody stools (almost to the point of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE), she could not be put on the traditional pain-relieving medications. Treatibles full-spectrum hemp oil was the magic pill for her...for awhile. Eventually, she had breakthrough pain and the dosage would be increased (several times), which would help to the point of even reducing inflammation in her now-swollen carpals, and while most of the swelling miraculously went down, she was still in growing pain. I also suspected a possible underlying condition with balding along her spine that began last summer. While I suspected Cushings or cancer, her bloodwork, with great relief, always came back A-Ok. Her alopecia was treated with antibiotics, topical medication, coconut oil, and then hemp oil--all to no avail. Thankfully, it was a superficial issue, and caused her no additional pain.
Even so, she was--and always will be--beautiful in my eyes.
Harley, queen of FiveSibes and mother of our Huskies
While she faced several age-onset health challenges, none were actually acute. Thankfully. Harley's amazing fourteen-and-a-half years were blessed with good health. With two adult-onset seizures behind her at age 12 (due to hypoglycemia and hypothyroidism), Harley was pretty amazing and quite healthy for a senior gal. Having gone deaf, she responded excellently to hand signals. Most recently she was stricken with Horner's Syndrome (which I will be writing about in a future post), but over time, recuperated fairly well, once again thanks to hemp oil.
"Death is the heartache no once can heal.
Memories are keepsakes no one can steal...
Softly the leaves of memory fall,
gently we gather and cherish them all.
Planted deep in memory's garden
and watered daily with tears:
Memory has a magical way
of keeping loved one near." ~Grieving Poem
Harley bucked Old Man Time, she really did. But then again, in the words of her momma, my daughter, she was "tough" and a "badass!" (And I believe Harley knew it)!
Harley was indeed a badass, a true pack queen and she reigned royally.
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For me, letting her go was one of the most difficult things to do; gut wrenching, actually. To have to make "that decision" for a family pet is painful, difficult, and for me--sickening--it should always be about the dog. While Gibson and Chloe were acute cases where the decision was necessary out of emergency, Harley's was a bit different. We had to make the decision set her soul free, and as any pet parent can attest, one of the most difficult decisions to make. Was it too soon? If I wait, would it be too late? Would tomorrow bring worse pain or a heart attack, stroke, or seizure?
“One day we will again see our animals
in the eternity of Christ.”
~Pope Paul VI
Goodbye our beautiful girl.
We will love you and miss you forever.
Your dainty little pawprints will
forever be upon our hearts.
forever be upon our hearts.
Dear Readers and FiveSibes Fans: We will still be on a blogging break and may pop in to share a story or two, but mainly will be with Wolf and Bandit to help them as they help me transition to being a furfamily of just two...while in our hearts we will be #ForeverFiveSibes.
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