Harley was adopted as a 10 week old puppy by my now husband, Phillip. Harley came into my life when she was 7 years old. She lived with Phillip on five acres and was his protector. She had seen other women come and go. She was a great judge of character. If she didn’t like a woman Phillip brought home, she would let him know by peeing at the front door (the ONLY time she peed in the house). The first time I met her I was scared to death. What a HUGE dog! But within 10 minutes, she had calmed down from being excited and I think I’ve loved her from that moment on.
She was the smartest dog I had ever met. She knew about 30 commands in 2 different languages (English and Portuguese). She loved playing with squeaky balls. Out of about 5 color balls to choose from she loved the just the pink and purple ones. She always smiled when she was really happy. She gave a HUGE grin showing all her teeth. Very funny! She also loved wearing clothes. I’m not a dog owner that dresses my dog up to look cute. Harley truly LOVED clothes. I would put a shirt on her and she would prance around showing off her new look. In the winter she rarely was without some kind of clothes on her.
We decided to get another Dane in February 2004. We brought home a 9 week old Violet Cluley. Harley foamed at the mouth and sniffed that puppy for about an hour! The first 2 months the puppy would try to play with Harley but Harley would just get up and leave the room. I think it was because Harley was afraid of hurting the puppy. Once Violet was big enough to hold her own they were inseparable. They slept together on our king size bed and spent the day in the kitchen while we were at work. At night, I think they knew when I was on the phone. “Hey, Mom’s on the phone, she’s not paying attention to us… lets play!”
Phillip proposed to me March of 2004. Harley was happy to finally have a mommy. The bachelor life was fun in her youth, but she was ready to settle down. Phillip and I planned our wedding and were married October 2005. We had to leave Harley and Violet at home for the week and a half we were gone. We missed them terribly!
We got back from our honeymoon and immediately noticed Harley had a lump on each side of her throat. Living in the woods, we thought she ate something she shouldn’t have. A couple days later the lumps grew. I took her to the vet 3 days after our honeymoon. The vet thought it may be an infection or cancer. We went home with antibiotics and steroids to help with the inflammation. The steroids helped the swelling go down to almost nothing. We thought it was safe. The vet took her off the steroids for a few days to see how she’d recover. Her lumps returned. We were told she had cancer of the lymph nodes.
Harley being almost 10, there wasn’t much that could be done. We decided to just make her comfortable. She struggled for another week with the lumps. Then she developed facial paralysis (we had to try and hold up her lips when she chewed so she didn’t bite her jowls). It was VERY hard watching her deteriorate. Without the cancer she had perfect flexibility in her legs and joints, and she was still sharp as a tack. We hated to see her get worse. Finally, only 5 weeks after showing her first symptom, we decided to let her go. She could no longer sleep because the lumps made it so hard to breath.
We asked the vet to come to the house to put her down. She was in the living room on her favorite blanket comfortable at home for her last breaths. We both held her and said goodbye.
I really believe that Harley felt her job in life was to find a suitable wife for Phillip. When her job was done, she left us.
She was an incredible dog and even with our recent loss, I would recommend a Dane to anyone willing to love them as much as they love you. They truly are special animals.
