Goodnight Harrison Ford...

12 years ago our gorgeous dog Molly was hit by a car and although my Mum swore we would never get another dog (our previous dog Skaboo had also been hit by a car whose driver was driving too close to the pavement) Harrison Ford (Harry for short) entered our lives. We bought both Molly and Skaboo when they were slightly older, so Harry was the first pup we had ever experienced.

I remember him being so tiny that the fluffy toy dinosaur we bought him was actually bigger than him. I also remember the first few weeks we had him he went to bed with a water bottle so he wouldn't feel so lonely and that was after my mum stayed up each night to rock him to sleep - in fact in the 12 years of his life I don't remember him not ever sleeping on one of our beds. I also remember laughing as we watched Harry climb the stairs for the first time, he was just so cute trying with all his might to conquer each upward step, and don't even get me started on how he was going down them... the words 'rocket launcher' spring to mind when I remember how he used to throw himself down them, completely fearless - a vast difference from the last week of his life when we had to carry him down them. This fearlessness also was the same when it came to water and vacuming - being sucked up by the hoover was the ultimate game for him and on many occasions he had to be locked out of the room when we were hoovering to stop him from launching himself at it! Even on the day before he was put to sleep he jumped off the chair to sit on the ground and watch me hoover the hallway.

Growing up in a house full of women, and Dad of course, he seemed to launch himself on any guy that entered our house! And don't even get me started on his footie skills - I can't count the amount of guys who have visited the house who ended up playing football against him in our yard! My old friend Simon was completely blown away by how good he was and I'll never forget his voice shouting out after Harry had literally dribbled the ball over to him 'You're dog is such a dude!!!' this was high praise indeed from a die-hard football fan!

There is so much more to say about our wee man, but it's still a bit too raw to put into words, but what I can say is that in the three short weeks that we noticed something was wrong till the time that he passed, nine different family and extended family members went with him on his trips to the vets. A true testament to how much he was loved by all of us and to the dog that he was.

The very last photo taken of him as he cooked dinner with us on valentines night 2009

Goodnight wee man, you were very much loved by all of us.

xox