Harry is a disabled Basset Hound around 3 or 4 years old. His front legs are deformed due to a problem with his growth. He was found dumped on the streets of Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus by a wonderful, compassionate Turkish Cypriot lady who spends her time helping the street dogs. Harry was in a terrible state as he couldn’t walk at all due to the problem with his front legs and all he could do was drag himself around on his belly. This has resulted in him loosing his top pair of nipples. He was filthy and needless to say, as he had been left to compete for food with other able bodied dogs and cats and he was not able to fend for himself, he was literally starving to death. If he had not been found he would have died in a very short space of time.
The lady took him to a vet who operated on Harry’s front legs and put some metal plates in with a view to trying to straighten them and support them as much as possible so Harry would have a chance of standing up and walking instead of crawling around. After that Harry went to stay with my friend Suzan at K9 and his rescuer sponsored his stay. She worked tirelessly to raise funds for Harry to have all his vaccinations, parasite and worm treatments and get all his paperwork prepared in readiness for a possible future life in the UK.
Over time Harry gradually managed to stand straighter and instead of balancing on his hocks he managed to stretch his hind legs and stand on his back feet. After a period with the metal plates in his front legs the vet decided that they were causing more harm than good and it would be better to take them out, so Harry underwent a second operation to remove them paid for by his kind sponsor. Then he had to go through a period of rest and recuperation.
After noticing him on the videos I asked Suzan about Harry and she told me his story. I was very moved by his plight and wanted to do something to help him. He seemed such a happy, playful boy and I was impressed by his fighting spirit and how he was managing to get around so well despite his disability. I enquired about adopting him and was very fortunate that Suzan and Harry’s sponsor both agreed that he could come and live with me.
All his paperwork was ready and following the period of recovery from his second operation he was ready to travel. I had at first thought he wouldn’t be able to come over to the UK until October as Suzan had several dogs that were in front of Harry in the queue, however as luck would have it a couple of dog’s travel plans changed and they needed to stay in Cyprus until later in the year, so a space was freed up for Harry to come over at the same time as Meghan, which was much more convenient for me and nicer for the dogs as they were kennel buddies so they could keep each other company on the journey.
Next we needed to organize a crate for Harry. I had originally thought of buying a larger create than Meghan actually needed for her trip and then have Suzan take it back to Cyprus with her so Harry could travel in it later in the year. However the people whose dogs’ trip had been postponed had already bought a couple of crates and kindly said Meghan and Harry could borrow them for their trip from Cyprus to Turkey.
Harry also suffers from an allergic skin condition and was being bathed twice a week with a special shampoo recommended by the vet and we made sure that was packed up to travel with him. So on 25th August Harry was popped inside his crate and along with little Megs started his journey to the UK to live with me.