Nick Hartigan

You know, life is great!

I could stop right here and now say anything more, but I can’t. Yesterday I was sick and so was my dog. As she sat in the middle of the yard in terential rain, I realised that there was something wrong, something very wrong. It was not like her. I ran down carried here inside and put her in the laundry, which is where I stayed with her for the next 4 hours. She is my sister, my love, my life. After that 4 hours, I took a break to came back and find three puddles of vomited blood on the laundry floor. I rushed her up to the vet, where I got this reception, “Your dog is very sick and I am extremely worried about her.” This scared me. So then I was faced with three different decisions; have her stay at the vet there overnight and be watched over; take her to strathfield where she would have tests and continous monitoring; or put my three year old dog down as the others were costly processes and she was to have an ongoing problem. Crying The vet then said to Maddie, “You know you are a very lucky dog, you have a great caring family.” This bought tears to my eyes. So I chose the second option and she went into major surgery today – for the second time in three months. While she was under today, the surgeon found that she had a twisted bowel, a very near death experience (most dogs die from this almost immediately). We were then faced with another decision, the ultimatum went something like this, “You have to make a decision – have surgery and heal your dog or put her down. You need to make this decision quickly, time is a factor.” So we went ahead with the surgery. She is now sleeping in the hospital trying to heal herself, being watched constantly by vets and doctors.

So this now is therefore a celebration of life and please let me tell you, if you take nothing else from this, please take this Life is there to be lived, enjoy it and you will thank yourself

One last comment – Maddie:
She is brave, she is strong, she is a Hartigan

Thankyou