Meet Harry Potter: The Boy That Lived

Thanks so much to Amy Ryan for writing in with the wonderful tale of a little wire-haired Dachshund puppy who met life with many struggles, but is doing great now thanks to the love that he found.  Meet Harry Potter:

Dear Joey and Rowdy,

I stumbled across your blog while trying to decide if our rescue puppy is a wire-hair and thought you should hear his story..

A good friend was adopting a Pomeranian from our local animal shelter in October, when they let a pregnant rat terrier into the shelter play yard.  I was enchanted by this sweet dog, she seemed like a happy dog.  We usually have 2 or 3 dogs, but are down to one terrier, Maggie, due to our other dogs passing from old age.

I asked the deputy at the shelter about adopting her, and was told that she was going to be euthanized that week, after her stray hold was lifted.  It is a state-run shelter and they cannot adopt out any dogs that are not spayed.  Due to her pregnancy, she could not be spayed, and she wasn't due for three more weeks.  They did not have the room to keep her that long.

I was horrified, and asked the deputy if any rescues could help.  During the week, the deputy, Heather, found a rescue that would allow us to foster her and the pups, we could keep the mom, and relinquish the pups to the rescue when they were 8 weeks old, so we took her home and named her Sadie.

5 days later, she gave birth to 2 puppies in my 13-year old son's bed while he slept.  he awoke to his alarm for school, to find two cleaned newborn puppies under his blankets by his feet.  Guess she was due a little sooner that the shelter thought.  I called the rescue to inform them that the pups had been born. 

The rescue called me back a few hours later, to let me know they had a litter of 3 dachshund pups that were orphaned by their mother 5 days prior.  They wanted to know if they could bring them over to see if Sadie would take them as her own.  Of course, we said yes, and they brought the 3 very weak orphans to our home.

One died at my home that evening, and one died the next day.  The bottle feeding had not left them strong enough to make it, but one little guy was strong enough to nurse on his own, and Sadie took him with no problem.

Cut to 5 weeks later.  We could definitely tell Sadie's bio-pups were pomeranians, and the orphan was growing longer, not taller.  We decided to name him Harry Potter, because he was an orphan, and he is the "boy that lived", as in the books.

We have now fallen madly and deeply in love with this puppy.  I have adopted so many pets, and was prepared to find a home for this pup, because we now have two dogs and two cats.  My husband, who has NEVER complained about the animals I adopt, begged me to keep this little guy, so I relented, and now we are the proud owners of what we think is a wire-hair Dachshund. 

Here is his picture, as we aren't sure he is a doxie.  His body is for sure, but his face is a mystery.

I thought you might be enchanted by the story of the boy that lived!