WOW PET ANGELS

Feisty Fozzy Bear Harvey

What can I say about my golden cocker spaniel rescue that I named Fozzie Bear, cuz it really seemed to suit him!

This was many years ago and I was working at Linhaven home for seniors in the day program! I was responsible for going out in the minibus and picking up all the seniors in the south end of St. Catharines and Thorold while my coworker had the north end root!

Anyway, I also had to arrange the programming for my clients while they were there and one of their favorites (and mine too) was when I would bring in the lady from the humane society.

She would always have the mascot dog and usually a cat that was up for adoption.

For some reason I decided to ask her what dogs she had available at this time, and she rhymed them off.

As soon as she said a golden cocker spaniel, I said “stop right there, I am interested and will swing by after I finish work.“

Just knowing I was going to see this breed of dog brought back a wonderful memory…

When I was a child, my Dad found a cocker spaniel on his way back from work along the Canal Road, not far from where we lived on Bunting Road! The dog must have been hit by a car but thankfully was not badly injured so my Dad stopped and picked him up!

You could tell he needed a vet, and Dad contacted the Humane Society to see if anyone was looking for him. Unfortunately, nobody was, so he left his name in case someone called. Luckily for us nobody did, so after his vet trip we had a new dog that we called Jackie. Jackie and I were inseparable! I was probably about 10 years old, and he slept on my bed, and I would take him for walks along the canal.

Anyway… Back to the moment.

After my shift ended I went right to the Humane Society and adopted our new cocker spaniel. My son Josh who was a teenager at the time was very excited, as was I!!! We decided to call him Fozzie Bear because it really suited him!

We had a nice fenced in backyard at our home, so that was perfect! It took a few days for Fozzie Bear to get used to us of course, but once he did, he realized he had his forever home! Josh and I would take him for walks along the Merrit Trail right by our house, so we all really enjoyed that!

I had clients and students come to our home regularly and Fozzie was the official door greeter and of course he loved the attention.

Needless to say Fozzie Bear was a delight, not just to us, but everyone who would come by! The neighbours all loved him as well!

We were blessed to have him for a few years until it was time for him to cross over the rainbow bridge after we discovered he had a kidney issue! Anyway, that is the tale, not tail of our beloved Fozzie Bear.

Contributed by Mom Lee Harvey

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