Harvey started out as a foster dog too. Arriving on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec
8th 2003. He was far from immaculate!
 
He was a mere 8 months old and the messiest dog we have ever had past, or present. He pooped, pee-ed, all over the place! He romped in his poo like it was a field of flowers. Then he wanted a hug! LOL!
 
Unlike our other Danes, we know Harvey's real birth date. April 22, 2003.
 
He was purchased very young ( just 6 weeks old) as a compliment to a family with a new baby. Human babies grow very fast but Danes grow at super speed, by the time his human counterpart was learning to pull up, Harvey was twice his height, triple his weight and bored out of his mind!  Harvey had  been banished to the back yard for most of the day for the safety of the children, and possibly the sanity of the mother. The rest of his time was in a crate too small for him.
 
Harvey faired badly those first 8 months, suffering a cherry eye, broken toes, two hygromas, and a broken ankle, hygroma surgery for one side and a shoulder
cast left on too long, maybe for a broken shoulder, but we are not sure. Born with a severe case of hip dysplasia and developing a bad back from the crate size. Put him in a whole new category of special needs. He also had ongoing digestive issues from all the antibiotics and many bladder infections, and loose stools as a result.  Harvey was easy to love, but my goodness! He stunk!
 
It took some time to bring him around physically, emotionally and socially.
Harvey was so very needy and so un-socialized with both other dogs and people
that he didn't know how to act.  He just knocked people around and invaded the space of other dogs while they eliminated. What a way to make doggie friends!   He was frightfully scared of small children. Once wetting himself when he heard a small child squeal in delight and run toward him. Working with him and exposing him to small children with positive results quickly put that fear in the past and he is now as fearless in this as in everything else.

Physically he was a real mess. He had been on so much medication being in and out of vet offices for his first 8 months, his constitution was a wreck.  With one hygroma drained  before rescue with a horrible scar and the other hygroma just huge. He had a long rehab ahead. We eventually reduced the hygroma without surgery with topical treatments of DMSO and large doses of MSM on his food.  We spent months finding a food he could eat that did not give him explosive diarrhea, to no avail. We tried every kind of kibble, then raw food, but he just wouldn't eat raw. The texture was all wrong for him. He had to eat pumpkin or sweet potato at every meal to keep the diarrhea at bay.

 It was a much longer process to get him built up physically than it was teaching him how to be a dog and a family member. We found he was a very bright boy once he stopped playing with his own poo!  After living in foster care/rehab with us for a year, Harvey decided he was not leaving. He also has such on going medical issues that rescue had trouble finding the right place for him.  His hygroma put people off. As did the ugly scar from his hygroma surgery. We thought it was silly to keep trying to place him after so long with us, but we had 3 Great Danes already. We thought Harvey  might be better off with a family that just had only him to soak up the attention. In the end Harvey decided as flawed as we were that he would rather be here than anywhere else.  
 
He is a spunky dude and a fast learner. Like the smart kid in class can be a bit of back talker, and being the baby of the family he is quite spoiled actually, but Phoebe has him completely under her thumb. When the family gets too soft with Harvey she is ready to step in and correct him. Even if he thinks he is too old for it now! Harvey turned 3 in April of 2006.