Pet Spotlight: Harper (RIP) and her best friend Willow of Middletown

By:  | March 7, 2025 |  Pet Celebs |  Middletown

Editor’s note: We received a Pet Celebs submission from a local Middletown resident who explained to us that her daughter’s dog Harper (who happened to be best friends with her own dog Willow) had recently passed away. In Harper’s memory, we would like to present a short Q&A with her grandma, Anna.

Community Magazine: How did your daughter come to acquire Harper? What is her story?

Anna: She had moved into her new apartment and possibly missing the two cats at home that we had adopted and decided she wanted to adopt a pet of her own. In 2014, she looked through the rescue sites and  came across See Spot Rescued, an agency in north Jersey. There was a pic of Harper sitting on a sofa with what looked like a smile on her face. She was skinny, somewhat scrawny, with a dull coat. She was found tied to a pole in West Virginia in the winter and she was brought to a nice foster home hoping for adoption. My daughter sent me the pic, said she wanted her, and started the adoption process. After she came to live at her fur-ever home she changed. Bright eyes, shiny coat, playful, so full of love and attached to my daughter. She would sit in her room in the kitchen window and watch the driveway waiting for my daughter.  She would get all excited, bark, spin around, jump down from the window and go running to the door to greet her.

CM: Harper and Willow had a special bond. How did they become friends, and did they always get along?
 

A: They don’t live in the same house and Harper had been around longer than Willow. Harper was always visiting at my house and I always took care of her when my daughter was away. I only rescued Willow in August of 2023 so there was some adjusting for both of them. We started walking them together every morning. Willow is a rambunctious Chorkie but after a few walks they just started walking nicely together with one stopping and waiting while the other stopped to sniff or investigate something. If my daughter left her house first, Harper would head straight over to my house and wait for Willow. If I left my house first, Willow would head straight over to my daughter’s house to wait for Harper. Now that Harper is gone, Willow still runs over hoping she  will come out to play.

CM: What is your favorite memory of Harper?
 

A: This is such a difficult question for either of us to answer. Harper was on a very careful diet but she still loved trips to Dunkin Donuts even though she didn’t get any treats. She loved sitting in her room (which was the bow window in the kitchen) enjoying the sun and watching the neighbors. She loved trips to Lowes and Home Depot, playing in her yard, sunning on her little chair on the patio or by the firepit on nice summer nights. She loved walks through the neighborhood with Willow, and for a little girl she just seemed regal in the way she walked. Her front paws pointed slightly outwards, and I told her she had little ballerina feet. Some people don’t look at pets as “real” family members, but they are so dependent on us just like a child. Just because you don’t have to make sure they go to school, you don’t have to teach them how to drive and you can’t deduct them on your taxes doesn’t make you love them any less. She was my little granddog but she was my daughter’s child.