FROM AUGUST 2014
Saving Sid
A respected vet is accused of using
his patient as a dog blood bank
SPONSORED BY EGGLESTON KING, LLP
STORY BY MARSHA BROWN
PHOTO BY STEVE SCHILLIO
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who wanted a dog that would resemble and symbolize the lion that graced the town’s crest. He really does
resemble a lion, a very sweet lion.
“When we first got him back he was so thin,” Marian
said. Sid looked up at her and he groaned again. He
seemed to agree with her statement. At that point Jamie
Harris, Marian’s husband, joined us. Sid was obviously
pleased at this new development. Still he seemed to cling
to her. After all, Marian was the one who went into the
bowels of the Camp Bowie Animal Clinic, maneuvered
around a male vet tech who was the size of a football
player, and got Sid out of his cage, through the door,
outside, into her van and back to the life he’d had before
he was caged around the clock and used as a one-dog
blood bank. Sid seems to know that Marian was his
savior.
Of course, Jamie created a distraction at the front desk
while Marian went to find Sid. It wasn’t difficult to find
him. Marian had been told exactly where Sid would be.
The directions were perfect.
“She saw him first,” Jamie said. “He certainly came
with us very easily; he jumped in the car on his own.”
This came as a surprise to Marian, since the last time
she had seen Sid the big dog wasn’t able to walk on his
own. That was the day she’d said good-bye to Sid, thinking his vet was about to euthanize him because the dog
had an agonizing congenital back defect that was only
going to continue to deteriorate.
For Marian, that week had been one of the worst of
her life. Besides being faced with the decision of eutha-
DECEMBER 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
hen Jamie and Marian Harris were advised to put
their 4-year-old dog down by their trusted vet, they
took his advice. After all, he had taken care of their pets
for the past 25 years.
They tearfully bid farewell to Sid and entrusted their
vet to handle the rest, professionally, gently.
Six months later, a woman called them to say Sid was
alive, being used as a living blood bank.
Here’s their story.
Sid is a survivor, but he also is clearly a gentle, trusting soul who finds himself at the center of a heated
controversy, through no fault of his own.
If the allegations made by Sid’s family against his
veterinarian are true, Sid has spent nearly a year in filthy
incarceration, enduring treatment akin to torture. Yet, he
manifests no signs of bitterness, anger or aggression. Sid
is in fact loyal and makes friends easily. That’s probably
what makes his story so very heartbreaking.
I met Sid with his family. He was taking it easy, recuperating from back surgery and the trauma of the past
year. The Harris home is a lovely, peaceful country home
near Aledo. Marian Harris answered her door and invited
me in. I’m greeted with a fragrance of rosemary, cinnamon, polished wood and sunshine. The Harris home has
the feel of a happy one.
Sid is lounging on the hardwood floor in front of a
vast fireplace – there’s no fire in it, of course, it’s summer,
but clearly this is the big guy’s favorite spot. This would
be a great place to recover after having lived through
what Sid has endured over the last few months.
Marian leaves the room for a moment. Sid’s eyes
follow her. He groans when she is out of sight. She has
gone to the kitchen to retrieve a small cotton pillow that
smells of herbs. She sits down on the floor and holds the
pillow to the new surgery scar on Sid’s back and explains
it’s to help with the swelling.
Marian is a petite woman who stands about 5’1”. Her
dog seems to outweigh her by at least 70 pounds and he
is still underweight. She runs her fingers through the fur
on Sid’s head and a contented groan comes from deep in
his throat. He seems to smile.
Sid is a Leonberger, a giant dog breed. When he
was at the top of his game Sid weighed just over 180.
The breed’s name comes from the city of Leonberger in
Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Legend has it that the
Leonberger was bred at the behest of the town’s mayor
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