We have lived on Yonge Street, two houses from the southern boundary of Point Loma High School, since 1988. In February 2000, we brought home an eight-week-old yellow Labrador retriever, naming him Harley.
For the next six and a half years, Harley established himself as the “community dog” of Yonge Street. Every morning he would sit on our front lawn, greeting the Point Loma High students as they parked and walked to school. Many of them stopped to play with him: they knew his name, but not ours.
Harley wandered far and wide, acquainting himself with our neighbors and their pets and scoring “treats” from many of our neighbors. He always returned home (never missing a meal) and worked the Yonge Street block party in August masterfully. Somehow, he would convince our neighbors that he hadn’t eaten in weeks, earning many burgers in the process.
He was also quite an athlete, walking eight miles each morning with my wife, Tina, and frequently running up to five miles with me on weekends. He particularly liked to cool off in the stream at the Bali Hai restaurant.
To teach Harley to fetch our paper, we would give him a treat when he’d bring us a copy of The Beacon. At times, we’d find six copies of the Beacon on our front porch, and had to scramble to redistribute them to our neighbors. He had no enemies and loved to accompany us to Mammoth Mountain, where he could be found fetching a stick until your arm fell off. Dog Beach was another of his favorites. Despite the fact that, like all Labs, he loved water, he somehow hated getting a bath.
As you can tell from the fact that I refer to him in the past tense, Harley is no longer with us. On July 11, he was on a walk with Tina on Warden Street at 5:30 in the morning. When he pulled away from her to chase a cat, he was hit by a speeding car and killed instantly. We feel as though we have lost a member of our family. The expressions of sympathy from our neighbors “” and even strangers “” has overwhelmed us and has given us comfort in this time of loss.
There is a lesson in this story. Many people walk their dogs and their children on our streets at all hours of the day. One speeding driver can end the life of a beloved pet or, God forbid, a small child. When you drive our streets, slow down and be observant of pedestrians and their younger companions. You do not want to feel like the young woman who ended Harley’s time on Earth because she was in a hurry.
Many of you looking at the picture accompanying this article will recognize Harley. We ask that you honor his memory by driving extra carefully in our neighborhoods. One careless moment can cause immense heartache. Careful driving will make our streets safer for all of us. If Harley’s story causes just one person to slow down, then he did not die in vain.
” Dennis Atchley has been a resident of Point Loma since 1988.