Dr Harry, Zoe’s hero, stood at the top of the steps as we arrived. He looked just like he did on TV. Blue shirt, cream pants and a cheesecutter hat.

“Hello” he said. “I can see a little girl. And she’s wearing a cap, just like Dr Harry. And I bet her name is Zoe.”

As Zoe walked towards him he crouched down and spoke to her for a minute, asking questions to which the replies were mostly shy nods. When he asked for a hug she threw herself into his arms.
Then he stood up, she put her hand in his and they walked together into the house, just like something off TV.

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At 3, Zoe found the overnight change from full on full time daycare girl to housebound chemo kid hard to adjust to. The sudden change to all of her routines and the scary reality of medical procedures really rocked her little world. The doctors, nurses and play therapist all did their best to help her adjust, but the unlikely hero who really helped her come to terms with it all was an Australian TV vet in a cheesecutter hat.

Dr Harry is the star of Harry’s Practice and more recently a vet segment on Better Homes & Gardens. His bedside manner is calm and reassuring.

In the depths of that horrid winter, Zoe watched re-runs of Harry’s Practice religiously at 5 O’clock every day to see him deal with run over dogs and sneezy mice and cats with tumours and ponies with behavioural problems. Continue reading →