A dog's life, honoured: 'We called her Luna, short for lunatic – she was well-named'

After the death of Luna, one of Anne Harrington’s beloved lurchers, she set up a pet commemoration service to help owners grieve, says Helen O’Callaghan

Anne Harrington and her husband, Dave Rees with dogs Luna and Seren,

THEY were her two blonde girls (originally named Hazel and Honey) and renamed Luna and Seren by Anne Harrington and her Welsh-born husband, Dave Rees.

They were lurchers, adopted by the West Cork-based couple from an animal rescue charity in 2007. “Seren is Welsh for star — that’s the name Dave wanted for her. I looked at Irish mythology and thought of naming her sister Púca, but a friend said never give a dog a name you’d be embarrassed to call from a distance!

“So we called her Luna, which means moon. It’s also short for lunatic; she was well-named,” says Anne, who has always felt “a magnetic pull” towards lurchers — a mix of sighthound (greyhound, whippet) and another breed, eg collie, terrier. “There’s something about the hairy lurchers that I just love.” 

As soon as the couple met Luna and Seren — they’d been dumped in a yard one night — they just knew they couldn’t leave them behind. “They melted my heart,” says Anne.

Anne Harrington Rees, with lurcher Flynn, adopted in 2018, pictured at Skibbereen Farmers’ Market

Luna, “a bit of a divil”, Anne describes as a one-dog ambassador for lurchers. “She was the ‘people’ dog, very outgoing. In a way, she deflected attention from Seren, who was more reticent; she’d hold back, hide behind us. But once you got to know Seren, she loved people, too. She and my sister, Mary, had a great connection.” 

Living in Timoleague at the time, the beach at nearby Courtmacsherry became a natural three-times-a-day haunt for Anne and the dogs. “To see the two of them on the beach. Did they love those waves, Seren in particular. It was an absolute joy to watch her run. Luna was more into chasing her and then coming back to us. She’d hunker down like a collie and herd Seren.” The beach was a natural draw for Anne, too, who’d been diagnosed with fibromyalgia while previously living in Wales. “Walking on tarmacked roads kills me. I find it easier on sand.”

In Wales, she’d run her own landscape business. “I loved it, but two and a half years in I got very ill. I was unable to get out of bed or drive.” When her health improved, Anne did a college course in art, though still struggling with pain and with repetitive tasks. “I struggled with pain in my shins and in my arms.” 

But West Cork beaches and the company of her beloved lurchers had a healing impact. “I love being outdoors and having the dogs brought me outside; being in the fresh air helped my head space. It’s a fantastic way to meet people — they stop and ask you about your dogs. First, you get to know their dog’s name, then you get to know the people’s names. A half-hour walk could turn into two hours.” 

Luna, supervising Anne Harrington Rees' drawing process

Then came the hot summer of 2018, and worries about why 12-year-old Luna was reluctant to go for even short walks, why she struggled to go up steps, and x-rays that gave no explanation. And then came the wrenching day when a scan showed cancer had eaten away one of Luna’s vertebrae and nothing could be done for her. Still under sedation, the vet’s advice was to not let her wake up.

“It was the hardest decision and the easiest. We didn’t want her to be in pain any longer,” says Anne. “You go there, not knowing what the problem is, you’re hoping it’s something that can be fixed — and to come away with not having her… We brought her home with Seren beside her. I think it’s important if one goes, that the other sees them dead, so it’s not you have just taken the dog, or the dog has just left.

“Through that time, I thought, ‘Am I going mad?’ People didn’t really talk about losing their animals. I wanted to talk about Luna; she was family, such a part of us. On our walks, people were used to seeing Luna and Seren together. They were almost afraid to ask – and I’d explain, and there were always tears.” 

Grief from pet loss is real, Anne knows. “It’s visceral. It’s huge. We have loved so deeply and lost so much.”

This summer she launched Luna’s Legacy, a pet commemoration design service to help people work through their grief, and to remember the life they shared with their pet. “You share stories and images of your pet with me and I create a design celebrating and commemorating your life together,” says Anne, who is also a Green Sketching trainer/ambassador – green sketching uses doodling as a tool to help us see/enjoy beauty in nature, helping us to reconnect with nature.

Anne Harrington Rees' Kelp tea towel.

Anne’s own, personal Luna-inspired artwork is a ‘kelp’ design tea-towel, created with a photo taken on Waterford’s Ballyquin Beach. Luna was in collie mode, waiting to herd Seren back to Anne and Dave – both dogs loved munching on kelp stems washed up by the tide. 

“The coastal palette came from the colours of sky, sea, sand and Luna’s coat. And it seemed right to feature kelp fronds on the design.” 

It is, says Anne, a memory of those happy days spent on the beach with her girls: Seren passed away in 2021.

• For each pet commemoration design commissioned, Anne donates five percent of the fee to animal rescue charities. She will be at Ballymaloe Craft Fair – November 17-19. Visit https://anneharringtonreesdesigns.ie/.