I snorted. 😂

An update on Leo Messi. One of the bravest street dogs I’ve come across. This was him with his leg hanging off after I caught him on the 24th July. It’s been challenging but he is making great progress(1/10)

He was so weak with blood parasites and anemia we could do anything at first. He would have bled to death during an operation. We set about rest, medicines and pain relief. But his stress became so big we had to operate after 2 weeks (2/10)

He was so weak with blood parasites and anemia we could do anything at first. He would have bled to death during an operation. We set about rest, medicines and pain relief. But his stress became so big we had to operate after 2 weeks (2/10)

We took a big calculated risk to do the operation after checking with 6 vets. They were 50/50 on if we should do it. Leo had been suffering so much we decided to push ahead. We were very relieved he made it alive. But that was only the start of it (3/10)

Despite the best care Leo couldn’t rest. His wound kept opening. He eventually had to go back to the vets and get some sedatives and be under supervision for 5 days. Poor Leo just wanted to have fun and run non stop. He didn’t understand rest (4/10)

The really good news is during this time we have fixed Leo Messi’s general health. You can see he’s at a good weight now, his parasites are fixed and his blood is perfect. Very slowly we got the leg to heal. It was infuriating for both us and Leo with hard days (5/10)

The most common question I get is “why not cut the whole leg off”. My friend Sybille who looks after him is a human doctor and has 22 disabled dogs. As she said “if you had a severed foot as a human would you want the whole leg cut off up to the groin?” This is Leo getting

The big problem is that it is a front leg and what it would do longer term to the other healthy leg. That is why we are working on a prosthesis. You can see Leo here with a prototype. This is just made out of piping to see if he’ll tolerate it. He does (7/10)

There is a huge amount of patience needed for this. Teaching a stray dog to walk again is not easy. Sybille has been doing hours with him. The 2nd hero Leo had was Claude Taylor who paid for his operation and who would like to possibly adopt Leo (8/10)

It’s early days and we’ll need a better professionally made leg and lots more training but we do live on a tropical island so it’s not easy to get everything. We won’t give up on Leo though. You can see he is starting to “understand” his new leg here in this video (9/10)

There’s 6 weeks between the photos. He was just dying slow in the jungle. He would have had to eat his own leg eventually. Leo now had his health, the makings of a new leg, friends and maybe even a home one day soon. Most importantly Leo Messi has hope again (10/10)

I’ve a lot more of Leo’s recovery on my insta. A follow there would be massively appreciated… instagram.com/niall.harbison

I’m traveling and I forgot to post the #HorrorForLibraries giveaway yesterday. 2 anthologies, 2 winners. Edited by Ellen Datlow and Michael Kelly. Details: raforallhorror.blogspot.com/2024/09/horror…

Supernatural Noir and Nightmare Carnival are both on sale for $2.99 Canada only.

Had some fun talking about tan suits, almonds, and voting with I've Had It Podcast. And listen – if you're still not registered to vote or don't know if you are, it's not too late: Visit IWillVote.com, check your status, and get it done.

We are fully getting into spooky season over here. What spooky SFF are you reading this month? bookriot.com/?p=577456

Zing!

I made a painting. For the show "Wow^2" which opens today!

The Seneca Project MelissaJPeltier “Who the hell are they to tell us when and how we become moms and dads?” This how every American should feel.