Dr. Harkewicz was born in Newark New Jersey. Although a large city, I always had a collection of odd and unusual pets as a kid, including a Capuchin monkey! By the age of eight, I was already into breeding and selling some reptile species to local pet shops and collectors.

 I received a degree in Animal Sciences from the Pennsylvania State University before doing graduate work in Animal Nutrition at the Ohio State University. I received by VMD degree from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Philadelphia in 1981.

 After graduating veterinary school I did a 20 month post-doctorate externship in wildlife medicine in Queensland Australia, working with small marsupial populations and reptiles and amphibians.

 After marrying my wife and I moved to the Bay Area in 1985, where I have worked as an exotic animal veterinarian ever since. I have been with the Berkeley Dog & Cat Hospital since June of 1997.

 In addition to working on primarily non-domestic species at Berkeley Dog & Cat Hospital, I also am involved as an officer and chair of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians  (http://arav.org), and am a consultant to the Veterinary Information Network (http://vin.com) for reptiles and amphibian medicine, care, and surgery. VIN is a collection of over 20,000 veterinarians worldwide. I also give lectures on reptile and amphibians at University of California, Davis, as well as local and nationwide herptile clubs and associations. I have also had multiple papers and book chapters published on the same subjects.

 I live with my wife in Crockett, Ca. Our "kids" include 1 large Bull mastiff, 7 cats, 4 parrots, 9 exotic tortoises, and some 200 plus assorted reptile,amphibian, and invertebrate pets.

 My hobbies(when I have time) are gardening, gourmet cooking, science fiction reading, and animals in general.