Behind TV's favourite vet Dr Harry Cooper's cheerful smile lies tremendous heartache

The big read: He's Australia's favourite TV vet, but Dr Harry Cooper's cheerful smile hides tremendous heartache.

Dr Harry's love in full...

DR Harry Cooper has been welcomed into the hearts and homes of Australian TV viewers for more than 30 years, his trusty tweed cap and weathered vet's bag opening as many doors as his cheeky grin.

The chance to help each new generation with their family pets and assorted animal challenges gives him just as much of a thrill today as it did when he scored his first program Talk To The Animals back in 1993.

With his growing menagerie of 50 horses, 500 chickens, 100 ducks, 50 geese, three geckos and three dogs - including a frisky little puppy, Sassy - the Channel 7 star of Better Homes and Gardens knows he's been blessed with the love and comfort of very different families. His affection for and fascination with all creatures great and small has shaped his professional life and continues to inspire his work today.

Then there's his TV family, who have nurtured his career and supported him through the highs of 11 Logie wins and more recent lows when his marriage broke down, he battled prostate cancer (and won), then tragically lost his eldest daughter, Tiffany, to bowel cancer which had spread to her bones.

It will be two years in February since the young mother of three died.

"She battled it for 14 months, in tremendous pain over the last three or four months, and in the end it just got her,'' Dr Harry tells Switched On.

Burdened by his medical knowledge of what she was stoically staring down, he says he "knew before anybody else did'' that his 37-year-old daughter's prognosis was grim.

Complaining of aching joints when she lay down, X-rays would reveal an ugly secret.

"I asked what they could see on the X-rays and when she said, 'Oh, the report said it was a bit fuzzy around the (hip joint)' I didn't say any more. I took a big deep breath and knew what that meant,'' he says.

As Tiffany and her devoted husband explored every possible treatment option, Dr Harry privately despaired.

"I walked out on the veranda of my old house one day, looked up to the sky and said, 'Why not me, God, why not me? I'm an old bloke. I've had my days. They won't miss me. The kids need her. Why not me'?'' Cooper recalls, his voice choked with emotion.

When his "angel'' finally surrendered, Dr Harry says he leaned heavily on his older son and younger daughter, Tiffany's husband ("the greatest guy in the world,''), his TV family at Seven, but mostly his new partner and "rock'', Susan.

It was Susan who helped the grieving father honour his daughter at her funeral with the gift of her favourite flowers.

"She loved sunflowers, my daughter, and she was married with a big bouquet of them. It wasn't the ideal time for them, in February, but Susan found them in Paddy's market in Sydney. We flew down there and she'd organised a courier to meet me just outside the terminal. I went out, got three or four bunches of them and carried those sunflowers all the way to Brisbane on my lap. Only special people would help do that for you.''

At the memorial service, Dr Harry likened the joyous blooms to the impact his daughter's love had on others.

"Sunflowers were what life was all about for her. They may grow from a tiny seed, but they grow to have an enormous head, with thousands upon thousands of seeds. It's what she'd done with her life ... taken one seed and spread happiness to many, many people. She was just a beautiful girl, but obviously God needed her more than we did.''

His life of service, one with a purpose to help educate people about the care and conservation of animals, is what gets Dr Harry out of bed each day.

Get him talking about a recent bucket list trip to see the endangered orang-utans of Borneo and his enthusiasm for the subject is childlike.

He shared the trip with Susan, who now acts as his stills photographer. They captured images of the orphaned jungle babies and the adult males and female orang-utans increasingly displaced by the destruction of their natural forest habitat.

Dr Harry Cooper in Antarctica. Picture: Susan Sheeran, Channel 7

"You see these little guys, hanging on to 'mum' (human carers) and I guess what haunted me were the faces and their eyes,'' he says.

His visit will form part of a TV special early next year. A celebration of his craziest house calls will air next week.

From fluoro-dyed chooks to badly-behaved pooches, Dr Harry has tamed them all or just taken his TV audience along for the fun.

His greatest disappointments have been those house calls where the owners ask for advice and then ignore it.

Fired up, he says, "Look, I go there sometimes and spend five or six hours with these animals. I lay down some regulations and say, 'I want you to do this and take that medication, but if you don't do it and something goes wrong, don't blame me.' They get my time for absolutely nothing and if they had to pay for it, it would be $1000 an hour. If you're not prepared to do what I ask you to do, then I'm sorry ... I'm not the dog whisperer, they have to help themselves.''

The compilation will be released on DVD, with Dr Harry determined to keep practising his TV magic for as long as he can.

"Teach the children well ... it's what I've tried to do. Teach them love and understanding and respect and on top of that a responsibility for animals and I hope if they can carry that through into their adult life they will have the same respect for their fellow man as well. That has been my aim and that's what I hope to continue to do.''

Dr Harry's Craziest House Calls, Channel 7, Tuesdays, 7.30pm