My Shadow

I’ve owned dogs my whole life.  Some I’ve loved immensely, some were special in their own way but I just wasn’t as close to.  Some were the kids dogs, some of them were my husband’s dog.  But then into my life entered a huge, goofy, drooling giant of a dog.  He wasn’t even suppose to be mine.  He was my daughter’s she paid for him.  I paid for the airline ticket to get him here.  She loved her puppy, I thought he was huge and loved to pee lakes in my house.  She went to school everyday and I stayed home with her moose of a dog.

The bonding process started.  Jedi was hooked.  Only on the wrong person.  Sure my daughter was cool.  She’d play with him, she’d feed him but there was this other person in his life that he soon learned he couldn’t live without.  It wasn’t suppose to happen this way.  I still find myself apologizing after over four years for stealing her dog.  I didn’t mean to, it just happened.

Along the way something else got stolen……MY HEART.  This dog has become my life.  He’s the first thing I wake up to in the morning and the last thing I see when I fall asleep at night.  Okay, there is my husband there too and I love him as well but this big goofy presence is what keeps me sane during the long days when my family is gone.

I am disabled.  I can’t work anymore and it gets lonely sitting in a house all day with no one around.  But I’m never alone.  I mean I am literally NEVER alone.  No matter where I go in the house my shadow is not far behind.  Yes I even am accompanied to the restroom by him.  Ah life has no more privacy and that is just fine by me!

One story that my husband loves to tell is the month I flew back to Maine to help my son and his wife with their first baby.  Jedi was devastated.  He sat on the couch day and night looking out the front window just waiting for me to come home.  He wouldn’t sleep in his bed, he would stay on that couch by the front door until I returned.  I remember the night I got home.  It was one o’clock in the morning and there he was sitting on the couch waiting for me.  WOW what a homecoming.   I had never felt so loved then at that moment.  His grandma was home and life could finally go on.  Ever since then it is so hard to have to leave him behind if I need to go anywhere, but I know right where I will find him when I return.

Jedi is my buddy, my best friend, someone to cry on when I am upset, someone to laugh at when he does goofy things like try to bark and sound intimidating with a giant stuffed hedgehog in his mouth.  He makes these days just a little bit brighter like all of our furry friends do.  Yet he is so much more to me then just a dog.  So much more then any other dog I have ever owned has been to me.  He is one of the greatest blessings I have ever received, along with my family of course.

Everyday I find myself thanking God for this special blessing in my life.  And maybe God doesn’t want to hear it but everyday I say a prayer that Jedi will be blessed with a longer then average life….heck I’ve even prayed that maybe somehow he could be immortal, but I know that is just a dream.  I have to learn to enjoy every second that I have with him.  Great Dane’s lives are way too short.  I will be lost when he is gone but I will also have the cherished memories of the times we had together.  And God willing those times will continue for several more years.

Help, They’re everywhere!!!

What is it with my mom?  Seems like there is always something new and furry invading my space.  This time its really bad.  Four kittens!!! Okay, I admit it was worse, there were five but the really scary one went to live somewhere else.

Mom says that the kittens are foster kittens whatever that means.  All I know is that they run around like crazy and I can’t chase them.  They sneak up on me, sniff my bone and I can’t growl at them and worst of all they lay on me and I can’t make them go away!!!

This is suppose to be my house, my couch and my mom and I don’t want to share!  Now there’s a nasty rumor that the one that really likes to snuggle with me is staying.  Please tell me it isn’t true!  Hey wait, he’s kind of warm and he does make this funny vibrating noise that seems to comfort me……..hmm, maybe this kitten thing isn’t so bad after all.  I’ll keep you posted.

The things people say when you own a Great Dane….

Okay so if you have ever owned a Great Dane you will understand the rantings of this post.

I am always amazed by some of the comments people say when you own a Great Dane.  I think the best one I ever heard was from an older southern man who asked me, “That thing got Dane in it?”  Uhhh YEAH!  He then proceeded to tell me that he use to race them.  Umm, maybe you are talking about a Greyhound?  But you learn to laugh it off and just continue on your merry way.

The worst, most common and rediculous comment that Great Dane owners constantly hear is, “You should put a saddle on that thing.”   Uh, last time I checked it is a dog, not a horse.  Yes he is actually from Littlehorse Great Danes but he has never and will never wear a saddle.  And no my grandchildren, although they love him, do not ride on him.

No his ears don’t stand up but that doesn’t mean he’s not a Dane.  I don’t have to own acerage to house him.  He curls quite comfortably up in the corner of my couch.  It’s amazing how small Great Danes can make themselves.  And except for being a HUGE bedhog when his dad leaves in the morning I really never even notice how big he is.

So there it is.  If you want tons of love, tons of drool, loyalty to end all loyalty and a life long addiction get a Dane.  Oh yeah, no saddle needed!

 

Hello world!

Welcome to my Great Dane blog.  I am owned by my best friend Littlehorse Jedi Knight or Jedi for short, although there is nothing short about him.  Jedi is a 3 year old Mantle Great Dane and I never knew I could love anything as much as I love this big, goofy puppy!  You haven’t been loved until you have been loved by a Great Dane.

If you have had the pleasure of being owned by a Great Dane then you will completely understand the title of this blog.  If you haven’t let me explain.  You see Great Danes have HUGE lips!  And the best part about Dane lips is that they hold enormous amounts of slobber.  Sticky, hairy, slimey slobber and that slobber seems to fling everywhere when they shake their heads, which they do quite often!  Therefore the title of this blog and the predicament I find myself in daily.  The battle of the slobber, it’s on the walls, it’s on the furniture, it’s is magnetically attracted to the big screen tv and oh yes it is even on the ceiling!

And how does one battle the slobber?  Well basically you don’t.  It is what it is.  It’s life with a Great Dane and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  As I sit here begining this blog Jedi is sound asleep next to me snoring away and yes, they snore just like humans but that’s a whole other post.  So sit back and enjoy the ride.  This is my life with a Great Dane and I am happy to share it with you!