Happy Dogs

Former foster Krypto. With those ears and that
lab smile, he always looks happy.

Just some recent pictures of happy dogs. Happy Friday!

Sweet Serena with all the toys she could find.

Serena with former fosters Felix and Chester.

Serena took a while to settle down when we visited Felix
and Chester because she didn't have a spot in their house.
She finally found her spot.

This is Serena's good morning wake up call. There's no snooze
button to hit. It's time to get up, period.

Della is my latest kitchen helper. She's managed to find a
spot where she can block my access to the sink, the stove,
and the only bit of clear counter top work space.

Remember that picture of Della and
Serena looking out the door? Here's
the two of them looking in.
They have become good friends.

Pan has got to be in the running for being the
happiest dog on the planet. Both ends of this dog
just exude happiness and joy.

Pan still needs a home. He's the easiest dog to have around.
He will crate. He's good both on and off leash.
He loves people.

I knew this would happen. The biggest dog in our house in the smallest bed in our house.
It's Maya's bed, but Maya was in the giant Dane crate chewing on their toys so I couldn't
object to Della trying out the new bed even if it really is too small for her.

Maya's hike

Maya thinks there's been entirely too much attention paid to girl dogs other than her lately. Her nose is a little out of joint so I've been doing some extra snuggling with her, protecting her coveted spot under my desk from intruders, and this afternoon she was the only girl dog invited on the hike.

This was the first trail turtle we saw today.

I can let the Danish girls out into the yard during the day to run around. Maya's only real exercise comes from our walks and between her foot problem and my laziness we haven't been walking a lot lately. Her foot seems to be better and late this afternoon there were clouds and breeze that made for pretty decent hiking conditions. I took Maya, Pan, and Theo out for a three miler. 

Pan really is excited about the walking and he needs it for the same reason that I do, to lose weight. Maya needs the activity and stimulation. Theo just likes to go.

Three dogs on a narrow trail.

We had a good walk and even spotted four or five deer right at the end. Maya's foot does seem much better, although I still catch her licking it from time to time.

Most of the time Maya falls back into this
spot about a half step behind me. I don't have
to worry about her even though I can't see her.

Turtles surprise the dogs, who don't seem to
understand them. The dogs are on top of them
before I know what's going on, but they don't
leave more than a nose print on the shell.

The undergrowth is really lush and green this year.

We jumped off one of our regular hiking trails to take a
detour via the new disc golf trail. 

The leashes are very taut here, because we had just seen the
deer cross the road in front of us.

This is Maya's spot under my desk while I'm working.
I gave her a new bed for the spot. It's too small for the bigger
dogs but a good fit for her if she curls up. 

Della is pregnant

I can't say that I'm really surprised. There were too many signs pointing to it to be surprised at the news that Della is pregnant with at least eight puppies gestating inside her. I took her to the vet this afternoon and the vet pretty much confirmed it with just a glance, but they also took some xrays.

On the way to the vet Tuesday afternoon.

No, I'm not overjoyed at the prospect of puppies. Yes, there is nothing cuter in this world than a puppy. But the world is not short of dogs already. Having puppies means that it will be months before Della can be spayed and ultimately adopted. It's not clear when she will be due. The xrays didn't show full development but she seemed to be producing some milk already, giving contrary signals as to a likely delivery date. And of course we don't know if the pups are healthy and there's plenty of room for doubt given the fact that we don't know anything about her level of care until she arrived here on Sunday. More xrays will be taken in a week to hopefully narrow down a due date. 

She climbed up on the bench in the lobby at the vet's office.
She may have been nervous but I was more so.

The other thing I hate is needing to move her to another foster home. She has really bonded with me but we are not set up to keep a dog with a newborn litter and I know next to nothing about how to help her should the need arise. And then there's the cost. Nothing involving a Great Dane is cheap. The rescue is going to take a hit, there's no doubt about it.

The good news here is that she was sweet with everyone at the vet's office, passing out kisses freely and letting them handle her for examination and xrays.

She weighed 121 pounds, more than I expected.

Looking up at me when we got the news.

She was sure happy to be leaving and
heading back home. She tried to climb
over the crates and join me in front.

Walking Pairs

It was a hot, humid, and wet weekend. I didn't get outside to walk until Monday. I just did a series of three short walks with three different pairs of dogs.

Serena and Pan were chomping at the bit, probably the most eager to go so they went first. Pan has really gotten into the walking routine around here and he likes it. He's gobbling up his cup of dry food and half a can of green beans twice a day. That's got to be lot fewer calories than his previous pizza diet, and combined with the walking, and his youthful metabolism, I expect the pounds will begin dropping off of him quickly. I wish I could say the same for me.

The second two miler today was the two Danish girls, Serena and Della. The two of them get along pretty well and I figured a walk together would help solidify their friendship. Della enjoyed the walk but the heat and humidity were intense out there around noon. We did the same two miles and actually took a bit of shortcut on the way back.

I'm pretty sure Della must have been an only dog. Her dog-on-dog skills aren't great but she's getting a crash course around here and she's doing better each day. She is bonded to me already, which has caused a couple problems with Maya. Della jumped into bed, making me think that she's done that before and that makes me think she must have been an only dog, because no one would likely have a Great Dane and another dog in bed at the same time.

I waited until early evening for the third walk, working it in between afternoon thunderstorms. I wanted to do a short one miler to bring my own total to five miles for the day. Trooper and Maya were the perfect pair for this walk. Both wanted to go. Trooper doesn't need more than a mile in this heat and it was the first time I've had Maya out hiking since whatever happened to her foot. She has still been licking it some, but it seems better and she's not limping or even favoring it anymore. Maya had seen me take other dogs out for walks earlier in the day and had expressed her disapproval by moving around a few items in the kitchen while we were gone. That was her way of saying that she was ready to go walking again.