Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Rescue Round Up, Year in Review

I'm wasn't sure why I had never done a year-end post showing each dog we fostered throughout the year, but I figured it out last night when I sat down and went through each post from 2019 looking for new foster dogs. It was rather tedious but also sort of fun, and even a little surprising when I realized that I had already forgotten a few of them.

I came up with 24 dogs, plus the 12 puppies. Here they are, in alphabetical, not chronological order, because I don't want to go through all the posts again to arrange them in order.

Angel

Cash

Cheese!

Chester

Chloe

Chrome

Cinderella

Coco

Della the Indomitable, Ally of Serena, Mother of the Dozen Danes, Midnight Slayer of Rabbits,
Canine Mother of the Year.

Diamond

Diesel

Disney

Galaxy

Kaiser

Kami

Karma

Lily

Mercedes

Mila

Panic

The 12-pack (left to right): Allagash, Modello, Chimay, Paulaner, Stella, Carlsberg,
Guinness, Peroni, Killian, Sierra, Abilta, and Duvel.

Della and puppies, once again.


Reka

Tank I

Tank II


Zeus


It was a full and eventful year.

Monday, December 30, 2019

Rainy Day Run

Most dogs around here are content to stay indoors on a rainy day. Not Della. Serena will go out the front door and run around to the back, ready to come in. Maya sees the rain, does her business, and will settle down to sleep the day away until the sun returns. I set about doing some indoor tasks that are perfect for a rainy day. But Della kept coming up to me and giving me "the look."

Me: It's rainy outside.
Della: I don't care. You need to take me outside.
Me: It's wet and muddy.
Della: I gave you 12 puppies.
Me: Just wait, it might stop later.
Della: Serena wants to go too. You need to take us. I want to do something fun.
Me: We'll all get wet and track mud into the house.
Della: 12 puppies.
Me: Ok, let's go.

It was Della, Serena, Theo, and the two fosters, Tank and Kami. There was a break in the rain, but still. The Danes don't get as wet as shepherds running over wet ground. They are higher off the ground, so the splash back doesn't soak the fur on their underbelly nearly as bad. With a shepherd, that fur on the under side just collects as much water as it can hold and then brings it back inside to leave a nice wet spot wherever they lay down for the rest of the day.

It was the first pasture run for Tank and Kami. They both enjoyed it, especially Kami, who has probably never had that degree of freedom to run and play.


























Saturday, December 28, 2019

The 12-Pack Walk

This walk was originally scheduled for Sunday, but rain is also scheduled for Sunday, so we did it on Saturday instead. Six of the puppies made it - Stella, Mo-Dean (Allagash), Bodhi (Modello), Duvel, Killian, and Astro (Guinness) - along with former foster Rorschach (Galaxy) and a couple of aussies. All the pups were happy to see Della, of course, and me too, I think. They are all 90-100 pounds now and a couple of them have crossed the 100 pound mark and will soon outweigh their mother. Della went into protective mode as she always does and sounded her signal to all within the reach of her voice that her pups were under her protection. Della's protectiveness is aimed at other dogs. She was quite happy to see all the people and very much enjoyed all the attention. 
We had a very nice walk, almost three miles. I delivered a couple more of the puppy calendars to the puppy adopters and I think I'll just mail out the rest. The second shipment is due about January 9th and anyone who has indicated interest, you are on my list. 

Della and I got a surprise gift from the 12-pack this morning too - a beautiful painting of Della and each of the 12 pups. It's going to go right above my desk. I actually have several Della themed pieces to hang now, although one still needs a frame. I'll post a picture when they are all up on the wall. It will be sort of a shrine to Della, and I think she'll feel that it's appropriate and well-deserved. Della does not suffer from low self-esteem.





Bodhi is the biggest of the pack. I think he must look a
lot like his father.
Della preferred to lead but she kept an eye on all of her pups.




Della and Killian


Della and Duvel


Mo-Dean (formerly Allagash)

Rorschach (formerly Galaxy)

Nicole, who organized this walk,
with Astro (Guinness)

Della and Astro

Stella was the most excited and happy to see me.
I spent many hours holding her when she was smaller.



This is a beautiful gift that we will forever cherish.