A Full Day of Danes

It was a full day of Danes around here.

MoDean (formerly Allagash) arrived this morning to spend the day with us. He's a long, lean, handsome fellow these days and it was clear from the start that he would be no trouble. Maya had the first crack at playing with him.

I've been keeping Cinderella indoors for the most part and limiting her activity since she was spayed, but it's been a week now and she's been wanting more action. I let her out into the yard, off-leash, like I do with our big girls, Della and Serena. She just followed them around but really seemed to enjoy the space and freedom.

Later in the morning I went over to Green Dogs to pick up Chrome. He's another of the 32 Danes seized from a backyard breeder, six of which came to Green Dogs. He took Disney's place at our house after her adoption the other day. He's a nice looking dog, sighted but deaf, and he has the loud, deaf-dog bark to prove it. Cinderella needed a companion after Disney got adopted. I kept them mostly in the AC yard today but tomorrow I think I'll give them the dog yard.

Of course, with a puppy around the house, there are plenty of opportunities for puppy play time. This was the first time that we've had a pup visit where Della treated them more as a dog than a pup. They definitely knew each other and she knew she could still be Momma Dog if necessary, but he was old enough and big enough to be worthy of some actual dog-on-dog play. It was also the first time that Della didn't try to keep the other dogs away from her pup. She let everyone play with him.

It was a beautiful day and I wanted to get MoDean out to the pasture. I contacted Duvel's folks who live nearby and they came down to join us. After the two pups had played together for a bit, I brought out Della and Serena to join them. This was one of those days I was really grateful for digital photography. I can take a lot of pictures on most days, but with Great Dane puppies playing in the pasture, I would have shot a LOT of film.

After Duvel left I got back to work again for a while. Most of my work today had been done in short spurts between dog activities. After pasture time the Danes were ready for some rest anyway.

MoDean wanted to share a crate with Della.

She wanted to nap, he still wanted to play.

Clay and I then took Della to Three Notch'd Brewing Company in Charlottesville for the local release of Tommie's Beer. Three Notch'd brewed up a tasty hazelnut brown ale in honor of Tommie as a fundraiser for Richmond Animal Care & Control. I wrote about Tommie's case a while back: Showing up for Tommie. It was a shocking instance of criminal animal abuse that touched, disturbed, and moved many people. We went to visit when they had an open house honoring Tommie and took some donations because we felt the need to do something even if it wasn't much. Three Notch'd Brewing must have also felt that need and what they did will make a substantial and worthwhile contribution as well as honoring Tommie and those who tried to save him.