Farewell, Sweet Serena

I met her when she arrived at Green Dogs, after dark one night back in 2018. She was understandably scared, being handed over to strangers at that time of night. All I remember was that the young couple who surrendered her said that they had saved her from a bad situation, but she put them over their allowable limit of dogs and was not an easy one to hide. 

She growled at me a bit at first, just to say that she was scared, but once we got her home she was soon quite comfortable with us. We took her out to some places (breweries) for socialization, and she handled it all very well, but it was clear that she was happiest at home, although she did enjoy going out for a hike. The name "Sweet Serena" was aspirational in part given her initial distrust of strangers, but she soon lived up to it. 

Serena was always good with all the dogs around here and she would engage in play with even the smaller fosters, at least until Della came along and monopolized her time. When Della arrived on the scene she decided that she and Serena were best friends. Serena accepted and tolerated that, perhaps recognizing that Della might not be the best at making friends with other dogs. But Della was a good and loyal friend to Serena too. I remember one time when we were in the pasture. Theo and Serena both wanted the big red ball but Theo got it first. Della ran at Theo, hit him with a body slam and knocked the ball out of his mouth so Serena could grab it. Della looks out for her friends.

One thing you hear a lot from people who don't have Danes is that they couldn't have one because they don't live so long. That may be true, but the pain of losing them is the same whether you have them for four or fourteen years. We don't really know how old Serena was; we only had her for about four years. But as I stroked her soft fur this afternoon, I felt lucky to have shared any part of her life with her, but especially her last four years. 

She had kind of a goofy running gait that was fun to watch and she

clearly enjoyed herself when she was running. Della has a very different

gait, but the two of them playing together was a thing of beauty.

When we were walking, Serena's head often appeared under my hand so 

we could maintain body contact as we walked. 

These two girls were good for each other.

These two pictures, above and below, were shortly after we got Serena and

were taking her out places. She was fine with it, but she really liked to be at home.

This is my last picture of the two girls sharing a crate, taken today.

Della knew she wasn't well, but she wanted to be with her.

It seems that I've said goodbye to a lot of dogs when this saucer magnolia was in bloom.

It was just starting to come out today.