Life with Great Danes
It’s an adventure a minute with these gentle giants
My mom grew up in a crowded Philadelphia row house with a multi-generational family of grandparents, aunts, great aunts and her parents. She begged to have a dog, but due to the tight quarters and lack of outdoor space she was only allowed to have a black and white cat, Bootsie.
But once she married my dad and got a little house of her own all bets were off! And she didn’t want just any dog, she wanted a Great Dane :)
So Holly joined our family when I was 4. Like all Great Danes she was a gentle giant, easy going and fun to play with. But she was also a good protector for Mom and me when Dad was away on his Navy deployments. Just one loud, deep woof from her would send any potential intruders running in terror.
Sadly, we lost Holly after she gave birth to a litter of 6 puppies. She got stomach bloat and the vet couldn't save her. It was a devastating loss for everyone in my family, especially my Mom, but taking care of her puppies was a full time job and helped us to work through our grief.
Raising a litter of Great Dane puppies is fun, but lots of hard work. They grow fast and we had to feed them by hand since they were so young.
There were lots of comic moments —
I had a white Persian kitten, Puff, who liked to play with the puppies. She was the alpha, which was hysterical since she was so tiny, but they adored her. She would sleep with them as they all cuddled together at night in their playpen with her perched like a princess on top of the pile.
It got even funnier, when the puppies got bigger and Puff would run under the coffee table and they tried to follow her and got stuck with the table sitting on their backs like a turtle’s shell. They were astonished that they weren’t as small as Puff, because they all thought they were cats too!
We also learned to hide our shoes and toys if we didn’t want them chewed up and to not leave any food on the table. One Thanksgiving some turkey legs mysteriously went missing with only the bones left behind as evidence.
We went on to have many more Great Danes in our life probably 6 or more. I lost count :)
My Mom liked to train and show her dogs and would take us to all the competitions. I wasn’t too interested in this activity, which usually found me reading a book in the stands. But I learned a lot from watching how she trained them and how they trained us too.
If you are thinking about getting a Great Dane as a pet, make sure you’re up for the job. They’re really big and a little clumsy sometimes, so if you’re a super clean freak you may want to go with a smaller breed.
They also attract a lot of attention when you walk them with people stopping their cars to gawk and ask, “Is that a pony or a dog?”
But if you want a big hunk of love, a loyal friend and source of endless fun, a Dane may just be for you. Just be sure to hide your shoes and turkey legs :)
Key Message: Life is so much richer with pets. Dogs offer us their unconditional love and inspire us to do the same.
Do you have funny stories about Great Danes? Please share in comments.
Linda Locke is a writer and mentor/teacher. She lives in Southern California in Ventura County by the Coast with her husband and lots of books.
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