Why Did We Bring Home a T-Rex?
So we have this crazy household, between us, the kids, and the animals we are always cleaning something up. Our pet food bill alone could support a small third world nation, never mind what we spend on toys, supplies, and vet bills. So who's crazy idea was it, that we needed another dog? I confess, it was me. Hey, they say the first step is admitting you have a problem. It's a start right?
Last year, we had to say good-bye to our beautiful sweet St. Bernard, Teddy after 14 wonderful years with him. It was heart wrenching and painful, but he was ready and he'd had a wonderful life. We have always had two dogs at a time because we think they keep each other company when we can't. But last year I couldn't even think about getting another dog, Teddy wasn't replaceable and we needed to grieve.
Fast forward a few months, I started thinking that maybe Sugar was lonely. The puppy commercials were catching my eye a little more. I saw people on Facebook posting their puppy pics and I started longing for puppy breath and wriggling bodies. But it was winter and I never think it's a good idea to get a puppy in the winter because I don't like to be outside when it's cold and I surely didn't want to worry about housebreaking in 12 degree weather standing outside in 2 feet of snow.
Around February I finally had Chuckie convinced that it was time to start looking, litters are often sold before they're even born. We knew we wanted another Great Dane and that it had to be a girl. We couldn't agree on coat color. I knew I wanted a Harlequin, Chuckie wanted another Merle, like Sugar, and Justice was very vocal about wanting a black. See, Justice is very practical and he likes to wear dark clothing and he figured black fur wouldn't require 10 minutes of lint rolling just so you look reasonably presentable. I figured that we would look (mostly meaning me) and we would know which was the right pup for us whatever color the coat. And I also figured that since I would be doing the majority of the looking I could look a little harder for that Harlequin I wanted.
It took months of looking (that's another story) but in April I found a litter only 2 hours away that had a little Harlequin girl. They were 3 weeks old, and once I saw her first picture I was in love, I showed her to Chuckie and Justice. I had been showing them pictures of pups for weeks but LeeLoo's picture made them both smile, and I knew she was ours.
I made a deposit with PayPal and the next day we took a road trip to meet our new baby. On the way we talked about Chuckie naming her, he's not crazy about my naming skills. We got there and LeeLoo's mom greeted us at the door, with that goofy happy look only Great Danes can have. That's a great sign, it means temperament is good which is so important when you're bring home a puppy that's going to outweigh you. I walked into the dining room and the breeder put LeeLoo in my arms. She licked my nose (ahhh, puppy breath), then she made those sweet puppy grunts (I was seriously considering sticking her in my jacket and running), then she started settling in my arms (I knew I couldn't take her away from momma yet, but I'm sure the breeders wouldn't mind if I just camped out in their house for the next few weeks.) Ah but I knew I was going to have to leave this sweet darling who had me wrapped around her paw in less than 30 seconds. The breeder and I talked about Great Danes, she was thrilled that I was already an experienced and knowledgeable owner (Giant breeds, are unlike any other dogs and have different needs and requirements) once she was satisfied that puppy would be coming to a good home, she offered to let us pick puppy up at 6 weeks instead of 8.
[Now I know most state laws say a puppy can't be sold before 8 weeks, because even though they're weaned it's during that time they're learning socialization skills I get it, I understand it, but I've gotten every puppy except one at 6-7 weeks and my dogs have always been excellent, well behaved and healthy. So if you're mad at us for agreeing to take her early I'm sorry, it's been nice sharing part of LeeLoo's story with you, and if it makes you feel any better you can skip the next few posts about LeeLoo's first 2 weeks with us and start up on her 8 week old birthday. ]
So Chuckie was ready to go, he gets antsy really quickly and he's one of those guys who when it's time to go, is in the car waiting before you can even say your good-byes. I was so excited only 3 weeks to wait for my baby to come home. We spent most of the car ride home discussing all we needed to do for puppy's arrival. Supplies, puppy-proofing, and a name. Chuckie smiled and told me he already had a name picked out but he wasn't going to tell me until we picked her up, because who knew he may decide the name doesn't fit since I pretty much hogged her the whole time we met her. (Listen I didn't hog her, I let him and Grandma hold her. I have pictures to prove it!)
Three weeks, she was coming home on May 13, 2016.
It only took me a week of wheedling to get the name out of him although it was tough! LeeLoo, as in "LeeLoo Dallas Multi-pass" from the movie 5th Element! It's one of our favorite movies and that's got to be my favorite line. It was perfect. I loved it, until people on Facebook started suggesting names (we didn't share the name he picked, it was going to be a surprise) on my puppy update photos from the breeder that I shared on Facebook. I even started to like the idea of Harley Quinn (from Batman) since she's a harlequin, but Chuckie stood firm it was going to be LeeLoo unless it just totally didn't fit her.
The three weeks drug on but at the same time flew if that makes any sense. I'm a substitute teacher and my long term was ending on May 6th. I told the school I would be unavailable for 2 weeks following that but agreed to work the last 4 days of school. So the first week I worked, and believe me teaching 9th graders Algebra for an hour and a half each period keeps you busy and exhausts you so that week pretty much flew even though I was excited. The following week I was done work and it was time to start puppy proofing. The previous Saturday I had done my living room's spring cleaning so it was good. Well Chuckie and I are procrastinators so we had done the game room and dining room easily there really wasn't much that needed doing. But the kitchen, our safe room for her (tile floors, clean up a lot easier than carpet) was going to need a lot, well we were picking LeeLoo up on the 13th around 11 p.m. on the 12th we had to get our butts in gear and get started. It got done, and we could start our trip to pick her up without any worries.
Oh my gosh, the day had finally arrived our baby was coming home. That morning I needed to go to the bank and pick up a money order to pay the balance (I watch enough court shows that I knew I needed to have proof of payment) I was nervous, I was so excited but I was nervous you see I'm a worrier and I worry about everything. First I started worrying that it was insane to pay $1600 for a dog, especially when there are so many dogs out there that need rescuing. Then I started worrying what if something went wrong at the bank, I mean there are computer errors and such what if I didn't have enough money in the bank. Then what if there is something wrong with the puppy, then what if Sugar hates her, or even worse tries to eat her. Before I knew it, it was time to make the journey. The breeder texted me and said she would have her all bathed up and ready. I had a new set of worries, what if the car broke down, what was that smell is the car over heating, I was set, I definitely had 2 hours worth of things to worry about that weren't puppy related! Justice was taking the trip with us, it had become a tradition he was with us when we picked up Teddy, he was with us when we picked up Sugar, and now he would be there for LeeLoo too.
We got there and they were waiting for us on the porch. My baby, OMG, she was tiny. Sugar wasn't ever this small was she? I had forgotten that they are still teeny tiny at 6 weeks, it took looking at pics of Sugar at 7 weeks to convince myself that she wasn't a dwarf.
She was skin and bones, her little hip bones were sticking out, you could feel her ribs. Her paperwork from the breeders vet said that she had her first series of shots, her first dewormer and weighed 6.4 pounds. I started worrying again what if she's sick, but honestly I didn't care at that point, she had an appointment with my vet the next day and I trust Doc to make her well if she was sick, I loved her even more because I felt like she needed me. The breeder said she hadn't fed her all day and only gave her a little bit of water so she didn't get sick on the car ride home, maybe that was part of the problem. I wasn't sure how much puppies burn off in a short period of time, but it didn't seem like that much was possible.
I put her in the backseat with Justice, but she was scared to death because of the car, she was trying to climb him and couldn't get settled which made Justice nervous so I offered to take her (big sacrifice on my part right...). I held her like a baby and crooned to her and finally she fell asleep. She slept the first hour, but when we passed a rest stop we figured we'd better stop in case she had to pee we had 45 more minutes of turn pike driving. We stopped and she played with the grass, she was unsteady on her feet and fell over when she tried to run. It was the sweetest thing ever. She didn't pee or poop, but we all got to stretch our legs. She settled in the back with Justice and we finished the ride home.
It was time to introduce her to Sugar.... how in the world was Sugar going to react? We were prepared for just about anything, but really after the initial frenzied sniffing, then the Great Dane nose push (which we had to tell Sugar to be easy), Sugar just wasn't that into the puppy. She was just happy we were home after 4 hours.
I started soaking some food for her to get it softened up. I was giving her a bowl of what the breeder had been feeding, well the poor baby was starving and it was taking forever for the food to soften. She was running around Sugar's raised feeder and the dog food bin just whining. While we were waiting for the food to soften still, her Aunt Heather (my best friend) came to meet her, another tradition she has always been our puppies' first visitor. Of course she came bearing gifts, a giant rope and ball toy for Sugar and a mini one for LeeLoo. Sugar felt it was really important to make sure that the puppy didn't have access to any of the toys so she took hers and LeeLoo's into the living room and laid by the large pile of toys she had accumulated in the twenty minutes LeeLoo had been home, to protect it. Well it had been 45 minutes of the food soaking in hot water and it was still rock hard, I couldn't even break it with a spoon. It was time for plan B, I had a can of dog food. I was willing to risk the diarrhea because I couldn't stand the crying and seeing how thin she was. So I put a little on a saucer hoping to tide her over until the food was softened. Good Lord, the sounds she was making while eating, it was like she hadn't eaten in days. When she had the saucer licked clean, she started trying to eat it too. Yep, she was heartily chewing on a glass plate. So she was done, and it was time to go outside. She felt a lot better and we sat in the grass and she ran for me. Oh my gosh, it was adorable, the full speed puppy run, the ears flopping, the body clumsy, the skin wrinkles flapping, the eyes, those gorgeous eyes staring straight at you, you feel your heart melting and you extend your hands in welcome, and finally she's there and....you're screaming "OW" at the top of your lungs as she's shredding your wrist with those little needle teeth. And then I remembered that thing about puppies, they aren't small dogs, they are small vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex's. Why did I bring home a T-Rex?
