Figured we could use something besides politics. Luckily, Scout turned three today, perfect timing for a little respite. I also have a WereBear post for a quiet time this week, too.
I would have totally forgotten, but I keep in touch with her brothers and sisters, so someone reminded me. Boy, has that bear shrunk over the years (and the scarf, too).
She is absolutely the best, sweetest, and good-natured Dane. She makes me smile every day and keeps Bixby on his toes with games of tug and lots of snuggles.
November is a rough month there, Harley, Jake and Bailey all left us. But of course, that means Zander and Gabe arrived soon after. But Bailey was the hardest. Bixby was inconsolable. The entire time I was in Paris, I was checking rescue groups and putting in applications during the night, since the time difference made sleep pretty much impossible.
When I got home, none of the rescues worked out and Bixby was getting more and more despondent. I was desperate. I began looking for puppies. The chances of finding a litter seemed a long shot. And from a breeder that was responsible and caring.
Then I saw this:
And that was it. Heart fully engaged. I checked out her breeder, had a long talk with her and realized she was head and shoulders above any breeder I’d ever checked out. The next 8 weeks of videos proved I made the right choice. These dogs are spoiled, socialized, lived in her sons’ laps, and were as close to potty trained as an 8-week old puppy can be by the time Scout-a-licious arrived.
There are more photos of both pups here.
Respite open thread
zhena gogolia
Wow. Thank you. What beauties.
SiubhanDuinne
Happy birthday, Scout! Hope you get lots and lots of treats and snuggles and scritches and treats and balls to chase and treats and squirrels to bark at and Bixbies to tussle with and sticks to retrieve and treats and endless choruses of “Who’s a good girl? You are!”
Three years. Can’t believe it.
laura
Adorable spotty pup is an elegant spotty young lady.
greenergood
OMG seeing puppy pic (wearing neckerchief) next to bear, and then now!! Amazing! But please post a few pics of Gabe – one of the most beautiful felines ever (don’t tell my Cassie cat ;-) I said that). Beloved and blessed animals- that get us through human-made chaos and crises …
Baud
Puppeh!
Dan B
Wonderful doggoes to keep spirits up in the pandemic. What bright spots in 2020!
Gin & Tonic
It being unseasonably warm here, we took our dog to the beach in the afternoon, for her first time ever (most beaches here don’t allow dogs between April and October.) While she normally is enthusiastic about water, she was apprehensive about the wave action, and ran away. She also seemed to be a little annoyed that she couldn’t run as quickly in the soft sand as she normally runs in the woods. But ran around and got tired anyway, so all good.
Oh, I was able to do this because I was off today as the result of an early-morning colonoscopy, which was clean, so it’s five years until I have to do it again.
trollhattan
Puppy life is best life. What a great series of photos–birthday scratches all around!
Kristine
Lovely pupsters. Happy birthday, Scout! ?
I know that despondency. I remember how King was after his buddy, Mickey, passed, and how quickly he came around the day I brought Gaby home.
Suzanne
Scout shares her name with my black tortie kitteh girl, who is about 15 at this point. Your Scout is equally lovely. Happy birthday!
schrodingers_cat
Sweet gigantic puppies
Ms. Deranged in AZ
Happy Birthday pretty puppeh!!!!!
Seeing your doggos makes me happy. Thank you.
Joy in FL
Happy Birthday, Scout!
I love seeing photos of her and Bixby.
John Revolta
That’s a whole lotta dawg.
TaMara (HFG)
@greenergood: Last week, during all the commotion, I realized Gabe has been here TWO years last Monday. Which makes him four…and he is still full of surprises. But he loves his puppies, he and Zander are best buds and he seems to have finally settled in.
TaMara (HFG)
@John Revolta: There’s not a lot of room in my house….lol
raven
Someone is 71 too.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@TaMara (HFG): I adopt adult cats and I swear it takes a full two years before they’re certain they’re home. Mine tend to be dumped, so I have no idea about their previous lives. It just takes a while with an adult cat.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Is it your birthday? If so, have a happy!
TaMara (HFG)
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Zander was 2 and he really settled in quickly – but he’s both orange and part Maine Coon, so I think he’s more outgoing. But Gabe, wow, did I have my work cut out for me. He was relinquished because he was peeing outside the litterbox. It was, or course, just a bladder infection
But here, he’d be fine…and then just to test me, he’d pee on the bathroom rug..I think to see how I reacted. I’d pick him up, snuggle him and keep an eye out to make sure he didn’t have an infection.
We went through that several times…
MomSense
Happy birthday to Scout and
@raven:
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: For just a bit. We went to Costco for our BIG DAY!
TaMara (HFG)
@raven: Happy birthday and many days of fishing yet to come!
schrodingers_cat
@raven: Happy Birthday!
HumboldtBlue
Here’s some respite thread music.
Los Lobos on Sesame Street.
Happy Bday, raven
raven
@TaMara (HFG): I got three cards and two were fishing related! (I also got 80 facebook HBTY’s)!
raven
@MomSense:
@TaMara (HFG):
@HumboldtBlue:
Tanks
Aleta
Pictures of Bailey press hard on my heart despite never even knowing her. Cause she was stellar. “My, she was yare…” comes to mind when I see her.
Those pictures of little Scout sitting with Bixby are just the best. ?
Thanks Tamara for the boost.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Look how she’s grown! Actually, I guess you expect that with a Dane so maybe I should say look how small she is in that picture with the teddy!
greenergood
@TaMara (HFG): so glad to read this! My Cassie cat came into our lives as a rescue car 2 1/2 years ago – she’s now just over @ 10 yrs old. She was so spooked and timid at first – finally now emerging into madam-hood, ie totally ordering me around and ruling the roost, and adapting to her righteous role as our feline overlady…
mrmoshpotato
Happy birthday, kiddo!
Quantumman
Wonderful pictures. I love great Danes. We have been married 34 yrs now and had Danes the whole time. Lost our last Dane in August. At our age now we decided we could not care for giant breeds anymore. Lina had systemic lupus and got to where she could not get up on her own. Hard to pick up a 130 pound Dane and keep your back ok. So now we have a 5 pound multipoo. She is great but I miss our Danes and wolfhounds.
Comrade Colette
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Huh, that could explain a lot about Chipotle. The first 6 months with us – and our existing kitty Scoot – were such a nightmare that we thought we might have to give him up. Now, after a year and a half, things are almost normal (Chip is definitely a cat on the spectrum) most of the time.
Happy birthday to birthday peeps, human and otherwise!
raven
@Quantumman: We’re facing that. Bohdi is only 50 lbs and I had to carry him quite a bit last month when he got sick. He’s better but, at 16, we know he’s on the other side of the mountain. We’ve talked about another cocker but the two we have had have cost us thousands and thousands in vet bills. We may have to just find a small mutt.
MagdaInBlack
Such beautiful dogs. Happy Birthday, Scout !
Eta: I remember that baby picture, I turned to goo =-)
Aleta
@raven: Happy birthday! Here’s to you, to fishing luck, and timing.
Tata
Thank you for the lovely doggo pics. A bright light.
Yarrow
@raven: Happy birthday! Costco sounds like an excellent way to spend it. Too bad they can’t do the free samples during the pandemic.
Scout was so cute as a puppy. Awww…
Nutmeg again
Your dogs are just so beautiful. Looking at pictures of them is like having a dog vacation. My Murphy is getting rear-end soreness: to be expected in a big girl. And she’s 12. I have a request, if that’s the right word, for a not-baby male Newfie in at rescue. I’d probably be happiest (or Murphy would be) with a family addition who was post adolescent. As you know, teen-ager-dog-hood with a BIG boy is a thing. But I’m ready for a fella. And Murpho will only tolerate a male. Have I noted that she’s a grouchy-grumblepants? A real bitch.
TaMara (HFG)
@Nutmeg again: Oh, yes, a more settled big boy would probably be better tolerated by Murphy. When he arrives, I’d be happy to post photos.
When we fostered Baby, it was clear Bixby would need to be the only male in the house if I were to adopt another Dane.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Happy birthday! ?????
Benw
You are awesome and have awesome pups
NotMax
@raven
Have a happy.
Sidetracked by something which came up at the last minute this afternoon so had to postpone my monthly Costco run until sometime later. Score anything special on yours?
rikyrah
Happy Birthday, Scout?????
Ms. Deranged in AZ
@raven: Happy Birthday to you, to you, to you!!!!
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Comrade Colette: give your cat the full two years. I’m glad you hung in there.
Yutsano
@raven: Hap Day of Birf young’un!
TomatoQueen
@raven Happy Big Damn Birthday!
and Happy Doggie Birthday to Miss Jean Louise.
Kattails
@raven: An exceedingly happy birthday to you! May your fish mojo be perfect.
TaMara, was thinking of you a couple of weeks ago, one of my kitties had to go to the vets. So now we sit outside while the techs bring them in (I hate this, not being with my kids). Anyway a woman was walking a black and white dog, it wasn’t very tall, maybe 18″. The ungainly moves clued me to look at the legs and feet & said OMG that’s a puppy! We chatted for a few–Great Dane pup, 19 pounds four weeks before, now up to 45.
Martin
I’m going to call this a respite. Tom Metzger is dead. Any dead nazi is worth celebrating.
Ruckus
@raven:
Today? A veritable child……
Happy B day old man, welcome to 71. It’s a nice age to be but then so has every age I’ve ever been. OK there were some days a few decades ago that weren’t quite as much fun, but living in a gray floating box never really was my thing. Of course it couldn’t compare to living in an olive drab tent in 200% humidity.
CaseyL
Oh my gosh, so many birthdays!
Many happy returns to Scout and to raven.
The thing about Danes that always surprises me is how much their faces change from puppy to adult. They go from having a basic-issue rounded puppeh head to those elegant elongated heads and big ol’ flews. I’ve never had a dog (other than the family beagle when I was a kid) so I don’t know if all the elongated-muzzle dogs go through that transformation.
frosty
@raven: Happy Bday to you!
Winston
Tropical Storm Eta has moved closer to the gulf coast of Florida now projecting land fall in Levy County, just north of Inglis. Brisk wind, flash flood warnings as far inland as Polk, Sumter Counties with stronger wind and flood warnings all along the coastal counties from Sarasota and north. Supposed to be here as early as this afternoon.
Amir Khalid
Greetings to Scout the beautiful Birthday Girl.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Happy birthday to your beautiful doggo! Bixby is looking mighty handsome too, must be the lady keeping him young. ;)
raven
Thanks
Sab
I love those photos of tiny Scout on that big bear’s lap.
J R in WV
Danes are amazing. My grandmother next door had one named Jerry, so or course she became Jerry Grandma to differentiate her from my other Grandma, who lived in Harper and became Harper Grandma. I was just a babe, and Jerry would tolerate anything from me, until he just had to get up and walk away.
Raven, belated happy birthday. I’ll be 70 next month, if I make it.
@Martin:
I will help you celebrate the dead Nazi, we have far too many of them! When did people forget WW II to defeat the Nazis from Germany and Italy and all over central and eastern Europe all the way to Japan. Like termites, they’re still causing violent hate-ridden trouble.
And now we look to be having trouble evicting one from the White House — and the Republican party seems infested with them too.