If you follow this blog, you know that we lost both of our senior adult mastiffs within a few weeks of each other.  Then Dani arrived, and we embarked again on the thrilling adventures of house breaking and

puppy biting.  Ouch!

As wonderful as Dani is–and she is quite the smart little puppy, doing so well in her obedience training at SNIFF University!–I still felt an emptiness in the house.  I’m used to saying, “Let’s go, guys” referring to more than one dog, or “I’ll feed the pups”–again, referring to TWO.

I even told a wonderful mastiff breeder that I’d be interested in one of the pups she planned to have ready in the fall . . . and then I met Daisy.

I work as a volunteer at our local SPCA, so I know a bit of what goes on behind the scenes.  And I heard about a mastiff in the medical wing, a severely underweight older girl they were calling Daisy.  Apparently she was a stray who’d recently had puppies.  She also suffered from FAD (flea allergy dermatitis) and had lost a lot of her fur.

So I went down to meet her, and discovered that she was a love.  A bit bony, but still a love.

I tried not to get too close or too emotionally invested because I didn’t know if she’d pass the medical exam . . . or the behavioral exam . . . or if she’d get along with Dani, my puppy, and the Grand Baby living with us.

Then she got kennel cough–which is often rampant in shelters–and I really tried to detach.

But she came through her illness and her spaying, and yesterday they put her up for adoption.  My family–including Dani–and I were at the shelter as soon as they opened the doors.  Turns out that a LOT of people were there promptly at one because the shelter was adopting out several hundred animals recently seized from a hoarder–reptiles, snakes, hedgehogs, etc.

I didn’t care about the reptiles or pocket pets. We were there for Daisy, and now she’s home with us.

 

She’s a bit different,  and she makes us laugh.  She ran inside and jumped on the couch, and we’ve never had a mastiff do that before (and she’s our sixth). Then she raced up the stairs, and we’ve never had a mastiff do that before, either.

 

She’s definitely the alpha, and Dani knows it. Some of our neighbors came to visit and joked that this was the first time they’d come to see our dogs and Dani had NOT had them feeling like pin-cushions with her needle sharp teeth. 🙂

But all is well.  Daisy controls Dani with this rumble in her throat–I wouldn’t even call it a growl, it’s more of a warning to behave.  And Dani falls promptly in line.   If that rumble turns into a growl too often, I may have to do some growling of my own.

I’m looking forward to giving Dani lots of special time and letting Daisy enjoy the rest of her life in the Hunt house.  Which is now full again.

Full of snores, slobber, slingers, and sneezes (from me–I’m allergic to dogs).

Just the way it should be.

 

 

Angie