{in the beginning}

We had no intentions of getting a pet, let alone a great dane puppy.
Our coworker's danes, atlas and misty, had a huge litter of puppies (18 to be exact - though 1 was still born and another died the day after birth) and Misty could not feed all of them. 

The vet told them if they didn't bottle feed them, more would die.  So being a petless pet lover, I volunteered J and I to foster 4 of them.  I figured fostering puppies, would be the closest I'd get to owning a pet any time soon, plus it would be temporary! 

They were 5 days old when Tom brought them in and it happened to be Charles Darwin's birthday.  To keep track of which puppy was which, they all got names: big head - had a big head, splotch - had a big white splotch on her chest, seven - her white marking was a 7, and darwin - just because it was Darwin's birthday. 

{big head hugging the clock, darwin next to him, splotch with her belly up in the air, and seven in the back}