{29july2011: found}

Bailey's post from earlier this week reminded me of our own found puppy story I realized I didn't share yet. 
On the fourth of July, Jason took Darwin out for her morning potty break while I was still in bed. I woke up to him buzzing our gate buzzer. I assumed he forgot the keys so I buzzed him in and walked away. As I was walking away, more buzzes come in and I figure Darwin either stepped in poop and needed her feet wiped off or something happened outside so I go out bare footed to see whats up. Jason tells me to grab an extra leash and my phone because there's a puppy wandering around outside. So I hurry in and grab a leash and my phone and go out and find this:

A few month old yellow lab puppy! Someone HAS to be missing this little guy.
So we struggle to get him still enough to get the number off his collar and I give it a try. No one answers. 
We walk around the block and ask our neighbor if she's seen this guy before and she says she thinks she has but not sure where he lives. We hang out outside for a bit where Darwin and STUD(I was calling him Stud because one side of his tag said STUD and the other side had a name - I assumed was the owner - and a number - turns out STUD was just the generic tag and the name on the back was his name) played bitey face in the grass.

I tried calling the number again and this time left a message saying we found your dog, call me back!

I was still in my pj's at that point so we decided to take a chance that STUD was potty trained and took him inside with us while we waited for a call back from his owner. I wasnt sure how long he'd been outside so I gave him some water and food. I was then worried that he just ate and drank and really may pee inside so I took him out again for another walk around the block hoping his owner was outside looking for him. No such luck so we went back inside where he played with Darwin's toys and ran amock through the house. (Have you ever looked at the wikipedia definition of "running amock"... yikes.)

I had posted on Facebook about our puppy find, and our neighbor upstairs said she thinks STUD lives in the apartments across from ours. So we walked over to see an open sliding glass door. OI. Jason knocked on the door, and a girl, still wearing her party dress and makeup from the night before, peels herself off her couch and comes over. She realizes her door was open and then sees that we have her puppy and grabs him. She barely says thank you and closes her sliding door. OI.

You'd think that'd be the end of it, but no. A few hours later Jason was doing some work outside when who strolls over, but STUD. A few minutes later, party girl still in her dress and black tights, walks barefooted across the street to retrieve him. OI.
We don't live on a super busy street, but we do have a fair amount of car traffic. Especially since it was the 4th of July and our block has a pretty decent view of fireworks, there was a bit more traffic than usual of people trying to get parking for parties. This girl should NOT own a puppy.
To end this on a more positive note, here's a phone video of Darwin and STUD playing.

{12nov2010: Flashback Friday}

The next series of flashback Friday's are going way back.  I was looking through old pictures from last year trying to find something for work and I went through a bunch of folders with pictures of Darwin... back to when we first fostered her and her sisters and brother (we fostered 4 out of 17).  It's amazing how tiny she used to be.
Her she is from a few weeks old til she was two months old.

First go at solid food.  We had 4 filthy puppies we cleaned in the kitchen sink in the office.  hahaha.

Darwin and her favorite brother, Boo Radley!

Even from a young age and before she even knew him, she knew she wanted to impress Mango.

Her most favorite toy.  He hasn't been destuffed, but she did chew off his ear.

Stay tuned for more!

{81 days old}

For Jason's birthday this year, we went with a few friends and Darwin to a small little pub, Jabu's, that's near us.  Love that Seattle has a couple of dog friendly bars/restaurants that we can go to and not worry about tying Darwin up outside.  
So we're sitting there chatting, and this is what Darwin does:

Oi.  Sneaky little pup.  After a while we pose for a "family" picture:

She manages to sneak her tounge in!  
20 minutes later and a few licks of beer and Darwin was passed out:

She developed a taste for beer after this night... a glass wasn't safe if she could reach it.  She's finally less inclined to take a sip of drinks that she can reach, which means our coffee table can be used again.

{14Oct 2009: naughty naughty}

Moose's mom pointed out that I've only posted the cute/good side of Darwin and have yet to post anything naughty she's done.  Believe me, while she's definitely not a horror puppy, she's had her share of moments, though of course I didn't get photographs of those incidents. 

At the point of back tracking that I'm at (71 days) she was a pretty good puppy. She still had her potty accidents in the office if we weren't careful at taking her downstairs often enough, but didn't have many at home (it's easier to run outside, than wait for an elevator to get out). And she wasn't too big of a chewer or destroyer... take that back, she liked to chew on the drawer knobs in the kitchen, but not much else.

Then we come to her being maybe 4-5 months old. One afternoon, we're getting the house ready for friends to come over, I think it was the 4th of July. We had taken her out to potty, then were cleaning up and I had just changed the sheets and made the bed. A few minutes later, we go into the bedroom (where she's not allowed) and she had jumped on the bed and peed on it! She peed on the bed!!! Of course we couldn't hit her or rub her nose in it, it was partly our fault for not watching her more carefully, and leaving the bedroom accessible. So we begrudgingly clean it up and change the sheets, again.
A few days later, she does the same thing! Though this time we catch her in the act and she gets a big scolding... so much so she runs and hides behind Jason's turn tables and is scared to come out. We quickly apologize for being so mad, and nicely tell her that's not good (like she understands what we're saying).  We couldn't figure out why she would do that... it seems so cat like.

A month or so after those incidents, Jason and I decide to leave her at home one night so we can go watch Harry Potter and have a date night. She had been having runny stool all day, but we didn't think much of it. She had outgrown the crates we had borrowed from friends by then so we were using a baby gate and keeping her in the kitchen. We get home from the movie, and the first thing we notice is the smell. Then we see it... diarrhea in the entry way, a small trail to the bathroom... and the baby gate knocked over. She is so scared of the baby gate (it's fallen enough times that the noise of it hitting the floor scares her) that she must've really had to go. It was impressive that she did it right at the door, and funny enough, in Jason's hiking boot that was out. hehehe. We couldn't be mad, cause she wasn't feeling well, and at least most of it was on the tile floor and not the carpet. Poor thing.

The most recent incident was just this past weekend while we were out of town. She was at Tom's house staying with her doggy parents. They let the dogs on the furniture, and Darwin was infatuated with her dad, Atlas, and wouldn't leave his side. So when he went to bed in one of the boys rooms, she went with him, and during the night tore up one of his books. She's never done that at our house, so we were horrified when we heard about it.

I'm sure there will be more bad dog moments in the future... and we don't look forward to them. :)

{71 days old}

Darwin can be so goofy sometimes.

 

{68 days old}

I don't remember how it started, but one day we decided to give Darwin an apple as a snack.  And boy did she love it.

I think it was the fun of rolling it around on the floor, and then being able to bite pieces out of it.

It was funny, if you got too close to her, she'd think you were trying to take her apple away and pick it up and go somewhere else.

She'd eat the whole thing and then we would point out the little crumbs and pieces she left strewn over the floor, and she'd eat up all the little bits too.
She still loves her apples.  She's a nut for apples.  She's now tall enough to see what's on the counters and can see when we have apples.  If she sees one, she'll stand in front of it, and whine and carry on til we give her one.  I tried to have Jason cut one up for her one night, as she was being well behaved lying on her bed as we ate dinner.  So he went to the kitchen and as soon as it was cut in half, she jumped up and was at the counter waiting for her treat.  We now spell it out, a-p-p-l-e if we talk about it in front of her, because once she hears the word she thinks she's getting one.


Anyway, later this day we went over to our friend's apartment and Darwin and Friday got some play time.  I don't think Friday really liked Darwin playing with her toys... I don't think Friday really wanted to play tug with Darwin, but Darwin really wanted to play with  Friday!

{65 days old}

The fun thing about having a small(ish) puppy, is you can dress them up in ridiculous things.  Monday morning, I was working at my desk, when I turned around and this is what Darwin was wearing:

Tom had found this lovely ensamble over the weekend, and managed to sneak it on her without me noticing.  
She was not too thrilled about it.

{Stop laughing at me!!! Get this off!!!}

Great danes, puppy or not, were not meant to wear little ballerina outfits.  She was so muscular, she looked like a football player wearing a dress.

Her tantrum with the dress on was her biting at the carpet.  

{64 days old}

***We're back.  Sorry for the absence.  Quick weekend trip to the mid-west for Jason's sister's wedding.  Darwin got to spend the weekend at her doggy mom and dads. She loves it there.***

Since Darwin didn't get much time with Misty, her mom, and didn't get that socialization time, and correction from her mom or siblings, and since she's our first puppy, I decided we should take her to puppy kindergarten for her sake and ours.  After some research I picked out paws 4 training with Susan Oshie.  We started out with a 6 week course, once a week, but after the first class we saw that Darwin needed more socialization time with young  puppies, and went up to two classes a week. 
{Darwin getting to know Milkshake, the chocolate lab, and an older puppy}

It was a good mix of us learning how to train her basic commands and play time for the puppies.  At first Darwin was unsure of the new environment and all the new puppies, but was quick to pick up some things and learned that lots of treats were involved in coming to class.
When we got home, Darwin got a treat of some cherry tomatoes (she loves her fruits).

And then she passed out for the night.  And boy what a snorer!

{57 days old}

Spring in Seattle is beautiful!  Flowers are blooming, the sun's out, the air is crisp and cool.  It was one of the first nice spring days, and we decided we'd take Darwin out to enjoy it.  We met up with some friends at Green Lake had a picnic and sat around the lake. 

Being 8 weeks old, we couldn't walk her around the whole lake, or even half of it really, but we made it part way around and found a nice patch of grass to sit in.  I can't even count how many people would stop to ask if she was a weimaraner.  Actually we still get that question sometimes. 
{"Aren't I majestic?"}

{"Can we go home yeeeeet?"}

It wasn't very long til she fell asleep in the grass.

So we left, and spent some more time in the sun on the roof deck, where she decided she needed another nap.

Such a hard life being a puppy.

{8 weeks old}

When I first moved to Seattle, I furnished my apartment with everything IKEA for the most part.  One of the things I got because I thought it was so cute was a hedgehog air cushion.  When we got Darwin, she LOVED this thing.  It was just deflated enough that she would climb all over it, and we would push down on a side and she'd roll off and attack it.

We've since gotten rid of it, but for a while it was such an entertaining toy!

{55 days old}

The first captured on film stuck lip!  This is one of my most favorite pictures of her when Darwin was small.  I love the stuck lip face!  Cracks me up all the time!

 

{54 days old}

At our first vet visit we were told we should start getting Darwin used to brushing her teeth.  So we bought a tube of poultry flavored pet toothpaste, and gave it a try.
She moved and it ended up on her nose instead.

We haven't been very good about keeping up with the teeth brushing, and probably should get back in that habit.

{04oct2009: marymoor dane days}

Sundays at Marymoor there are weekly great dane meet ups... the group is Marymoor Danes.  We started bringing Darwin out as soon as she got all her shots, and we've got to meet alot of danes in the area.  Its great.   The group is usually there between 10-2 on Sunday's... people walk through the park and if we run into each other we all walk the park together taking breaks and letting the dogs play.
{Georgia, George, Lucy, Sirus, Hagrid, Turkish, Frankie, and Teshua's back}

Today there were quite a few... I think the group got up to at least 10-15 at one point.  And there were a few more walking the park on their own.

There are currently big piles of wood chips throughout the park, waiting to be spread this coming weekend, that Darwin loves to climb.

{George Frankie a friend and Darwin playing king or queen of the hill}

{Darwin friend and Frankie playing on the hill}

A new blue boy showed up at the park today, Turkish.  He's a big 10 month old boy.
{Sirus Darwin almost 8mos and Turkish 10mos}

He's still intact, so there were a few scuffles between him and some of the other males in the group, but all in all everyone had a good time.  It's always fun to meet new danes.
{Darwin on her hill at the end of the day}

It's nice to be part of the Yahoo group of Marymoor Danes, because with us being newbie dane owners we always have a lot of questions.  And any questions we may have about Darwin we can send a message to the group and usually get a good number of responses that can help us out.  It's been a great help.

{51 days old}

Back when she could still curl up in my lap... and fit

{7 weeks old}

I decided we should start Darwin's shots a little early, at seven weeks.  I had picked Sunset Hill Veterinary Clinic and Rehabilitation Center for Darwin's vet.  At this age Darwin was afraid of doors.  She hated going through doors.  
{you want me to go where?!}

But once inside, she loved it, for the most part.  Treats, non-stop!  She's the star of the vet.... whenever we call for Darwin, it's always "Daarrrrrwwwiiiiinnnnnn!"

She was a whopping 12.9 pounds!

{46 days old}

so lady like

{02oct2009: please & thank you}

If you have a chance today, please go visit Mr Darcy and send him all the love and positive vibes you can!  He's recovering from surgery, and the vet's outlook isn't very positive... so everyone else should be positive for him!
Also, a big thanks to our friends over at Danes Down Under for our first blog award!

Now the pressure's on to keep up the blogging!

{01oct2009: battle wound}

Darwin's first battle wound from her play date with her brother, Boo.

After months of almost weekly play dates,today Darwin got the first "major" injury.  

Boo's mom cleaned it up after it happened (I don't know how she managed to do it on her own.  It took both Jason and I to keep her still). But with all her head shaking, it was looking a little bloody when we got home, so we cleaned it off again and put an on ointment (that we had gotten at the vet a couple months ago).

Me being the new puppy mom, I'm a little worried about it.  We'll see how it looks in the morning.  Not that I want to take her to the vet, but I did get pet insurance just for that reason!