My beautiful little boy is now over 103lbs and I'm constantly getting bombarded with questions about him. Everyone wants to know what kind of dog he is, how big he's going to get, how much he eats, etc. Since I see him every day, I forget how huge he really is compared to other pups. I weighed him at a vet's office and the woman that works there (who owns two danes, I believe) agreed with me that he is already a little overweight. So now we're cutting back on treats and eating smaller portions. I'm also making a point to walk him farther, though each walk ends up being about 1 1/2 miles. He seems healthy other than a little extra fat, and as energetic as before. Of course, he's always been pretty lazy, preferring a nap in the sun to exercise. But we're working on it, and hopefully he trims down a little to avoid stressing out his joints with extra weight.
The summer is brand new to Savage, and he's finding lots of exciting things to do. He goes fishing with R. and I often, though I have yet to introduce him to canoeing, and may not do that at all. He's well-behaved enough to be still and calm, but only if he's practically on top of me, on my lap, and that just will not work in a canoe! So we may just stick to motorboats when we go fishing. My puppy discovered that the yellow swallow-tail butterflies are fun to chase, and I figured he would never catch one. But he did, and promptly ate it. For a while, chasing butterflies was almost an obsession. I could not get him to fetch sticks because everytime he spotted a butterfly he'd completely ignore me. It's amazingly cute.
He's meeting new friends all the time. He treats all dogs the same, pressuring them to play with him to the point of annoying them. He still plays with his buddies Roger, Ted, Gabby, Gretel, and August. R.'s daughter has a pitbull named Mason who has endless energy and it's funny to watch them chase eachother.Mason is just streaking by, and here comes my little dane galloping at full-speed, all legs and flapping lips! People get a kick out of his clownish appearance and clumsiness, and I'm marvelling at how beautiful and athletic he looks.
We discovered his first tick on his ear a week or so ago, and R. picked it off. We have wood ticks up here, more than usual this year, but in our area deer ticks are scarce, so I'm not worried about Lyme's disease. The few dogs (and people) I know who have it have all contracted it from another location.
Last Saturday my sister came by and "borrowed" my puppy. I knew I would be busy at work until 1 or 2 pm, and wouldn't have a lot of time to hang out with Sav, so she took him to her house in town for an overnight stay. I realized this was the first night Savvy has spent without me, and I missed him terribly. She got to experience dane ownership, if only temporary, and reported that he kept trying to push her off the bed in the middle of the night. I called her the next morning on her cell while she was walking him, and during the conversation strangers were interrupting her to ask about the tape on his ears! She said she couldn't get anything done downtown because of having to introduce him to someone at every turn. Of course, he was an absolute angel (?!), and I was ecstatic to have him back with me.
R. and I have been doing some excavating work at our property in preparation for building the new house. I'm really excited about it, and Savage will have a new, large fenced-in yard as soon as we can determine the best location.
As I may have explained before I'm having all sorts of problems uploading pictures, so until I get this figured out, you will have to use your imagination to view Sava. Think cute, gray, soft, huge, with a sad look on his big face. The lone pic in this post is from when he was about 10 weeks old, if I remember correctly.