In 1996 I married a woman that had never been married before. She was quite a bit younger than me and had no children and really hadn't even been in a long term relationship prior to meeting me. This woman was as close to a virgin that I was going to find. Her first request of me was to get my vasectomy reversed, so we could have a child. Her biological time clock was working overtime. I believe she was 40 years old when our nuptials were performed and I had had my surgery about 10 years prior. Dutifully I made an appointment with Dr. Cedric to discuss my reversal. Dr. Cedric was a short man, about 5'4" and not a hair on his head and at the time he was about 50 years old, about my age. With his Tennessee accent, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Mel, you've got your family and they're grown now. Your vasectomy is over 10 years old and the possibility of the reversal being successful is rather remote. It'll be painful and expensive and insurance won't cover it. Tell that to your new wife and ask her if a puppy will do the job." We both laughed, shook hands and I left considerably relieved.
When I got home, I gave the bad (good) news to Debra and told her about the puppy that Dr. Cedric suggested. Her reaction was, "Can we"? We spent the next 3 weeks combing through rescues at our local pounds. Every pup that needed obvious medical attention caught Debra's eye. At some point I agreed to anything, just to end the selection process. That's when an employee came off break and suggested a pup that was rather shy, that was sitting way back in the back of her cage and we didn't even know the cage was occupied. It was a little Yorkie/Schnauzer combination was was puking up yellow bile. Debra looked up at me and asked if she could be the one. I immediately agreed to this 8 LB, 2 year old dog that was going to require a lot of care to socialize. She was cute though. We took Peewee home with us and she threw up everywhere a little 8 LB dog could, but mostly on Debra's lap.
Little Peewee seemed to fit in nicely and I think about a year and a half went by before Peewee was even housebroken, but was quite the socialite at our local dog park. One spring day, I was riding around on my golf cart. A friend of mine's grandmother passed away and he inherited a golf cart that he sold to me for $500. It was before George W. Bush was president and money flowed more easily. The good old days, but I digress. So one spring day, Peewee and I were cruising the neighborhood on our golf cart when I spotted a yard that had 2 beautiful Great Danes in the front yard, along with the owner of the home, a rather little woman named Merriam. I stopped and made a u-turn and spoke with the woman telling her how much I admired her dogs and how I used to have 2 Great Danes when my kids were young, a long time ago. We chatted for awhile and I asked her if I could go home and get my wife, to show her dogs to her. She said yes, her dogs were her favorite topic and I was more than welcome to do that.
When I got home, I was as excited as a school boy. I exchanged Peewee for Debra and found out rather quickly that Peewee had relieved herself on the golf cart seat. I guess the Danes scared her. When we got back to Merriam's house, she invited us in and we enjoyed a glass of iced tea while Debra got used to having dogs the size of calves on a sofa next to her. At first I could see she was a little intimidated, but slowly got more comfortable with these gentle giants. I think we stayed about an hour and when we drove home in our little gold cart surrey, we discussed the possibility of getting a Great Dane of our own. Debra was all for it!
The following day was a Sunday and we had already hit the papers looking for Great Dane pups. I knew just what I wanted. I wanted a harlequin male and I wanted it to be a puppy. The only number that I saw was that of a Dane rescue. We were sitting in a pizza place in Paradise Valley Mall, calling with my cell phone. I spoke with a woman named Kate. She had been in rescue for about 2 years and lived far on the West side of town. We spoke for a time and I told her what I had been looking for. She stopped me dead in my tracks and said, "look, this is a rescue. We get the old and the sick and the unwanted. We NEVER get puppies. In all of the time I've been doing this, we've gotten 2 puppies and they were gone immediately. If you're looking for a harle pup, try looking in the Tucson papers, for some reason there are a lot of harles in Tucson. She took down my phone number, saying that if she heard of anything she'd call, but I never expected to hear from her again. I explained our conversation to Debra and then our pizza came. I'd say we were about half way through the pizza when my cell phone rang and it was Kate. She asked if we were sitting down and I said yes. She then said, you're not going to believe this, but I just got a call from a woman that has a little of GD pups and she doesn't know what to do with them and one of them is a male Harlequin about 12 weeks old!
Taking down her address, she made me promise to give her an hour to go and pick them up. I looked up to the sky as I said I'd be happy to give her an hour, and thanked God for my boy. Debra saw the tear forming in my eye and asked what Kate wanted. I told her, no longer interested in my pizza, we paid the check and left.
We arrived at 87th Ave and Thomas about an hour later and rang the bell. We were greeting by an entourage of wagging tails and barking. There must have been 6 big Danes in that house running loose. We were both apprehensive about going in when Kate yelled, it's okay, just come on in. There in the corner were 3 pups all huddled together and scared to death just shaking. One was about 1/3 larger than his brother and sister. He almost looked like he came from a different litter. He was well fed, healthy and huge! That would be Bogie! Bogie was a gift from God and I knew it immediately. Debra asked if we should go home and think about it and I said sure, but Bogie's coming with us. There was nothing to discuss. We brought Bogie home and he immediately bonded with Peewee and she accepted him as a mother would a pup. Peewee never quite understood the growing thing though.
When we'd go to the park, Peewee would protect her baby from all of the other big dogs that wanted to check out the new kid, chasing these big boys away snapping at their heels. At some point Bogie needed a wife and that's how we got Zoie, but I'll leave that for another time..
Mel
10/22/08
When I got home, I gave the bad (good) news to Debra and told her about the puppy that Dr. Cedric suggested. Her reaction was, "Can we"? We spent the next 3 weeks combing through rescues at our local pounds. Every pup that needed obvious medical attention caught Debra's eye. At some point I agreed to anything, just to end the selection process. That's when an employee came off break and suggested a pup that was rather shy, that was sitting way back in the back of her cage and we didn't even know the cage was occupied. It was a little Yorkie/Schnauzer combination was was puking up yellow bile. Debra looked up at me and asked if she could be the one. I immediately agreed to this 8 LB, 2 year old dog that was going to require a lot of care to socialize. She was cute though. We took Peewee home with us and she threw up everywhere a little 8 LB dog could, but mostly on Debra's lap.
Little Peewee seemed to fit in nicely and I think about a year and a half went by before Peewee was even housebroken, but was quite the socialite at our local dog park. One spring day, I was riding around on my golf cart. A friend of mine's grandmother passed away and he inherited a golf cart that he sold to me for $500. It was before George W. Bush was president and money flowed more easily. The good old days, but I digress. So one spring day, Peewee and I were cruising the neighborhood on our golf cart when I spotted a yard that had 2 beautiful Great Danes in the front yard, along with the owner of the home, a rather little woman named Merriam. I stopped and made a u-turn and spoke with the woman telling her how much I admired her dogs and how I used to have 2 Great Danes when my kids were young, a long time ago. We chatted for awhile and I asked her if I could go home and get my wife, to show her dogs to her. She said yes, her dogs were her favorite topic and I was more than welcome to do that.
When I got home, I was as excited as a school boy. I exchanged Peewee for Debra and found out rather quickly that Peewee had relieved herself on the golf cart seat. I guess the Danes scared her. When we got back to Merriam's house, she invited us in and we enjoyed a glass of iced tea while Debra got used to having dogs the size of calves on a sofa next to her. At first I could see she was a little intimidated, but slowly got more comfortable with these gentle giants. I think we stayed about an hour and when we drove home in our little gold cart surrey, we discussed the possibility of getting a Great Dane of our own. Debra was all for it!
The following day was a Sunday and we had already hit the papers looking for Great Dane pups. I knew just what I wanted. I wanted a harlequin male and I wanted it to be a puppy. The only number that I saw was that of a Dane rescue. We were sitting in a pizza place in Paradise Valley Mall, calling with my cell phone. I spoke with a woman named Kate. She had been in rescue for about 2 years and lived far on the West side of town. We spoke for a time and I told her what I had been looking for. She stopped me dead in my tracks and said, "look, this is a rescue. We get the old and the sick and the unwanted. We NEVER get puppies. In all of the time I've been doing this, we've gotten 2 puppies and they were gone immediately. If you're looking for a harle pup, try looking in the Tucson papers, for some reason there are a lot of harles in Tucson. She took down my phone number, saying that if she heard of anything she'd call, but I never expected to hear from her again. I explained our conversation to Debra and then our pizza came. I'd say we were about half way through the pizza when my cell phone rang and it was Kate. She asked if we were sitting down and I said yes. She then said, you're not going to believe this, but I just got a call from a woman that has a little of GD pups and she doesn't know what to do with them and one of them is a male Harlequin about 12 weeks old!
Taking down her address, she made me promise to give her an hour to go and pick them up. I looked up to the sky as I said I'd be happy to give her an hour, and thanked God for my boy. Debra saw the tear forming in my eye and asked what Kate wanted. I told her, no longer interested in my pizza, we paid the check and left.
We arrived at 87th Ave and Thomas about an hour later and rang the bell. We were greeting by an entourage of wagging tails and barking. There must have been 6 big Danes in that house running loose. We were both apprehensive about going in when Kate yelled, it's okay, just come on in. There in the corner were 3 pups all huddled together and scared to death just shaking. One was about 1/3 larger than his brother and sister. He almost looked like he came from a different litter. He was well fed, healthy and huge! That would be Bogie! Bogie was a gift from God and I knew it immediately. Debra asked if we should go home and think about it and I said sure, but Bogie's coming with us. There was nothing to discuss. We brought Bogie home and he immediately bonded with Peewee and she accepted him as a mother would a pup. Peewee never quite understood the growing thing though.
When we'd go to the park, Peewee would protect her baby from all of the other big dogs that wanted to check out the new kid, chasing these big boys away snapping at their heels. At some point Bogie needed a wife and that's how we got Zoie, but I'll leave that for another time..
Mel
10/22/08
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