Hugo

Growing up we always had pets. Birds and Dogs more than anything else (Great Danes and Cockatiels in particular). The photo is of my mom, my sister and the first Dane I knew - Jason.

Growing up with Danes has made me partial to them. I love them and I have always wanted to own one.

In my adult life I owned a Dane for a short time (that is a whole story in and of itself) but I have never had the pleasure of raising one. My spouse and I since being together have had three dogs, all of them rescues. Two of our beloved companions have passed away and for the past four months or so we have just had Zuva. Zuva is a great dog but she has been lonely. We had decided that we were not going to get another dog right now but we would wait until the "time was right". Of course I can't help myself and keep looking at dog rescue sites - just to "browse". Whenever I saw a cute dog I would show Shel the pictures and she would nod and smile and and remind me we weren't looking for a dog right now.

A visitor to the house offered us a puppy a few weeks ago and we were tempted (should I say "I" was tempted?) but I managed to turn down the offer and stick to our decision that right now was not the time to introduce a new baby to our home. We have talked about it and talked about it again and we agreed every time that we weren't bringing a new dog home, so why did I keep browsing the internet?

Then I found Hugo. Hugo is a male great Dane puppy who was purchased and brought to Alberta when he was 8 weeks old. His new owner was unable to keep him for reasons unknown and he was picked up and being looked after by a foster home in Grande Prairie awaiting transportation back to Saskatchewan. That's when I saw him for the first time online. I called the owner just to "inquire" and we started talking back and forth. I expressed some interest in having a dane and over a period of about 4 weeks she convinced me that Hugo was the one for us......

SOOOOOOOOO...... yesterday Max and I went to Grande Prairie to pick up Hugo. He is four months old already and he is HUGE! He and Max have already bonded, Shel sent me a text message this morning saying they have not stopped playing all morning and Hugo just passed out from exhaustion on Maxies lap!

I have always managed to maintain that the "softie" in the house is Shel. I have been able to convince people that she is the one who is the perpetual animal rescuer and that she is the one who always finds strays and brings them home. I think I will be hard pressed to maintain my cover now that we have a Dane. I DID try to tell her last night that he was a gift for her for the anniversary of our meeting (which is today) but she wasn't convinced. So without further ado.... here is the newest member of our family: