Updates

Our breeding of Merci to Westly did not take after all. We are all very disappointed, but that is life. We will try one last time in the Spring.

In other news, over Thanksgiving we were able to spend a few days with 5 1/2 month old Hita, from Merci and Westly's last litter, while her parents (country music singers Dustin Wilkes and Melanie Torres) were on the road singing. What a stunning girl! I wish we could have gotten pictures that do her justice, she is absolutely fabulous!

Moonbeam turns 1 yr old

In just a few more days Moonbeam and her sister StAAr will be turning a year old! We took a couple of pictures today to show how Moonbeam is coming along.Need we say we are incredibly happy?!

33" at the shoulder and 135 lbs

Puppy Fix

Sorry for the absence, everybody. 'Tis the show season! Moonbeam is now officially a show dog and has the routine down pat. She is now in her "teenager" phase and is growing gangly so we have decided to let her just hang out and "come back together" before we take her back out.

Ditto, Fall Hollow G-Dieters Inspiration, from Merci's first litter now has a Reserve Win under her belt her first time in the ring. She is the epitome of goofball and is oblivious to any command that involves her having to not move!:-)

I thought everyone would be curious plus need a puppy-fix and Maria was kind enough to send us a pic of Fanny, formerly known as Orange-Collared Girl, at 3 months old.

More Pictures...

Winston was being very photogenic yesterday... See what I mean?

Johnny is getting a little disgruntled knowing that he will soon be the smallest in the house again. Red is the smallest of the litter (but not by much) and in 2 more weeks will indeed be bigger than Johnny.

4 wks

Talk about the life ~ running around, rough and tumble, then collapsing in fatigue from a hard days play!

Red Collared Girl

Boy "Winston"

Orange Collared Girl


The pups are eating softened Eagle Pack dog food quite well now. Thankfully, Merci has not yet given up on nursing them despite their incredibly sharp teeth! Some mommies will try to wean them as soon as the teeth come in, but the longer the pups can continue to get their mothers milk, the better.

Two weeks

The puppies have opened their eyes! Though they were trying to sleep when it was picture time.

They are able to stand on all fours, but the moment they try to take a step, they tumble over,

then squirm wherever they want to go :-)

Our kids, Lexi and Noah, have been a huge help in watching over the pups and I am sure they will be even more help when it comes time for socialization and teaching manners!

Here is Noah doing one of his favorite things, cuddling a pup.

Super Cute Fatties

These are just too sweet not to share!12 days old

They're here!!!

The little ones are now a week old and as cute and fat as pups can be!

Male

Female

Female

We will be doing weekly updates on these darlings as they grow!

Ultrasound!!!

We had a great visit with the vet this morning and were able to confirm that the breeding between Merci and Westly took! We are so excited, and thankful for a bit of good luck again. Now we will just hope for a large healthy litter at the end of May :-)

What a Month!

Moonbeam (Top) Staar (Bottom)


Well, Merci was finally bred to Multi Best in Specialty Show winner, American and International Champion SirBlu Pinza Western Warrior, CGC for an all Blue litter due May 29th! We will do an ultrasound this coming Saturday to confirm the pregnancy.



In other news, we had a big scare with Moonbeam coming down with pneumonia. After losing Ria last Christmas, we were able to recognize it and get her to the emergency room immediately, and after three days in intensive care she was able to come home to finish recovering.


A few days after Moonbeam came home, Staar became sick . . . and we nearly lost her. It took a couple of weeks before we began to feel that she really would pull through, but she has! Both are healthy as can be, Johnny only got a small touch of it and Merci avoid the sickness altogether. We are very sorry to those who lost their Danes and other dogs from that round of the flu.



And lastly, Noah dropped my digital camera in the pool and killed it :-(
But I now have the camera that I have been wanting for a long time, so it has all worked out! Better pictures on the way, as soon as I learn all the features!

Reunited

Moonbeam's sister, Star, has come to spend some time with our family, and boy is she fun!

Twice the energy of Moonbeam or Merci and even rivaling our darling Johnny!

Star got comfy and fit in right away.

Star (Left) Moonbeam (Right)

Star (Front) Merci (Head on Rob's lap) Moonbeam (Back)

Birthdays and Shows

Merci turned 4 years old yesterday!

Happy, Healthy and Lovin' Life!

Moonbeam had a half birthday yesterday as well and turned 6 months old! She attended her first show today, though she was not actually entered.

We introduced Moonbeam to Charlie and Laura Lynn Coomes, as they will be handling her soon. Laura was nice enough to stack Moonbeam for us to get a couple of quick pics.Moonbeam is currently 28.5" and 95 lbs, and we are thrilled with how she is shaping up!
In other good news, earlier this week we had a couple of x-rays done of Moonbeam's hips, just as a pre-prelim, and they looked beautiful! Woo Hoo!

Best Buds

Moonbeam and Johnny have become inseparable. They hardly notice the size difference.They are pretty good about sharing their toys.And messing up beds that have just been made.Here is Moonbeam sweetly grooming a very tired Johnny.Johnny is looking more fantastic with each new bathing and grooming session.And Miss Moonbeam insists she is not too big for her throne quite yet.Look at the lips on that girl!

New guy in the house

This darling 1 year old neutered boy joined our family yesterday from Jerry's Rescue in Pulaski, TN. He is a 22 pound poodle mix that was found as a stray, but check out his rugged good looks! We are calling him Johnny.We couldn't ask for a sweeter, more well mannered companion. He is so intelligent and eager to please that in just one night he already does an automatic sit when called, and is learning to stand up and walk on his back feet (a trick he does quite naturally). Our daughter, Lexi, has laid claim to Johnny as "her dog" and he was very happy to sleep with her and our kitty Zebe last night. He seems to love kitties :-) So, how does a 22 pound dog fare in a house with canines that come from the realm of giants? Well, this is where we praise the gentle loving temperaments of our truly Great Danes.

Moonbeam at 5 months

Well, this has been a very busy month! The highlight was our wonderful company from Blue Ridge, GA. Tom, Elke, Sven, Layla and George Detko, along with their 4 Danes - Rambo, Otto, Ada and Maya, and two tiny cuties, Chopper and Whopper. What a blast!

We have also been taking Moonbeam to a handling "class" put on by the show breeders in the Nashville and surrounding areas for all of their young pups to get use to the ring before our local shows start up in March. Here is a pic of Moonbeam this past Thursday night. The lighting is not very good in the building, and her head looks funny, but you can see her conformation.

Moonbeam turned 5 months old on Friday and she was 26" at the shoulder and 83 lbs. Here are a couple of headshots we got this weekend.

Moonbeam turns 4 months

Moonbeam turned 4 months old yesterday! You can see why I call her my Chunky Monkey!

Moonbeam Speaks Out

Hi everybody. Just thought I would let you know how I have been doing.

It's been tough around here without my best bud, Ria, to play with. Merci is pretty boring most of the time.



Sometimes she is sooooo lazy that I have to sit on her head to get her to notice me!





And can you believe the only one that likes to play rough gets scolded for jumping on the bed and tearing up things just like me?!


Oh well, I guess it's not so bad. They say you do most of your growing when you're asleep :-)

Goodbye Ria

I am sure that most of you who have been checking this already know that on Christmas morning we lost our 6 month old Blue girl, Ria, to pneumonia.

I don't know when I will be able to see Merci and Moonbeam laying on the bed and not feel like something is missing. I'm not sure when I will be able to see one of them napping and not go check their breathing ~ just to make sure. And I don't know if I will ever be able to look at Merci's face and not see her beautiful daughter in her eyes.

If any dog can touch our hearts and change our lives, it is a Great Dane, and if any dog can feel our pain and comfort us, it is that Dane's mother. As I sit here at my computer, crying as I type this, Merci is resting her head on my arm. Yes, her big heavy head makes it difficult to type, but I need her too much right now to ask her to go lay down . . .

We are a couple of mourning mommies. We shared the responsibilities of raising Ria from the moment she was born. Even more than would be normal because Merci had a c-section. When one of us would get tired, the other took over for a while.

Now we share the grief.

Rob and I are more grateful than ever that we have Moonbeam in our home, as we cuddled her closely to ease the pain and find hope for our future in her sweet face.

2006 was a lesson for us in "That Which Does Not Kill Us Makes Us Stronger" - Nietzsche

What turned out to be Ria's last days with us: