Walkhaven

I am now a member of Walkhaven (www.walkhaven.co.za). Which means, each Sunday morning, the dogs and I will be going there for our walk.

It's a safe friendly place. And I've decided the drive is worth it.

Titan and Asha love it there. However, they get some mixed reactions, as with anywhere. Some people love that they are so big and say they are beautiful. Others are not so sure, especially when Titan decides it's play time with a small fluffy thing, and it looks like he is swallowing the dog whole. :-)

As with any walk, I get the usual questions and comments:

• Wow, look at the small horses.
• Do you ride them?
• Do you have a saddle for them?
• How much do they eat?
• It must cost you a lot of money to feed them?

I've decided I need one of these shirts. A friend posted this on my Facebook timeline a while back, and it's just so apt.

It reads:
It's a Great Dane.
Yes, it's friendly.
No, I don't have a saddle for it.
Yes, it's a house dog.
No, I don't have a huge house.
Yes, you may pet it.
No, it doesn't eat that much.
I know it's the biggest dog you've ever seen.
It's the biggest dog I've ever seen, too.

A bad day

So it seems the days of going to Golden Harvest Park, each Sunday morning, to walk with the dogs, are over. This morning I was mugged.

The culprits:
Two black (I really don't care about being politically correct at this moment) males.

The events:
Titan, Asha and I had actually just started out on our walk. We follow a set path each Sunday, and as we were climbing the hill near the dam wall, the culprits walked past us, one at a time and each of them greeted me with a "good morning".

As you get to the dam wall, you have to climb some rocks to continue on the path. It was as we were doing this that the culprits (I'll refrain from calling them the more colourful names that are on my mind) came back. They said something to me, which made me turn around. One was holding a "gun" (I place that in the inverted commas because it looked very fake). The other was holding a garden fork. I told them I had nothing with me, but they pointed at the bag at my waist and demanded my phone. (I carry a very tiny bag with my cellphone, car keys and labello lip balm in it).

Very calmy (my natural reaction  in a stressful situation), I walked off the rocks, and tried to run away, but they grabbed me and pinned me to the ground with a hand over my mouth so that I wouldn't scream. Then ripped my bag off me and ran away.

It was then that I screamed, at them to give me my car keys (I don't care about the phone), and then a piercing yell at the top of my lungs to alert anyone in the area. Though doing that didn't help, because no one cares anyway.

Though I wasn't hurt by them, I fell on the loose sand while running down the hill to get help. This is what my legs look like:

I didn't even have scrapes this bad as a child. Anyway, back to the story.

Although no one came running at my screaming, there were a few good samaritans in the park. One guy and his brother tried helping me track them/ my keys down, but they had run off into the koppie which is hugely overgrown. Others drove to the gate to alert the guards, but apparently they got a very disinterested response with a "oh well, it happens all the time here". Another let me use her cellphone to call my ex.

By some miracle, my ex has a set of my house keys - my set were in the locked car. So he was able to get my spare car keys from home.

After dropping the dogs off at their home, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon driving around. 1) To do a sim swap for my phone - a complete mission when you're not sure how much airtime was left on your phone, or the last dialled numbers. Found out that you can give any five dialled numbers from the last three months. 2) To open a case at the police station - once again, I don't care about the phone, but who knows what issues I'm going to have with regards to the car keys. Guess I'll find out tomorrow, when I start those calls.

Besides very sore legs, I am fine. Just hugely bummed that my favourite weekly activity has now been ruined. And I can't give up "doggie park", because Titan and Asha actually know that we go each Sunday - they don't eat their breakfast, and pace the passage because they're so excited.

Will just have to find a safer place to go. Next week we'll go to Walkhaven again. The entrance fee tends to keep the criminals away.

After that, who knows...

May I dudu with you?

This is Titan asking to sleep on the bed:

Asha does the same thing. How can you say 'no' to that face?

Apparently they get to sleep on the bed more often than they used to when I was around. It seems it happens almost every night while my ex is watching TV.

Of course, before they get on the bed, you have to make sure that you're all settled, or risk getting pushed out of the bed, as happened to me on this day:

But cuddling on the bed with my giant dogs was one of my most favourite things to do. Especially since Asha starts to act all cute. In this picture she is 'hiding':

She knows the word and plays it up even more when you say it. Of course, you can't see her if she can't see you. :-)

Apparently, Titan once fell off the bed. He likes to stretch while he is snoozing, and the one evening he stretched himself off the bed and got a huge fright. I am told that these days, he makes sure that his back is not near the edge of the bed - LOL.

Doggie tattoos

Moments of excitement with your dog are such fun. Unfortunately, they can also be painful. A quick swipe of a paw can leave you with a scratch or bruise. Supersize the dog and you'll supersize the mark that is left.

In my case, I have a very sensitive skin, and I bruise pretty easily. The mark will remain for days, weeks, even months, depending on how bad it was to begin with. And so, I have affectionately called these moment of excitement marks my dogs accidentally leave on me, doggie tattoos.

I caught a glimpse of my bum in the mirror the other day and saw that I still have a nice sideways scratch from about a month ago. I also still have the remnants of a scratch on my leg that happened near the beginning of the year.

Because these scratches end up being pretty permanent for me, I try to avoid them. So my first words to the dogs when I collect them to go to the park are: "Don't jump!" Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work, because it's time to go to the park and that is very exciting.

However, it isn't as bad these days compared to when they were pups. When they were younger, Asha had a particular affection for grabbing my arm to get my attention, and so my arms were always covered in doggie tattoos. Thank goodness she doesn't really do that anymore, unless you get her really excited.

Howling

The first time it happened, I thought I was hearing things. The next time, I heard it well enough, and just burst out laughing.

My then baby dogs were howling, at the ice cream van.

I didn't expect Great Danes to howl. But thinking about it they are hounds, and hounds are known to howl.

Since then, they have howled for a number of reasons. The day that I had to walk to go visit them - when my car was bust for the weekend - I could hear them howling from up the road. I guess they were upset that I had left and that we hadn't gone to the park that day.

Apparently they howl every Sunday morning before I come to collect them for the park, and as my ex is leaving for church.

Whenever I hear the ice cream van in the area, it makes me think of them.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of seeing and hearing them howl at the ice cream van again. I love it and it still makes me giggle.

Rolling in Pooh

What is it with dogs and their fascination in rolling in the most disgusting things, just to take on the smell?

The Tin has a particular fondness of rolling in gross stuff. During our walks in the park he has rolled in all manner of things - bird pooh (mostly duck pooh), dead fish, dead crabs, and some other unknowns.

He has even once had the opportunity to roll in horse pooh. That day, we actually just missed meeting the horse - they were driving out of the park just as we were driving in. I was quite bummed, because I would have loved to see how Titan and Ash would have reacted to this one animal actually bigger than them.

But off we went on our walk and at one stage we came across the droppings from the horse. I was watching them closely, as I wondered how they would react to the scent of an animal bigger than them, and, in fact, to such a large dropping. I probably should have expected the reaction, but I was still a little surprised when Titan walked up, had a quick sniff and within seconds was rolling in it.

"Boy, NO! Do you have to do that?"

The Tin tends to drop and roll rather quickly, and most of the time I don't get time to react before he is already smeared with whatever smell he was keen on, on that day.

One particular time he dropped and rolled into something so foul I could barely stand walking behind him. Even Asha seemed to be dodging him.

Needless to say, I received an SMS from my ex asking what had been going on because "Titan and Asha smelled so bad that I had to wash them again. And even after washing him, Titan still smelled bad, so I had to spray him with Axe. He'll attract all the girl dogs now!"

LOL

I still have no idea what it was that day. But I watch him like a hawk now, especially since we're going into summer again, and that's when the rolling comes back in full force.

Big boy, baby girl

I'm not sure when I started calling Titan, Big Boy, but he certainly lives up to the name.

As a fully grown Great Dane his shoulders are the same height from the ground as my hips, which is about 95cm. That's tall - even the vet says that he is unusually tall. Titan's weight, at last count, is 77kg. Big boy indeed.

Asha is slightly smaller - a few centimetres shorter, and only about 65kg (we can't get the exact weight as she is scared of the scale). Even though she is only slightly smaller than Titan, she will always be my Baby Girl, probably because she always needs encouragement, particularly with new experiences.

Both weigh more than me. And to think that when we first got them, they were so small that I could hold either of them with just my one arm. And at one stage they both used to sit on my ex's lap, as demonstrated by this picture:

Thing is, I love the fact that they are so big. There is so much more dog to cuddle with, and they love to cuddle.

Sometimes they use their size to their advantage, especially when it comes to sneaking food. And other times they like to act small, especially when it is time to cuddle. Titan still sits on my lap, except these days his bum barely fits, and his front paws stay on the floor.

Unfortunately, their size makes other dogs scared of them. I'm forever telling them "slowly" when we see another dog at the park, because sometimes they run up to the dogs, which just makes it worse. In all scenarios they both live up to the "Gentle Giant" nickname that Great Danes get. They don't fight, and they are gentle.

Titan just doesn't realise that it is his size that is making the other dog scared. All he wants to do is play, and he doesn't understand why the other dog doesn't want to play. Poor boy.

How Asha got the nickname Chicken

You would think it's because she's scared. However, while she is a bit apprehensive about new experiences, this isn't the reason.

Since she grew big enough to do so, she has shown a fondness for licking the kitchen counter. And this is with no specific purpose, such as licking up food remnants. In fact, I could have just wiped the counter and she would come into the kitchen and start licking.

She has some sort of fascination with just licking the counters. Of course, this would result in me asking: "What are you licking?", which progressed into "What are you licken, chicken?" taken from the fast food restaurant: Chicken Licken. And so, Asha also became known as Chicken.

Needless to say, I very quickly got into the habit of wiping down the counters before preparing food.

Titan, on the other hand, is so lazy that he doesn't do anything without a purpose. So his favourite thing to do, is lick the dirty dishes that are lying in the sink, to lick up all the yummy flavours. And there is no way of stopping him, given his height and because the kitchen forms part of the open plan side of the house.

So if Titan has disappeared, and it happens to be just after dinner time, you know exactly where to look for him.

And I believe that these days you can't leave any food lying around unattended, even on the shelf that happens to be eye level for me. Titan assumes you have left it there for him, and it takes very little effort for him to get to it.

My babies are three

It is Titan and Asha's third birthday today. To celebrate we went to Walkhaven dog park - http://www.walkhaven.co.za/

They had lots of fun. Titan met lots of doggies, something he loves, and even had one or two play with him - most often they're too scared because he is so big.

Here are some pictures:

The automated biting shredder, and other messages

About six months after getting Titan and Asha we went on holiday. It wasn't a great holiday, as that is when the decline to the divorce started. But more importantly, it was the first time that we were away from the baby dogs.

Naturally, I was a worried new 'mom'. And I missed them like crazy.

So it was great to get update messages from my sister, who had volunteered to look after them while we were away.

The first was a reply to: "Did the woofies jump all over you?"

Yes, I was attacked... And eaten, and slobberidified, and licked and scratched and growled at and barked at, I was made into a doggie sandwich with a Kerry filling, my arm was chewed, my bum was bitten, and my snollies licked out of my nose.

Perhaps at this point I should let you know that Great Danes puppies are the complete opposite of the docile Great Dane dogs - they are highly energetic, and always super excited to see you. And their size makes it impossible for you to escape the excitement.

Knowing that I was worried about them and missing them, my sister then sent a couple more updates while we were away. 

The first:

Doggie diaries: this weekend Titan and Asha have decided to do some work around the garden and some dog house redecorating. They moved three of the irrigation sprinklers into their house as well as the lawn sprinkler and the tap connection.

Asha has been up to her usual anything goes biting tricks and almost severed aunty Kerry's left nipple right off. Aunty Kerry was not amused.

They are both doing well and are enjoying playing with Uncle Brandon, and even gave Costa (our gardener at the time) a run for his money. Both have been getting lots of kisses and hugs, more so Titan cause he has had a few tear drop stains. They send their love to their mom and dad, and hope they are having a good holiday and are looking forward to lots of lovies on return. xxx (doggie kisses)

Message 2:

Doggie Diaries: Asha is sulking today, she has been sitting at the front door and kitchen door staring at them... She is also feeling a bit fluish and she has been gagging all day. Titan has been very helpful at inspecting everything that happens in the kitchen, and keeping an eye on the counter top to make sure that the cooking is above board. It's cold and rainy today so they have been snuggled in bed all cozy and stuff.

About eight months later, my sister and I went on a girls weekend. I got the following message from my ex:

They are running around like mad things, getting ready for the comrades I think... The automated biting shredder is working at full speed today, she must have gotten properly oiled while sleeping last night.

And then, just after I moved out, I received this message from my ex:

Damn it was funny, gave the Tin a grape to eat. He kept on spitting the whole thing out and pushing it with his nose, like he does with bugs. When he eventually figured out what it was 10 minutes later, he wanted more. It then took him only a second to eat it after that...

LOL

Puppy playfulness

As I have said before, when you have puppies in your life, you will be entertained.

As they are growing, they are learning. So they are fascinated with the strangest things.

I remember Titan and Asha being completely fascinated with ants when they were really little. They would actually follow them. As they grew, ants became less exciting, and now don't even get a second glance.

Lots of other things came under scrutiny, particularly anything that moved.

One morning, Titan woke up to find a cricket in his drinking water. Not knowing what it was he wasn't particularly happy. He was actually a little afraid of it at first. I missed getting his initial reaction on camera, where he was backing away from the bowl and barking at it, but I did get this:

That was just one of his many encounters with bugs. I miss having him around during summer, because he has a particular fondness for eating the ugly brown moths that have a tendency to fly right into you. I can't handle them touching me, so it was quite lovely when he was around to save me from them.

Asha has less bug encounters. I think they're too small to be paid much attention. Asha's playfulness came from her agility.

My couches were often used as trampolines while playfully running away from Titan. But the funniest and most memorable thing she did as a puppy was jump onto tables. Luckily it was only on the outside tables, but she had figured out that by jumping onto the table, she could look into the house -- that was until we moved the table.

Here's a picture of her looking in:

Travel troubles

So my car is in for repair. The gearbox is faulty - something to do with the diff housing. I logged off when the guy started speaking the technical stuff.

Point is, the car is not yet two years old and it is still under warranty, so it shouldn't have such major problems.

I was hoping to get it back on Friday afternoon, and I almost did, if the mechanics hadn't left installing the gearbox to the last minute. Once they were done, they found a leaking pipe, and because they can't get to it easily, the entire gearbox has to come out again for the repair.

So it meant no car for the weekend, and no doggie park.

Luckily, I still got to see Titan and Asha. I walked the 1.3 kilometres from my house to my ex's house, and visited them for 2 hours, while he was at church. And since it was a rather miserable day I enjoyed the time spent cuddling with them in their dog house -- or should I say dog palace (I'll write more about that in another post).

But all this car nonsense did make me think back to the cars I have had in the past. My first car was a 1986 Toyota Corolla, which I sold when it was 20 years old. My next car was a 2006 Corsa Lite Plus. This is the car I had when we got Titan and Asha.

When they were small, it was quite easy and convenient to use my car to go to doggie park or the vet. But as they grew, trips to doggie park used to look like this:

My ex and I, and the mini horses used to fit into that little car. It was a squeeze, but we did it with little fuss. Although, every so often I would have a nose in my ear as I was driving.

As Titan and Asha started reaching their adult size, it became increasingly apparent that we would need a bigger car.

I was looking at getting a bigger car anyway, so I traded in the Corsa Lite for a 2010 Corsa Utility. I got it the same week as Titan and Asha's first birthday.

Since then, trips to doggie park have been easier:

Until this weekend.

It's amazing how much not having a car limits you.

Doggie destruction

When you have puppies in your life, you will be entertained. Like children, they just do the darnedest things.

As puppies, Titan and Asha had a particular fondness for destruction.

Luckily, furniture and clothes were not much of a target, as with some puppies. Although, I did have to rescue the odd sock and I had to stop them from chewing on the couch a couple of times. Also, the wooden frame of the passage mirror still bears tiny tooth marks.

Their main target was paper or cardboard. Often the newspaper put down for them to 'do their business' came under attack, as is evident from this photo, taken on day two of us having them:

The most memorable destruction event is what I have called 'the annihilation of the paper recycling'. In the time it took my ex to go and fetch a pizza for dinner -- about 20 minutes -- Titan and Asha made a huge mess, and had much fun doing so. And I got great enjoyment out of watching them.

You can share in the fun of watching them with this video. Unfortunately, I had turned my camera while recording them, so the video has come out sideways and I have not yet figured out how to fix it.

And here is a still picture of the same event:

Quite a mess!

Another item that came under attack was the door mat. They were not quite pleased with having to stay outside while we cleaned the one day, and so they pulled the mat through the security gate and did this to it:

Then, when it was approaching their first winter, we decided to make their dog house a little warmer by hanging a blanket with a slit in it at the entrance to the dog house and stuffing newspaper into the crevices. We woke up the next morning to this:

And I was actually able to record destruction in progress. Here are the before, during and after photos of Asha destroying a ball - she has always been much better at destroying things than Titan, he's a bit of a softy.

While in some cases their destroying things was frustrating - like when Asha took her new collar off the dining room table and destroyed it before she had even worn it - you can't get angry with them when it's so funny to see. It's play for them -- and what's more fun than ripping things to tiny pieces?

Moving out

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have an ex -- an ex husband.

The divorce was inevitable, moving out part of the package. The hardest part was leaving Titan and Asha behind.

It made financial sense for me to move back to our first place -- a one bedroom with a loft townhouse. It made logical sense to leave the dogs where they were -- at the house with a 1400 square metre yard. Plus, there's a rule at our complex -- no dogs whose size is above the knee.

From the day he announced "we should get divorced' to the day I moved out, it was a whirlwind of activity. Decide who gets what, pack up my stuff, and get the townhouse ready for me to move in.

We had rented out the townhouse, and it was a mess. So for the most part of two months, I spent painting, cleaning (serious cleaning - I don't think either of the tenants had bothered to clean, ever), packing and general organising. And throw Christmas into that mix.

When I finally moved in, completely exhausted, and I got a moment to think, I realised that what I wanted the most was my dogs.

Even though I get to see them each Sunday when we go for a walk in the park, I miss them so, so much.

When I have a bad day, all I want to do is bury my face in Asha's fur -- she has a very distinctive and lovely (to me anyway) smell.

I miss cuddling with them. Sometimes, if I'm lucky I get to do this for a few minutes at the park. But it's not quite the same.

I miss Titan's little 'good morning' kisses on the nose. And I miss Asha's 'cute' face, which I never get to see at the park because she's always too hyper and these faces happen when she's in a more calm state.

I love my dogs with all my heart. And I think I started this blog as a way to re-live the memories and moments that I have with them. That way, I can feel close to them even though they are not right next to me.

I sign off this post with pictures of Asha's 'cute' faces...

Titan and Asha arrive

Titan and Asha

 
The decision to get Great Danes was not a light one. After moving into the house and deciding that we would get dogs, my ex and I debated for months over which breed to get. I did a lot of research and finally convinced him that the best breed for us was Great Danes, and we had the space.

We had just settled on the breed when fate stepped in. On Friday, 2 October 2009, my ex walked into Sandton City to get some lunch. He decided to walk past the pet store, and the little ones caught his attention.

Within a matter of minutes they were ours. We almost got three, as my ex didn't want to leave their brother behind!

I had to wait until that evening to meet them. I was so excited, I had phoned my parents and my sister to let them know. So my sister was there to meet them with me.

My ex brought them inside in a box that they outgrew in a week. When he set it down on the floor I called them, and it was Asha that climbed out to come say hello.

Instant love.

That was a  busy weekend. Having made a quick decision to get them, we weren't quite prepared for their arrival. And so that weekend, we had to go shopping for their bed, toys, etc. We also had to clear out the "box room" so that they had a place to sleep and to stay during the day.

It also happened to be a weekend filled with visitors. My parent's, friends and my ex's family had to come and see.

My ex named Titan, a dog name he had been fond of for a while. And I got to name Asha. She looks like ash, but her name couldn't just be Ash, and was certainly not going to be Ashley.

Both names are much better suited than the names they were given by the breeders - Marmite and DJ, as we were to find out from their Vet certificates. We also found out that they happened to be born on my sister's birthday - 22 July.

Acrobatic Juno

Another dog in my past worth mentioning is Juno. He was not my family's dog, but rather my ex's parents' dog. Juno was a smaller breed rottweiler and incredibly agile.

He didn't like custard very much, and would actually run away from it. And this dislike is most likely the result of the following experience:

Once, my ex and I arrived back at his parents' house to find Juno particularly fond of his bed. He didn't run up to the gate to greet us as he normally did. And on closer inspection, he didn't look very well and was bleary-eyed. Then we found out why.

One of the female dogs was on heat, and Juno had been keeping the whole household awake with his cries to get to the female. Out of desperation to keep him quiet, my ex's mother had given him quite a bit of brandy in milk. The result was that Juno had a heck of a hangover the next day, and would never come close to brandy in milk or custard ever again!

Juno could jump. He would jump over fences, and once gave the neighbours quite a fright when he got into their yard this way. He would jump up and down at the gate, barking at strangers, and was obviously quite intimidating, because a lot of people walking by would cross to the other side of the road to go past the house.

Juno also liked to swim. And it was this combination of jumping and swimming that made him an acrobatic superstar. When he learnt how to, the only way for Juno to get into the pool was to jump in. And he could take some flying leaps, jumping across the breadth of the pool, and even jumping from the elevated platform by the deep end (as in the picture). And he loved it! He would jump in, just to climb out and jump in again.

Juno jumping into the pool by the deep end

My dog history

I've always had dogs in my life.

First was Brack, a male Golden Labrador. He was there when I was born and took a particular fondness to protecting me while I was in my pram in the garden.

Me and Brack in the Joburg snow of 1981

Then there was Brandy, a brown female Ridgeback cross, who was not very energetic, but was an inspiration to some of my childhood art.

Brandy

Then came Toga, an almost white, male Boerboel Labrador mix. He came along with I was in Std. 5 or Grade 7. We used to call him Pig, because he used to snort at the back door.

Toga or Pig as a puppy

Pig as a pup

Of all my childhood dogs he had the greatest affect on me. My sister and I harassed our parents for months before we finally got him. They didn't want to get another dog because we wouldn't love it when it grew up. Needless to say, I know my sister and I still love him.

Pig had a few quirks. The first being the snorting at the back door which earned him his nickname. It was some sort of sniffing to let us know that he was there and he wanted to come in, or he was hungry.

One of Pig's quirks

Pig also had a fondness for bread - we think that was his main diet before he came to us. And he very quickly learnt the sound that the bread cutter made - yes, it was still back in the day before sliced bread was on the market - and would come running. In fact, my sister and I used to purposely make the bread cutter squeak if he wasn't responding to our calls. No matter where he was in the yard, he heard it and was there in a few seconds.


Some of his more memorable exploits happened as a puppy. I remember coming home after school one afternoon, to find the kitchen floor covered with potatoes and sweet potatoes, with some bites out of a couple of them.


Another time, my mom and sister found a couch pillow and my dad's jacket perfectly positioned in the 'sunny spot' on the floor of the lounge. Mid-winter, Pig had managed to escape his den in the kitchen, and had made himself a cosy retreat in the lounge that day.


He was subjected to all manner of childhood activity, including obstacle courses in the lounge around the chairs, and obstacle courses outside, jumping through a hula-hoop.

He loved chasing a ball and would give you an intense look to "on your marks" and "get set". Of course, we would trick him by shouting "go" and then not kicking the ball - as children will do.

Pig's "on your marks, get set" looks

He also loved walks, and very quickly learnt the word. Another word or phrase that he knew and responded to was "Are you cute?" As soon as we said it he would act all cute.

While Brack and Brandy died naturally, Pig, unfortunately, was the first dog we had to put down. He developed cancer in his tail that had been docked too short. It was heartbreaking, particularly since he had come to know that going to the vet meant getting better.

The other dogs at my parents' home are Shimba, a brown female Boerboel Staffie mix, and Rebel, a blonde male Boerboel Great Dane mix. They were bought after I left school and are still around.

Shimba (left) and Rebel (right) with Pig in the front

Shimba used to do the craziest thing when she was a puppy. She would get super excited and would run, darting from one place to another with no particular aim. We called this her "mad hare" state. We still get a good laugh out of that.


Rebel was a strange puppy - very distant. However, the older he got the more he became dependant on human affection. The funniest is how he "tells you stories" when he is upset, with lots of moaning, especially when no one has been at home for some time.