Have really enjoyed visiting your site
I own and operate a grooming shop in P.E.C. Parker’s
Barkers and have a line of all natural canine care products
(parkerspetcare.ca)
I am home always as I have 9 dogs of my own (all house pets)
Have a rescued grey merle dane Amelia and two one year olds
Parker and Faith (black and fawn)
Have done much rescue work on my own with giant breeds
Newfs, Danes and wolfhounds app. 20 years worth
Would love to offer my services to foster if there is a need in this area
Feel free to contact me 613 399 1170 if I can help
Have had experience with deaf danes in the past and own a deaf rescue bullie presently
Keep up the great work
Yours truly,
Kim Parker

We are taking Mazda off ‘PENDING ADOPTION’ for this does not appear to be the best right match for her or them and so we are taking inquiries and applications on this most wonderful of Great Danes again. I know that KB/JB is very delighted to have her here still and my heart goes out to Mazda….she is just so incredible and we remain eternally hopeful that her forever loving home is out there! AVAILALBLE FOR ADOPTION!!!!

Lil Linus’s head is slowly healing from the inside out. He will have a ‘war wound’ scar there once all is healed up but he is plugging along wonderfully. I have him on antibiotics still and he will be for the next long while(minimally 3 weeks). It is granulating beautifully. I was looking at him yesterday and said to Sean that MAN! He has really been growing(up and out) this past while. I think he must be close to 150 pounds now. This spurt he is on has just matured him so much yet then you see him move and you KNOW that he is very much all puppy still! AND the way that he looks at you; he will always be my ‘class clown’. He is just so happy, mellow and I cannot kiss that mug enough each day!!!! He now will come on my bed without too much encouragement and will even sleep there for part of the night sometimes. IT has taken this long for him to hand over that sleeping trust to us. HUGE HUGE HUGE progress made here. In the past week, he has also decided that *I* am the right ‘flavour’ for him and I get the best ‘almost kisses’ possible. He is very stingy, just like Bronson is with the kisses and he is getting closer and closer to giving me a true kiss. Linus is another one that my heart is going to feel quite raw when he is adopted yet it is time for him to become ‘king’ of his own home and we hope that his right matched home will come along. If not, he is most welcome to continue to call us his own and he teaches me every day to ’slow down’, to try and ‘relax’ more and to ‘not mind the little things’. HE is going to make an incredible therapy dog. Lil Linus stayed out the whole time when we had guests here on Saturday(usually he comes in and out of the bedroom) and he was AWESOME! Not one moment of counter surfing etc. He makes my heart swell with such pride over how he conducted himself!!!!! Our ‘Lil Linus’ is growing up…sniff! sniff!!!! One thing that has not changed his his wee hours of the AM rumbles through the house and right now; his new partner if Ocean…a very willing partner too! LOL

I am BEYOND proud of Dana! I went to take out her spay sutures last night with Sean’s help and she readily lied down on her side and made not one peep or movement the whole time we were taking them out! WOW! WOW! WOW! She was so relaxed, she almost fell asleep even when there was a slight pinch on one or two of the stitches being removed. This is the Dane that I had to literally WWF hold to take blood for a HWT when she first arrived. I just wanted to scoop her up and kiss her to pieces with how much she has come to trust and love!!!! We continue to work on her obedience and her new forever loving home is going to have to realise that this girl needs structure, routine and order in her home with NILIF for to give her an inch and she is going to run a mile. She has no qualms about trying to ‘boss’ another dog around if she feels that she can be amused by it….sigh OR if she can get that prime ‘real estate’ spot on the bed. She knows what she is doing and she will look straight at us afterwards, almost to say ‘yeah, and what are you going to do about it!’ LOL She then finds out….again, that she is going to get removed from the bed or whereever she is and have a ‘time out’ and what a goober! She is just so honest in her intentions and she makes me laugh every day. She also is great about keeping me on my toes! LOL She still ‘jumps’ on people and did so when we had guests over on Saturday night and that remains one of the biggest things we work on. She does not do it when it is only us with her and so we continue to work on the ‘excitement’ jump with her. This girl has been one of the most incredible experiences I have had at BHRR. She is just magnificent and I am most assuredly going to miss her when she is adopted. It will not be long now before she is no longer in need of us here and it will be time for her to be put up for adoption. I look at that day with mixed emotions…….

I was just saying today that I did not think Ocean was putting on the weight right and was wondering what her fecal results would tell us and BINGO! Received the message that she has Giardia. I have put her on Metronidazole 250 mg(3 tabs BID) for the next 7 days. I have enough at home to begin her treatment and if more is required, I will obtain more at that time. I will re-test her fecal in a couple of weeks time once treatment has ended. She has settled in well and though is ‘weak’ and cannot play as long as the other dogs; she is very much ‘in the throes’ of the play when she can. I said to Sean that she is so much like Dana it is ‘uncanny’ and that while they are ‘close’ they will also have their moment’s with word exchanging and already we have had that twice. Dana almost does not want to let Ocean out of her site and Ocean wants some privacy and watching the dynamics unfold has been interesting. Close as two sisters these two are yet with that comes ‘ups’ and ‘down’s…LOL Ocean is so much like Dana that she even has taken to climbing on the couch as if it is her right; no matter how many pillows and foot stools I put up there! LOL She is a very smart girl. She is picking up her name and ’sit’ has come really fast to her. Sit = many rewards with praise, her dinner/breakfast etc and some treats so that has been a fast sign for her. ‘No’ is not quite there yet and ‘watch’ me is funny with her for SHE will now watch me at times and when I signal to her; she will deliberately turn her head and walk away *if* she does not want to do what I ask her. Tethering has been a valuable training tool with her and just like Dana; she figured out really fast where the dog food is stored and has taken the rubbermaid down once already. She also is very much a ‘Kanga-Dane’ and when we had guests here on Saturday; on a standstill right beside him, she just jumped over our 38″ GD Bronson. She is ‘built’ for power, speed and I am waiting for Abbi to realise that she has such a partner in crime to play with for there is not other Dane here that can keep up with Abbi’s running/zooming outside!!!! Ocean has had no problems with her crate training and goes in readily and settles down beautifully. She has done a few whines here and there but after a some seconds, goes to sleep. She can ‘hear’ certain tones yet it could also be the vibration associated with those tones. I know that my PPSS is completely deaf but he has a nose that smells the remotest of delicious things and he can literally wake up from a dead sleep when I open up a new bag of dog food! LOL Ocean is a pleasure to have here and we are enjoying learning about her and she has most definitely ‘claimed’ me as hers. I cannot even climb into the tub without her wanting to come in with me! LOL But if one of the kids are lying on our bed watching TV, she has learned that the bed is a great place to be and can be found snuggling with them. Ocean just LOVES people of all types, sizes, shapes and ages. I want to make a public post here to thanking two of our BHRR adopters, now wonderful friends for the dog coat donated as Ocean was really in need of a coat to call her own. THANK YOU! I am still feeding Ocean about 5 small meals a day. I am most defnitely smitten with this special girl!!!! NO DOUBTS ABOUT THAT!

I took Ocean to work with me tonight and she weighed 37.4 KGS(82.28 pounds). So, since she was first weighed at the Shelter, she has put on 11 pounds. SHE must have looked beyond terrible then for she is extremely thin at this time. I took in a fecal and we are running a HWT test. Her heart and lungs sound great, she was wonderfully social and very quiet at the hospital and everyone loved her! The Vet looked at her ear and is not quite sure what it is yet was not concerned. Could be a spot she created by scratching at with her foot. She cleaned it up and put some panalog on it and thinks it will be just fine. We were able to confirm that she is spayed(took two of us to lay her on her side for the Vet to look BUT she was so great about it). We will wait until she has put on more weight before giving her Rabies. She is just so friendly and everyone there could see that she is almost ‘untamed’ in her mannerisms though. She took treats very gently from everyone too. She is a lovely Great Dane that is for sure! In respect to the drinking and frequency of urination, we are going to monitor for now(as indicated, we are not sure how often she had water in the past) and if need be, will run a UA if things require it. The Vet was not worried about it right now.

I have Shiva’s annual booked for the 31st of January. It will be nice to see how much she weighs now and I know that she will enjoy the trip to the hospital for a visit!

I met Georges in Rigaud, Quebec on Thursday to pick up BHRR’s Ocean and as soon as I saw her; I found her to be ‘cute as a button’ and I have nicknamed her ‘my wee button’! The Shelter had given her a bath that AM so she was so sweet smelling too! I am positive that within the next few weeks; I am going to call her a ‘mule’ too FOR she is another survivor. The pictures I have taken(it was dark when I got home) with Sean do not show how emaciated she really is. She is as bad as BHRR’s Dana when Dana first arrived in our program last November and almost as weak too. She has absolutely not one inch of fat on her body and you can see the muscle wasting that has gone on. I just well up with such emotions over seeing such incredibly sweet creatures in this condition. The ’story’ that we have on her is that she is an o/s(the people originally said she was a stray they found) and there seems to be some ‘question’ as to whether this home had her since she was a puppy or did get her about 8 months ago from a Breeder or a ‘friend’, who really knows. The paperwork says that she is spayed(Shelter also feels she is) and I am sure in the car when Océane(that was her name given by her previous owners and we are calling her Ocean) splayed on her back with all four feet in the air that I saw her spay incision. I will look closer at the Hospital tomorrow when I bring her in for a HWT(we learned that she was born in October 2007 - day not known - AND I did feel from looking at her pictures that she was around 1 year of age and her teeth place her about 1+ year too); do a fecal(her stool was soft yet not badly formed and smelly!) I have put her on Sentinel(The shelter has recorded that they gave her Advantage on December 19th, 2008) and I shall begin to de-worm her tomorrow as a proactive measure - The shelter did one de-worming on December 12th, 2008 but she was due for another one at the end of December); do a skin scraping on the side of her head behind one ear(not sure at this time what that is - could be any number of things and I am going to hold off posting any of my own speculations until I confer with my Vet on her own thoughts; but I am not overly worried right now); exam etc. I noticed that the Sherbrooke Shelter had given her her DHLPP and I will be holding off on any Rabies etc. until she is healthy. The weight that the Shelter had recorded back in December(no date given as to when this weight was taken) was 71.28 pounds(32.4 KGS). To put this into perspective, I did a ‘rough’ tape measurement on Ocean when I got her home(happy wiggly monster she was) and she stands 32″ at the whithers. THAT is one very painfully thin Great Dane in the height/weight ratio.  Another perspective is looking at my 5 month old Great Dane that is only 27″ at the shoulder and yet weighs 80 pounds AND he is nice, healthy and properly ribby as a Great Dane should be. We will see how much she weighs tomorrow. She is quite feminine in her mannerisms(for now! LOL) and her body type is ‘typical’ of what we see come out of that province. She is not a shrinking violet either this one. She is very social with humans(men, women, kids), dogs and the Shelter says also with cats. She has proven herself to be housebroken and has asked several times to go outside yet I would not be surprised if she has an accident or two during her adjustment with us. She has been very quiet in her crate(no issues getting her in) and has been fully integrated with all but 2 dogs here at this time(No playing allowed with Lil Linus due to his head and KB/JB due to what we believe is osteosarcoma and are awaiting further testing). She has ‘no fear’ yet is almost ‘wild’ and ‘untamed’ in her manner. Handshy is not what I would say she is, just undersocialised, independent and wants the love when she wants it and at times, she really wants it but when she is ‘done’, she is done! LOL She is a little bit shy yet I believe that has more to do with her new surroundings for she has just jumped right in here as if she has always been here for the most part. She can be ‘flightly’ with some sudden movements and I can confirm that she is DEAF. Through time, we will see if she can detect ‘tones’ or some ’sounds’ etc. The paperwork that they owners filled out for the Shelter says that she has leash manners and Georges was quick to tell me that this was not the case! LOL His message to me that he was on his way even said that Ocean was trying to drive the car with him! Georges did say that she eventually settled down and slept most of the drive to meet me. When I got her, other than one moment of trying to get in the front; she settled down with a nice meaty knucklebone and traveled great!!! She does not know her name or any other signs that I can determine at this time despite what the previous owners have stated. When you tell her ‘no’ she just looks at you and walks away and if you try to ‘call’ her; she just looks at you and walks away and if you try to tell her to ‘watch’ you, she just looks at you and walks away! LOL That does not surprise me. When we are told that people have gotten rid of dogs as the ‘issues’ with their Danes are that they ‘jump’ & ‘bark’; we pretty much know they have had little to zero of the proper obedience. Ocean loves to drink and she could drink and drink and drink some more. I limit her water intake and if need be, I will run a UA on her. She has ‘mysterious’ aura about her and I am looking forward to really getting to her ‘depths’ of which I have NO doubt she has many layers to learn more about her. She is very intriguing and ‘oozes’ inner strength, dignity and kindness. She is the type of dog that you just ‘notice’. There is just ’something about Ocean!’ She was also very gentle in taking treats from my hand. The one thing that really makes me realise is that when she stands next to BHRR’s Lil Linus; I realise what a ‘moose’ he really is! LOL What a contrast between her feminine bone structure/frame and his ‘tank’ body and he is nice, healthy and properly ribby himself! She is just so precious……..I am so happy that she was not put to sleep that Saturday(THANKS Cindy & Georges!) and that BHRR was called to assist for I will never forget how my heart sank when I received the message that she was slated to be put to sleep that same day if we could not step up to assist. SHE deserves SO MUCH better than what she has received in life to date and my promise to her is that she is going to be taken care of now and for the rest of her life. She shall never again experience the pain and suffering she has had in the past. I cannot wait for people to meet her for she is going to just captivate the world!!!! When I look deep into her soft blue eyes; I see what Sean commented on as well; a ‘tinge’ of Snowball’s similar stength plus shining beauty and we know how special Snowball was; a one of a kind Great Dane and Ocean is the same.  I know that BHRR’s Ocean would really appreciate any/all emotional and financial supporters to her rehabilitation for it is going to be some time before she is ready to be adopted.

BHRR’s Océane(Ocean) - January 22nd, 2009

BHRR’s Shiva is doing awesome!!!! She is maturing into a beautiful well mannered Great Dane and is now completely crate free in our home. I was feeding her in her crate as she is not the fastest of eaters but she has adjusted really well out of the crate and eats right next to BHRR’s Abbi now. She has passed on her crate to BHRR’s Ocean! I have some new pictures that I need to add of her to really show how gorgeous she truly is. While Dana is a black, black Great Dane; Shiva has almost a really dark blue hue to her shiny black coat in just the right light. She is very social, kind, loving and gentle. She was the first Great Dane that completely ‘won’ BHRR’s Ocean over upon Ocean’s arrival to our program on Thursday and she has really managed to bring Ocean to the point of attempting to play(you can tell that Ocean has some communication problems with understanding this behavour yet being a playful, young and though weak; she still had some bursts of energy she picked it up fast!). Shiva was ‘quick’ to quietly yet effectively establish her role in the house and after that; she was Ocean’s best friend! LOL Shiva can tell that Ocean is made of ’strong’ stuff; all those that I call ’survivors’ are like that and she stepped right up to welcome her while at the same time saying ‘behave.’ GOOD GIRL SHIVA! She is such a great ‘leader’ female Great Dane.

BHRR’s Ocean arrived on Thursday January 22nd and I just wanted to share two pictures of BHRR’s Dana with BHRR’s Ocean. I have added them below. TOO CUTE! Dana is doing well. Her incision is healing well(we had one ‘rough’ day yet I put on a 40cm collar over the 30 cm and that worked!) and I shall take her stitches out most likely on Sunday. I want to get some more full body pictures of her to share for she is looking SUPERB!!! She needs quite a bit more work on her obedience before I will feel comfortable enough to put her up for adoption BUT she gets better and better every day! Dana has such a huge personality and love of life that there is never a dull moment with her around! 

January 22nd - BHRR’s Dana & BHRR’s Ocean

I will be getting Ocean on Thursday afternoon and I have an appointment booked with one of my Vets for Friday night. I shall bring Ocean to work with me on the Friday and it will be a great opportunity to see how she is initially with various situations, people, sounds, sights and smells.

Right now, I am ‘liking’ what I see with Linus’s incision and I am going to ‘hold’ off bringing him in today. If need be, I can do it tomorrow. The edges are coming together nicely and it is less swollen and looking much healthier than it was last night. I am continuing to pump those antibiotics in him and I will be cleaning it again shortly. We are not out of the woods yet but I am liking where things are heading at this time. YAY!

We have someone from the Quebec Office of The Animal Alliance of Canada prepared to bring this girl half way to meet us later this week; most likely on Thursday afternoon. I will post updates as I can. THANK you Georges!

Lil Linus has been a ‘BAAAADDDDD’ monkey…sigh! On Saturday, his incision looked awesome yet at around 10:00 PM on Sunday night; I am lying on my bed and Lil Linus walks into the bedroom; quite pleased with himself and I take one look at his head(he is in an E-collar to try and keep him from rubbing etc…) and he has the drain pulled out of his head and hanging there by the two stitches the Vet put in to keep it there…..So, I was not overly concerned as the Vet said I could take it out Sunday night or on Monday and so, with Sean’s help; we took the two stitches out to remove the drain that was now completely on the outside of his head. I checked the stitches and all was good…PHEWWWW! E-Collar went back on, Lil Linus was given a treat and life moved forward. At around noon on Monday; I am getting ready to take a shower etc., to head into work at the hospital and in comes Lil Linus looking most thrilled with himself and I had that ’sinking’ feeling(he is a smart one and has figured out how to rub his collar on things to scratch his head…..) and sure enough; Lil Linus had pulled out two of his stitches…UGH! I cleaned it up, assessed that we ’still’ could be ok on the healing part, put him in his crate and headed off to work(I debated about bringing him with me so that he would not be at home alone until Sean came home shortly thereafter; yet I know that he would have been stressed and there would have been no one to monitor him closely/constantly at the hospital….) and knew that Sean would be home within the hour+.  Sean gets home and things are great! PHEEEEWWWW again! The next thing I know; Reception tells me I have a call and that it is Sean. I was not thinking ‘Lil Linus woes’ at the time until he says, “I was helping the kids with their homework and Linus comes up to me and he looks like he is so happy with himself….’ and I almost felt my knees crumple and I was not sure whether to cry for Lil Linus, cheeky monkey; had now pulled out another one of his stitches and after asking Sean how bad it looked etc., said ‘ok, I am putting Linus into the schedule for tomorrow AM to have the surgeon take a look at it, just so I have a spot in case we have to re-suture’ So, Sean cleaned up Linus’s head, ensured that the E-collar was in place and tethered Linus to him to keep even a closer eye on the little goober!  Fast forward to when I come home. Dogs are excited and Lil Linus comes up to me and rubs his head on me in the E-collar right on the spot he wanted the most as I am grabbing his head and if this boy could grin, I would have to say he was doing it from ear to ear. He had managed to do what we have tried to prevent him from doing since we stitched him up. He managed to take all of his stitches out. I could only shake my head and sit down and sigh. I cleaned up his head, smelled it and it is still on that ‘verge’ of going ‘either’ way and the area where the drain came out is nicely granulated yet I am concerned about the other area. I will see what the morning brings yet I have a feeling we might very well be heading out to the hospital for a new surgery and stitches for him. He has had this mission ever since we got him home(he was a wee bit of a monkey when he was neutered BUT not like this!) and he just seems so very pleased with himself over his accomplishment. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this boy ……..I am praying for granulation and healthy pink edges tomorrow AM but if he needs to go back in and has to have more debriding/stitches and another $1,000 Vet Bill, we will do what we have to for him. My concern that I was talking to the Vet about is even if we do re-stitch it(he has not even been 3 complete days since we had did the original sutures); is trying to ensure that they are in long enough to heal as best as we can. He has been under almost a 24/7 watch as it was and tethered, wearing an e-collar, sleeping in my bed etc.  We are going to have to be just that much more resourceful moving forward in keeping him from being a ‘BAAAADDDDD’ monkey!!!

We have been asked to assist with a SN’s(Deaf) Light Marked Harlequin Great Dane in Quebec. She is young(will get a better gauge on age after she arrives), spayed, painfully thin and appears to be really sweet. We have been told that the ‘problems’ she has is that she jumps and barks. I am hoping that she will arrive by end of week and look forward in meeting her! I am attaching 2 pictures of her below that were sent my way of her and the name we are calling her is ‘Ocean’. She was scheduled to be pts on Saturday and I received a vm that day asking if BHRR could assist. They are prepared to ‘hold’ on to her until we can get her to BHRR. The drive one way for us is 4 hours and the earliest I can do this is Thursday yet I am hoping that one of our Volunteers might be able to step up and possibly help us. WE can hope!!!!  NOT YET AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION!!!!

BHRR’s Ocean

Hi Gwen,
Wanted to let you know I have sent a Donation for Dana by paypal. I can’t stop thinking about her and she has such a gorgeous face! I know she is in the best place for her rehab and I will be watching for updates on her progress.

I brought Lil Linus into work with me yesterday when I started my shift at 4 PM. He got a pretty bad booboo when another Dane’s tooth ’stuck’ in the miles of skin on his head late that afternoon while he was having a play date. I originally thought the gash was about 3″ yet when I looked closer; the gash itself is just under 2″ and when the Vet did a bit of an exploratory on it last night after Linus was in la-la land; it is more like 3″ with where the tooth went up underneathe the skin yet did not tear through. I cannot thank my Vet enough for being so flexible and staying late with me to sew Linus up. He cut away the dying tissue(by the time we were able to get him on the table; 5 hours had passed). It was an insane day at the hospital and I am so appreciative. I will have to bring in tons of baked goodies for all!!!! Lil Linus weighed 61.80 KGS(135.96) pounds. The Vet had asked me how much I thought he weighed and I said about 135 pounds and I was not far off!  Lil Linus is on Deramaxx 100 MG daily for the next 4 days or so and if he needs something stronger; I will switch him to Tramdol 50 mgs. He is on 3 tablets of 375 mg of Clavamox BID and I brought him home with me last night and he is now resting comfortably. With the 1″ or so area found under the skin; the Vet elected to put in a drain(he poked a hole through the skin where the under the skin tooth wound ended and inserted the drain at that spot/sewed it into place) and I will remove it on Monday. A little lower down and to the middle and Lil Linus would look like a unicorn. These sweet SN’s become so stressed sometimes in a Vet Hospital and he had diarrhea in his run, the poor thing. There were so many people that had not seen Lil Linus since the KAH/BHRR Microchip Clinic last August and so many marveled at how much he has grown and his gorgeous lips and expressions! He is such a clown that one……The Vet agrees that he is in excellent shape and is wonderfully healthy! We ran some bw on him before his surgery and his insides are equally as healthy as his outsides! He is a very special boy and like all of our animals at BHRR; we are very protective of them and will do our best to ensure that they go only to the best matched homes possible. I am attaching a small slideshow below of Lil Linus’s play date booboo. This is the sort of injury that I also see our Tain possibly getting or our English Mastiff as with all that skin; it is so easy for a tooth or nail of another animal in play to become ‘caught’. Lil Linus was such a trooper though.  After it happened and I looked him over; gave him a big hug with some smooches; he then wanted to go back and play some more! LOL PLAY TIME over ‘Lil Buddy!’ That was a very expensive ‘play’ date……Lil Linus’s Vet Bill was almost $1,000 from his play injury………….as they say ‘accidents’ happen and this was a pricey one…..sigh……………..

I feel so blessed to have found your rescue! Our family LOVES our dogs and we are always on the look out for beautiful kiddos who can grow up with our kids. Recently, we were able to bring Lucky George home from a breeder in Nebraska. She wanted to make sure that her little guy had a wonderful place to grow and live in. Lucky is a deaf dane with possible sight issues (pupils are misshapen) and just the LOVLIEST little guy.

Jill wasn’t trying to breed white danes at all. She didn’t know that her Merle female and Harlequin male both carried the gene to make deaf whites. We are very happy that she picked us to be Lucky’s family! He’ll be 4 months on Feb 1 and just enjoys lounging in bed, on the couch, and running with the kids. He has a similar gray spot on his back haunch like Linus:)

Our family is Maggie (9 1/2 year old black dane), Hoover (9 1/2 year old black lab/retriever mix, and Lucky George (3 1/2 month deaf dane) plus our cats Magic (12 years), Reggie (7 years), and Sterling (7 years). Then our humans (LOL) are myself, Jason, and kids Sidne(14), Rian(6), Harrisen(4), and Ari(2).

We will continue to check back often to see how Linus is doing and any additional deaf danes that make their way home to your wonderful rescue!

Marie and enjoyed very much attending your open house last weekend and being ’swarmed’ by your brood. We felt at first like aliens as we were being inspected by wet noses and big eyes, what an adventure for both of us just to see all those happy dogs. I was struck by how well they all seemed to get along, I never heard an angry snarl. We really appreciated the opportunity to see first hand your valuable operation.

I want to thank all of my friends who sent concerned mesages last night over why they did to get to see me briefly @ the B&F event. Thank you so much for caring! I am really blessed to have all of you in my life and know how rare it is to have ‘true’ friends!!!   Most are aware from reading the blogs of our animals; that Dana was to be spayed yesterday and while the procedure itself went ‘text’ book(the Vet said she is in amazing condition, no fat, all muscle and spaying her went wonderfully); however; her ‘recovery’ did not go as smooth. So, I ‘elected’ to stay with her and as I was at the Hospital working as is; did not have the means to let anyone know that I was unable to attend the event and also missed out on a family commitment later that evening too. Dana took some time to get up on her feet and was really ’shocky’ with reaction afterwards. I took her home with me last night - just before 10:00 PM; and she was in some discomfort and I started off with giving her Deramaxx 100mg and ended up switching to Tramadol 50mg shortly thereafter. When I took her home, I wrapped her up in blankets, two dog coats and on a nice big dog bed and as soon as I got her home, she had a quick pee, was bundled up again on my bed; with a heater directed on her and we spent a long night together. She had a ‘good’ night overall and I got her up once to pee and she settled back down again and is faring well today. These Giant Breeds just do not tend to handle anaesthesia well and I was almost sure she was going to have several vomiting episodes that resulted in just some gagging. Poor girl has nothing in her stomach having been fasted and I fasted her over night too. She did not drink anything until this morning; despite trying to encourage her(we pulled her off IV last night) and this AM had 1/4 cup of food for breaky and finally began to drink a bit this afternoon. I just gave her another 1/4 cup of food, which the ‘food’ hound is pretty much back up on her feet; just wanted to devour and so I fed it to her in small bits. Just from knowing Dana’s personality, I figured that she would be wearing an E-Collar today and YUP! She is now sporting her new headpiece! She has adjusted really well to it and other than some bumping into things; is doing great. Her weight when she went in to be spayed was 41.4 KGS(91.08 pounds) and that means that she has put on 26.84 pounds since her first weight that we took on November 28th; which was 6 weeks ago!!! YOU GO DANA! Once Dana recovers from her spay and has had more training; we will be putting her up for adoption. She is such a sweet dollface!!! I also want to immensely thank Lynne Grandmaitre - Owner of BARK & FITZ in Westboro / Kanata for emailing me yesterday(I received this email when I arrived home from the hospital)to say that the $5.00 entry donation for the Great Dane event last night is to be donated to our BHRR program. As I replied to Lynne. I am humbled, touched beyond words and will try to be in on Saturday to meet-up with Amanda plus see her sweet Duke again to pick up these funds. A huge public THANK YOU being sent to Lynne for the touching and very generous gesture. The monies will go towards helping to pay for Dana’s spay.

I have much to update on Dana, including pictures from December 4th & December 24th. I will update her blog in more detail later yet wanted to post the following that on December 19th when I brought Dana in for her Rabies; her weight was 33.80 KGS(74.36 pounds) and that is up 10.12 pounds from the 29.20 KGs(64.24 pounds) that she was on November 28th. That is a nice slow/steady weight gain in just three weeks and I cannot wait to see what she weighs tomorrow, January 14th when we spay her. SHE looks FANTABULOUS! Many people that attending our BHRR’s Mini-Open house last Saturday were just amazed at the transformation in her. Even Sean, who had been away for 8 days with the kids in NB; noticed a huge difference when he came back on January 3rd. Dana is blowing her old icky, dried, brown coat and the new coat is coming in shiny and black. She is having a bit of a problem with some dry skin yet that is understandable. We did a skin scraping on the tips of her ears to see if we could find mites etc. responsible for the ‘eaten’ tips yet nothing showed up. The Vet believes that her skin became so dry, that this is what has caused those small areas of missing ear tips(hardly noticeable unless you are looking closely). Her tail has healed…YAY! and the question for the Vet and I is whether she may or may not have hair growth on some of those areas. No biggie if not. Some areas are already sprouting new hair growth yet some of those breaks were really bad. There is still one area that if she bangs it quite right(HAPPY TAIL GAL!); it will split a tiny bit yet nothing like when she first arrived. I am still finding blood on my walls and furniture! Between her and trying to get Mazda’s tail healed from when she hurt it at a Client’s house; it has been quite the journey…and bloodbath! We also did an ear cytology on the 19th for one of her ears was a bit smelly. There was no notieceable wax or yeast to be seen nor has she felt bothered by it; yet I have been ’smelling’ that lovely ‘on the verge’ of a full blown infection smell from one of her ears for awhile and when we could finally hold her still long enough(MAN! Is she social and friendly and quite the wiggle monster! LOL…she is so much better now!); we noticed a spot in her ear canal that was not looking too yummy. However; in continuing to clean her ears etc., that has healed up sans antibiotics and Dana has been doing awesome! I have so much to write here yet hopefully, this small blog update will help those that have been following her story for now. She is a very smart gal(not one to ever be underestimated!) and has learned how to open the door and if we can only teach her to close the door behind her……BRRRRRR! She no longer is always jumping up on things for food, though at the Open House; she did jump up on a few people; so we continue to work on that. I really have to get new pictures of her…she looks just wonderful. She continues to have some problems with her right front leg and has done some on and off again limping(that leg also appears to be just a smidgeon longer than her other one) and she is more flat footed on that leg yet the other leg is much better and she is ‘up’ on her toes better. She is no longer as bowed legged as she was yet it is there and most likely will have some of that bowing; for the rest of her life on those two front legs. Her newest best friend is BHRR’s Shiva and I call them my ‘2 Black Beauties’ or more like ‘mischief’ makers! LOL I will update her blog after her spay with her new weight and will take a new height and will work on getting those pictures from December 4th & December 24th up. If I were to ‘guessestimate’ on her current weight; I feel that she is most likely 85-90 pounds now. We will see how accurate I am! Dana has had absolutely NO more rescourcing ‘moments’ and sharing is very much part of her daily life now. I knew it would not take all that long to ‘teach’ her this acceptable mode of behavour(living with a family of 4 PLUS 17 other dogs in our home has most certainly taught her much!) and she is a smart gal! I microchipped her some time ago and she was so calm and did not notice a thing! Sean was able to just hold her collar while I microchipped her and she is getting much better about doing her nails. Not her favourite activity in the world yet like all the dogs; the reward of special treaties and lots of praise/love; makes the experience much more pleasant! I continue to lovingly call her my ‘mule’ for she is a lot like Mazda in her stubborness at times. “No” does not always mean “No” to Dana and we are working on this. I find talking to Dana is like listening to “Alvin, The Chipmunks” name being called…it is like ‘Dana’……’DANA’….’DAAAAAANNNNNNAA’ LOL She has done great with her outside recall though. She is very honest in her feelings and intentions just like Mazda is and I have a lot of respect plus admiration for that. I am really proud of this beauty and her will to live/survive and forgive and openness to trust humans. Her crate is such a non issue(she runs into her crate when she is suppose to go in it and I still feed her in her crate as she is a food hound!) yet my recomendation to the home that is approved to adopt her; is carabeener clips for the ‘escape’ artist. She knows when the clips are on(we use 4 of them) and when you do not put them on….VERY intelligent girl! Some nights, I do allow Dana to be out of her crate and she has proven trustworthy yet as for leaving her alone while I drop kids on the bus etc.; that would be very foolish for she is a ‘plant’ monster and also loves to grab clothes and play tug of war with them with Porridge AND this is when we are home with her! LOL She is no where near ready for that type of freedom…baby steps! She has picked up play behavour AMAZINGLY fast and while she is still learning canine communication plus proper play etiquette(she can play rough-not knowing her strength and gets overly excited sometimes - especially to Tain and can drop/flop him in a flash!); she is picking it up wonderfully. Dana has continued to show no signs of nervousness with men or women or children or dogs, cats, horses etc. OK! So much for a short update on her blog! LOL I am going to add one picture of Dana below from December 24th so people can see the difference less than 4 weeks has made to her! You can also see the bald spots on her tail. DOESN’T SHE look incredible though???? She is just stunning! Dana’s Bills to date are just under $1,000 and her spay tomorrow will be close to another $500. As a Rescue; we only receive a 20% discount on services. Please consider supporting her during her rehabilitation process.

BHRR’s Dana - December 24th, 2008

Two new pics of Abbi posted; Slides #54 & 55. Abbi lost some weight after her DBB sister Mudslide left in November to go to her new home and Abbi is finally looking really good again. She is such a sweet, sensitive, loving GD. I have to get a new height on Abbi for I know that at last measurement, Dana was 29″ and I know that Abbi is now taller than Dana. She is still the best of packages in that petite frame!!!! So wonderfully in proportion and the masking gene has caused her muzzle to begin to prematurely grey and I am such a suck for that look! I cannot believe that she will be turning 2 at the end of March. Time has flown by since the 3 DBB’s came to us as pups mere weeks of age!!!! She was a HUGE hit at our BHRR January Mini-Open house yesterday and I am so happy that others see in her, what Sean & I do. She is just amazing!!!! I do wish to add a picture into this blog of her playing with Tain or rather, Tain being a PITA and Abbi who has the patience of a saint(she loves order and rules in her life!), getting ready to ‘check’ the “Lil Devil’ for being a brat! LOL I LOVE LOVE this shot that I took on December 24th, 2008. If Bronson had been there; I am sure he would have told Tain not to be such a goober for he has had his own moment of being a turkey as a wee pup and Abbi saying ‘enough is enough…you will behave now!’ SHE just rocks!!!!

Tain & Abbi- December 24th, 2008.

Two new pictures of Hamilton The Newf - Slides # 16 & #17. I was very proud of Hamilton at our January BHRR’s Mini-Open House. He did awesome! I cannot believe that he is 15+ months old now!

New slide of Shiva now posted #12. She is doing well! She sleeps most nights on a dog bed in our bedroom and her and Dana have become my ‘2 Black Beauties’ AND they are extremely close now! Most people find it hard to tell them apart except for their collars! LOL She is just bombing along with her obedience and as she matures, is settling into an extremely wonderful GD. I will try to get a new height and weight on her for I know that she is taller. She still likes to express herself in welcome when we get home or people arrive and she in her crate.  She just does not want to be left out of any possible fun and that is the only time that we find that she makes any kind of ‘barking’ noises. SO PROGRESS! It is like she is saying ‘HEY! I am over here! Don’t forget me! LOOK! LOOK! I am over here!’ LOL

A huge thank you from us at BHRR again for the understanding that most have shown us as we work around the clock resolving the BHRR Computer issues. We are getting there and updates plus pictures should be able to be uploaded within the next few days. We know that the fans of BHRR have appreciated how unique we are in keeping updating blogs and pics on the animals in our care and for those that are attending our upcoming BHRR Mini-Open House; you will at least get to see everyone in person to know how they are doing!!!! We are looking forward to the Open House as we have not had one since September. I know the horses and dogs cannot wait too. Thanks to everyone for continuing to support BHRR!

As per our home page:

*****ALERT! Our BHRR computer has been compromised with the harddrive plus both servers affected with several malicious viruses which has even corrupted our current anti-spyware software. Please bear with us as Sean assists me in righting this situation. We have had to buy a brand new computer etc. and it is going to take some time to resolve. Sorry for any inconvenience and the best way to reach us at this time is on our BHRR line (613) 725-4279 for any matters relating to rescue. Email & Internet cannot be accessed!*****

Hamilton’s HW test came back negative! I will update the blogs as I can from work @ the hospital during breaks due to our BHRR Rescue computer issues going on at this time.