It is almost 3:00 AM and Ocean and I are going to watch our last sunrise together in a few hours and gosh, I am just SOOOOO thrilled for her yet have to admit how sad our own hearts have been over her leaving later today. I have already mentioned to her new adoptive home that I shall most likely have the welling of tears and shall not be able to stay long(good-byes are always hard…) yet I know that Ocean is going to settle in beautifully and has the brightest plus most loving of futures ahead of her. We could ask for nothing more or better for her.  😛

Everyone has seen the tragic pictures of Ocean when she first arrived at BHRR. I wanted to share 2 pictures(I have loads more and shall add them to her slideshow later) of BHRR’s Ocean today(April 21st, 2009); less that 12 WEEKS after her arrival to our program. DOESN’T she just LOOK FANTABULOUS!!!!

BHRR’s Oceané – April 21st, 2009 – Less than 12 weeks after her arrival to BHRR – She just LOOKS fantastic!

ADOPTED! ADOPTED! ADOPTED!

The home visit went well and I shall be dropping Ocean off at her new adoptive home come this Thursday on my way to Lindsay with Tain; if the timings works for all. There is going to be a lot of tears in my home over Ocean leaving. As I mentioned to the adoptive home; Sean and I have NEVER posted that we would keep an animal that came into our program and while they are all very special creatures that cross our paths; Oceané is JUST that extra special to us. As I have said to Sean and this home; I ‘knew’ when Ocean came into our program that I ‘felt’ this could be a good match and never let this home know my thoughts and when they contacted me to express their own interest in her; it just seemed almost fitting that things are working out as they are meant to be. Ocean does not need us; we really felt we needed her as does I think PPSS; yet I honestly believe that this is the best for Ocean for a number of reasons; including that we have three dying dogs of our own that really need us; and at this moment; I think that we are doing the right thing(as hard as it can feel). To say, that I shall be welling up with tears when I let her go; is putting it mildly yet I know that this is an incredible beginning for Oceané and we put her first over our own hearts desires…. Her being adopted, enables us to help the next one in need of us and we just have to keep in mind that there must be that sweet angel meant for us out there…

FINALLY! I have managed to get the pictures from March posted – Slides #18 – #42. Her home visit for a possible adoption is this Sunday and she is doing awesome! I would like to see about 7 more pounds on her and that will come! Of course, now that we are April, I need to take even more recent pictures of her! 😛 Sean and I continue to fall more and more in love with this Great Dane and we know that she shall be an incredible addition to the `right`home. She is the best of cuddlers and I cannot believe how this girl contorts herself to sleep! I also want to thank everyone for their patience as I work on updating the blogs plus add pictures. As many know; Gwen has been brought on as the Court Behavoural Great Dane expert in a cruelty case and that has been taken up a lot of time as she is travelling up to three times a week in-between her own Hospital work, BHRR and family commitments to ensure that the 21 Great Danes are receiving what they need. I know that I still have many blogs and pictures to post and shall as soon as I can; as I know that one of the things that people love about BHRR is the constant updates and all those pictures! 😉 I also wish to say that though I have 272 emails yet to respond to(from the past 3-5 days); I have not forgotten. Additionally, within the last week; I have received 37 requests for assistance to take in Great Danes into BHRR. I have been literally working around the clock, trying to find reputable and quality Rescues for these Danes as BHRR is still beyond full. Spring is always a bad time and this year is the worst that I have seen in 13 years. 🙁 Ensuring that the animals in our BHRR care and those that need us are getting the proper attention, training and love they deserve shall always remain my top priority and these 21 Danes from this cruelty are the worst that I have seen in over 20 years of being in Rescue. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers….

The home visit for the possible adoption of Ocean has been rescheduled until the second/third week of April. It has been a ‘tough’ weekend at BHRR. Thanks to the potential adoptive home for being so understanding. I have 24 new pictures of Ocean to upload and hopefully, this will be done soon. In the meantime, let me post a recent picture of her below so that ‘all’ can see just how much weight she has put on and just what an incredibly gorgeous girl she is developing into. I have quite a few pictures of one of her most favourite past-times; tormenting Bronson! LOL You will see just how much smaller she is than him and she just ‘RULES’! She is not short at around 33″ herself yet compared to his 145 pounds and exceptionally tall 39″; she looks so petite! He is such a goober….with no concept how how much taller/bigger he is and just soaks up her harrasment of him….We are still working on her ‘gentle’ command with him and poor PPSS just feels so left out……Soul likes her; she likes Bronson & Bronson is clueless…….She loves to snuggle in the house most with either Lil Linus or Dyce. She acts ‘all put out’ when Soul comes to lie next to her. Personally, I think she is just playing ‘hard’ to get and is loving the attention from Soul and truly enjoys teasing him! LOL What a hoot it is to watch this ‘soap’ opera in action!

BHRR’S Oceané/Ocean – March 2009

Sean and I have been doing much talking and have made the decision that *should* this home not be the right matched family for Ocean; that we shall take her on as one of our own. It is not that Ocean needs us; it is that we really WANT her and she fits in so perfectly into our own home and just to look at PPSS; we know how he feels about her! 😉 So, we shall see how this weekend fares and go from there. Either way, Ocean shall have a forever loving home and that is what makes us feel so content. 🙂

I microchipped Oceané/Ocean today and she did not even blink! LOL What a great dog. I have not even had the opportunity to formally place Ocean up for adoption and I am going to be putting her under Pending. I was contacted awhile back from a previous adopter(and as Sean knows; I have felt in my own heart when Ocean first arrived of them; before they even emailed me; that this could be a nice fit…though I never said a word to them… 🙂 ) about an expressed interest in Ocean should she ever be available for adoption and they now have submitted an application in learning that Ocean would be placed up shortly. A home that we are more than happy to review and at this time Ocean is being put under PENDING ADOPTION!!!!

I am so behind and I cannot recall the last time I have been this behind in updating blogs and as some know; we are very busy with KB/JB plus have recently lost BHRR’s Klondike plus we focus all of our time/energy on the animals here with our hands on programs. Gwen has also now been brought on board as the behavoural expert in one of the worst cruetly situations we definitely have witnessed in 20+ years of being in Rescue. That being said, in respect to Ocean, she is doing amazing!! New pics need to be taken and added yet below are two pictures taken on February 26th, 2009 Ocean and Lil Linus….. She is doing awesome and every single test that has been run has come back ‘normal’ so I de-wormed her again JUST in case she was still postive for G(false negatives are not all that uncommon in testing..though testing is getting better); and that seems to have worked! She is gaining well and is active, loving and with how things have been, I have still to micrcochip her. She is such a puppy in so many ways and a dignified lady ‘goof’ in others. I just have to capture how this dog sleeps, TALK about flexible! LOL THAT most certainly cannot be comfortable yet she loves it! LOL She has many ‘sleeping’ poses and hopefully, I can capture some of them. Her obedience is just bombing along and I have made the decision that she is ready to go up for adoption…..Her need for continued leash manner training can continue in her new home(AND she still needs it) but she truly does not need us for much any longer. She is smart as a whip and she most definitely can hear certain ‘tones’ and ‘sounds’ yet she is also very perceptive and intuitive about things. Ocean is also the biggest monkey in climbing things! UGH! LOL She is so nimble, flexible and agile(Kanga-Dane in there!) that she can figure out how to manouver over a 48″ crate and get to the rubber made container and open it without any crashes or bangs……sigh…. 😛 She has also demonstrated that our almost 6 foot fence is nothing for her curious self to jump over and then walk the fence line to just jump back in because she can…..she has done this twice and that is BHRR’s Miss Gracie behavour there! We have had to be quite resourceful(lunge line when we need it and never ever unsupervised) and our fence will be made to almost 8 feet come spring. She is eager to please and her new home will have to understand to be careful with sudden and large hand or flighty movements for she still can ‘hit’ the ground in fear…but she is getting better and better. Just as I used to do with LT(gosh the memories! LOL and POOR Sean at 2:00 AM..listening to us but she is very receptive then)is race around the house with papertowel rolls and we play ‘tag’……She gives me the best of hugs every night before bed and can easily be a charmer in her desire to stay on the bed with you….LOL She is very sensitive and any correction is to be done carefully. I have not crated her in some time except to eat or if all of us are gone for more than a couple of hours and she has been doing fantastically, but she still is a baby and too much freedom for too long in too large of a place could prove to be too much if her new home is not careful. She is also an early AM riser(groan) and likes to zoom on the bed JUST like Snowball used to and while she is not the energizer bunny that Snowball was, she can ‘hold’ her own. Being around so many female dogs here has continued to build up Ocean’s confidence for her backbone has always been there but she is getting so much better in not letting ‘Alvin/Dana’ LOL push/boss her around. GOOD for her! Ocean likes to ‘tease’ Soul…for some reason he is completely enamored with her LIKE I have never seen with any animal before and I think he has a crush on her 😉 ……Soul has always been our ‘bachelor Uncle’ Dane and Ocean is such a monkey to him…poor boy…LOL Ocean will need continued work in shaping her personality in the right sweet and loving direction she has and also to continue on her ‘gentle’ skills when playing…poor Bronson takes a pounding from this girl in play……and he outweighs her by at least 50 pounds! LOL This is a Dane that Sean and I know that our hearts could really enjoy having her here with us as she has fit in so amazingly into our home but her time is coming to be placed up for adoption. The other thing that Ocean has started to do(THANKS Shiva! LOL) is bark in some excitement when you come home and she is in her crate. You can tell from her bark that she is not 100% deaf…….This Dane has depth and character and a joy of life that is just breathtaking. She has been a true delight being in our home. I will have to get a current weight/height on her plus wanted to post that she has very tender feet. The melting and then freezing of the melting snow has been hard on her…she had many cuts and sore/raw spots and when I tried to put booties on her to go out; she looked at them like they were aliens and Soul was always very happy to help her take them off….  😛

Oceané & Lil Linus- February 26th, 2009

I brought Ocean into work with me last Friday for a new weight – she was 40.4 KGS(88.88 pounds) and that confirms that she has not been putting on the weight as I would have like to have seen in the month that she has been with us. She really should have put on another 6 pounds and while that does not seem like much; she is still far thinner than I would like to see at this time. She is eating, drinking, playing and acting very normal. I did a Urine by Cysto and the results were normal. Her urine results were cocci = occ/40x and while there was a wee bit larger than normal amount of cellular ‘debris’ = 4+/40x; there was nothing of note to be alarmed about. I then ran some blood work on Ocean(WHAT a great trooper she was when we went to draw the blood) and other than a slightly high BUN level 9.2 mmmol/L (normal range is 2.14 – 8.93); everything was fine and the Vet was not worried about that. I am going to see what her latest fecal results say plus we might send out some urine for a culture yet the Vet did not really feel that it would be of major benefit. So, I remain at a bit of a loss on her extremely slow weight gain and after doing all proactive testing; I am just going to step back and monitor. As mentioned previously, it could just be her own metabolic rate and not be an major worry wart. She is presenting no signs that anything is wrong and I am going to relax…. 😛 She allowed Sean and I to do her nails without any issues and I have yet to microchip her for she is just so thin still. She is solid muscle of what she does have and was a HUGE hit at the hospital. She travels great in the vehicle but her leash manners continue to be very enthusiastic! LOL The rest of her obedience is just coming together so fast and I no longer crate her, except to feed her as she eats very slowly. She is a great cuddler and at night, she likes to climb on the bed just after I put the lights out and gives me a bit of a body hug and then gets off to lie down on one of the dog beds. In the whole time she has been with us, she has not had one accident in the house either. She is a FANTASTIC dog!!!! Sean keeps calling Ocean ‘his’ yet she really is ‘mine. LOL She was also given her rabies that night and got along with every dog, person and cat she met!

I am finally getting to upload some more pictures of Ocean shortly after her arrival at BHRR. Slides # 14 – 17. She is very very very slowly putting on weight. I gave her last treatment of Giardia tonight and will re-test her fecal later this week. I am not trying to worry that she might have something else going on that is causing her to not gain weight as well as I would like to see yet perhaps it is just her  metabolism and I am not going to jump the gun as of yet. She is eating, sleeping, playing and drinking well and her obedience! OMG! OMG! She has just suddenly ‘clicked’ and she knows her name, ‘no’, good girl, yay, come, off and sit….we are working on other commands and she is so eager to please….most days!!!! 😛 She is soooooooooooooo sweet. I have said this many times that I am so smitten with her. I also want to share some pictures of my ‘training’ success(yeah, right…LOL) of keeping her off my leather couch! LOL It is happening less and less but she is still known to want climb up and have a snooze…..I just had to take pictures at one point(Dana did the same thing despite cushions and stools!) as she is so positively adorable! She is also still quite ‘eager’ with the leash and day by day we are getting improvement. She will be having her very first nail trim tomorrow night and we will see how that goes. I also will be microchipping her then. I think she will be just fine with Sean holding her while I trim plus microchip her. She is such an awesome Great Dane. I have scheduled her rabies vaccine on the 20th of February and will also do a skin scraping on the tip of one of her ears; if need be; for just like Dana; now that I can keep the wiggle worm still; she has the edge missing in one area and all scabbed. Does not pain her or cause her to itch and I will see what the Vet says.

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 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

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.

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!

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