Dozer

I am sad to tell you that our precious great dane, Dozer, died yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, it is very common in Danes for their stomachs to flip, it's called bloat, and it kills them almost instantly. We are going to miss Dozer so much. He was 150+ pounds of pure sweetness. Dozer loved our kids, his brother Cowboy, being an escape artist from the backyard and tearing up everything in sight, haha. He was a handful, to say the least.

I remember the day we drove out to a small town outside of Brownwood to meet Dozer's breeder and see her new liter. Braelyn was only 10 months old, it was May 2007. I have loved great danes since I was a kid and always wanted one of my own. Jeff agreed to get me one since we were in the process of buying a new house and could have a dog as big as we wanted. When we got to the breeders I had the intention of getting a black colored female Dane. That's what I always wanted. The lady told us that males get bigger and they didn't have any black, males left. I was bummed but Jeff defintely wanted the one that would get the largest. There was this big guy in the back, a tan colored male fawn, who was shy and not jumping all over us. Jeff picked him up and fell in love with him. He told me he wanted that one. I knew Jeff had his heart set on that little guy so I agreed. Little Doz (see what he looked like above) rode home in my lap all the way back to Abilene. My first Dane, I loved him already. When Dozer first came to our house he cried all night long cause he wanted to sleep in bed with us and he tore up everything. Have you ever tried to house break a great dane? Ha, it was a disaster and as Dozer got bigger the puddles got bigger. When we moved to the new house, the dogs got moved to the backyard since Braelyn was starting to walk and having a 100 pound (at the time) dog accidentally knocking my baby over was getting old. However, the dogs loved their new place in the backyard and enjoyed being outdoors.

In July 2007, Dozer got very sick and we had to take him to the vet. They said he had parvo. I laid on the floor of the vets office with my huge dog and cried. Jeff and I decided we would do whatever it takes to save Dozer and $2000 and a week in the hospital later, Dozer came home. I begged the vet to let him come home because that weekend was Braelyn's 1st birthday party and I just knew we could do not do it with him there. The morning of the party I got a call from the nurse to "come pick up your baby!" and I did! Dozer was home, looking sick and with a shaved neck and bandages from the IV, but it didnt matter. We were thrilled!

For Halloween that year, we dressed him up as a dinosaur. He hated it! It only lasted long enough to take pictures. I even had Aunt Kristie make the costume because they don't make dog costumes for great danes. :) Sorry, Doz, I couldn't resist! Here is Dozer and Braelyn at Christmas 2007. Do you see how fast he grew? It's amazing!

Cuddling with my babies, January 2007. Dozer is doing a good job of hiding my belly here because I was 8 months pregnant with Brylee :) Dozer was crazy about the kids and always let Braelyn climb all over him. She sure is going to miss him. This was about the stage when Braelyn started calling him "SheShe" no one knew what it meant but he was her SheShe. It's true. Dozer really was a Daddy's Boy. In Dozer's last few months, he has become quite the escape artist. He can climb any fence and walks over the chain link from the dog run to our backyard. We bailed him out of puppy jail just a couple months ago. A few weeks after that he got out during a thunderstorm (this happened often) at 3AM. I knew he was out because Cowboy was crying so I woke Jeff up. Jeff ran about 1/2 a mile at 3AM in the pouring rain to drag his baby boy back to the house. Thats love. But I think he had a special place in that giant heart for me too :) Dozer was a real character and if we ever took him anywhere, everyone noticed him. It's hard for someone to not comment on the size of that dog!

One of my favorite pictures of me and Dozer. It was in September of 2008. There is nothing in the world like a hug from a great dane. I sure will miss that giant face! Cowboy seems to be doing okay. He is getting some extra love from Mommy and a bath today so he can come in and play with the kids for a while. Dozer and Cowboy were best buddies and what a team they were!
Sadly, I only have a handful of pictures of Dozer with Brylee. It's hard to take pictures of a barely walking baby with a 150 pound dog :( This was Dozer letting Brylee climb all over him at Christmas 2008, her first Christmas. Dozer and Cowboy always got Christmas presents in their stockings, I know, I know.

Aunt Kristie and Uncle Stinky are crazy about our dogs, just like their own, and I know they are going to miss him so much too.

We are going to miss the big guy. Sorry for the long post and lots of pictures but I just wanted to show you all our boy. Dozer was our family and no family is complete without a dog, I really believe that. We are going to miss him so much. All dogs go to Heaven, right? We think so.