Saturday, May 7, 2011

Frodo Lives!

Okay, so the title is a bit misleading. This post has noting to do with Frodo. But now that I have your attention....I've realized that I have sorely neglected this blog. I started it nearly a year ago and have very few post and even fewer followers. So I just wanted to post that yes, I am alive and no, I've not given up this blog.
Here's a quick recap of things so far.

Remus turned 1 year old on April 8th and now weights 108 pounds. When I brought him home he was 15.5 pounds. Crazy. Sometimes I still have trouble wrapping my head around the size of my dog and he's not even the largest of his breed. I remember the day my father and I drove two hours on a windy, two lane road through the podunk corridor of Florida to pick him up from the breeder who was located in a town known for sheep and an evacuation route out of the town.

After safely navigating this rather frightening path, we finally made it to the breeders home whose address did not exist according to my GPS. When we walked into her house and as she handed me my puppy my eyes bulged out of my head and I began to think to myself.."what did I get myself into..."

Afterward the breeder took us out to see the parents. She had four adult Pyrenees dogs; a retired breeding pair and then the dame and sire for Remus. As we walked out to the sheep paddock (where the dogs worked as guard dogs for the sheep) I saw four very large white dogs run to the fence. My stomach dropped to my knees and my heart stopped for a second. I was glad that the breeder had her back to us because I know the look on my face would have made her reconsider selling us one of her puppies. I began to have serious doubts for the first time since deciding that a Great Pyrenees was the dog for me. The dogs were positively giant. Despite knowing all the size stats on the breed I was still unprepared for the reality. It's one thing to know how big the dog will get and another to know that you're actually going to put one in your house.

When the dogs put their paws on the fence to greet their owner they stood as tall as I did. I quickly composed my expressions and asked all the usual questions. We then placed our giant puppy into the giant crate we had brought along and made the two hour trip back home, cleverly avoiding tractors, a slew of pickup trucks and a school bus that had been converted into a mobile fruit stand.


For the first few days at home Remus was afraid of the tile and refused to walk on it. As soon as you placed him on the tile he'd just lay down and look pathetic. Eventually he realized that the tile was the coolest place to lay and then promptly determined that the carpet was a good place to pee.

Fast forward one year:
KoKo has become so attached to Remus that she waits by the door for him when he's been gone all day, we've arranged furniture to suit Remus' cooling needs as well as installed window AC's just for him, and most importantly we no longer have carpet that smells like dog pee. Remus and myself have also successfully completed beginner dog training. We were the only pair that didn't miss a single training class for the two month duration. Far as I was concerned I paid the money for these lessons and I'd be damned if I was going to miss any material. It was probably the best $110.00 I've spend on him so far as he's reasonably easy to handle and well behaved. So much so that he's always on the invite list at family gatherings. Even the day care he goes to once a week love having him there. Yes. I send my dog to day care. I'll explain why in another post. I swear I have a very good reason. Promise.

And to close things out here are two pictures of Remus. Enjoy. 


Remus at 8 weeks






Remus 1 year