The Story of Owen - Part 1

This is Owen.

Owen is an 11 week old Great Dane puppy. He is the great nephew of my wonderful seven year old Great Dane, Sedona.

He's also the newest member of our family! We picked Owen up a few weeks ago when he was just a wee-little thing. At the time, he weighed in at 18 lbs. He's now a whopping 34 lbs! He's exactly the same size as Sedona was at this age, and she's now 180 lbs of pure muscle and loads of love. We're thinking Owen is going to be one big boy!

Our journey to get Owen actually started a few years ago when Travis and I realized we wanted to introduce another Great Dane into the family. Sedona was getting on in years, and we wanted her to pass along all of her wisdom to a new pup. However, the timing just wasn't right, and so we waited and we waited. We waited a good three years before we were 100% sure that bringing a puppy into the house was the right thing to do. After all, puppies are a huge financial responsibility and a lot of hard work. We didn't enter into our decision lightly.

A few months ago, our wonderful breeder and my long time friend, Denise, sent me an e-mail announcing the birth of two boys from Sedona's blood line. Travis and I oooed and awwed over the pictures wondering if the time had finally come to bring home our long anticipated little boy. I asked Denise if the two boys were spoken for, and when she said they were not, my heart skipped a beat.

Would it be possible that one of these two chunky monkeys could be ours? It must have been fate because in the weeks that followed, Denise evaluated the pups and determined that "dark boy" would be coming home with us! We were beyond excited.

The pictures that followed showed us his sweet and fun personality. Denise said that he was a true chow-hound, and she was right!

The anticipation leading up to our trip to pick him up was fierce. We had to be diligent in our preparations since Denise lives over seven hours away from us. We lined up our trusty babysitter (thank goodness for grammies!), gave everyone a pat on the head and then headed out. We decided to take my car, the Fuzzmobile, since it's the same car I drove when I picked up Sedona over seven years ago. With Travis behind the wheel, I tried to occupy my time by watching DVDs and taking a few too many naps along the way :) I wanted to be well rested to meet my new baby boy! When we arrived at Denise's house, we were greeted by Sedona's mom, Rorie (Owen's great grandma):

And her brother, Midas (Owen's great uncle & Rorie's son):

It's hard to tell from that picture, but Midas is HUGE. I mean GIGANTIC! He easily outweighs Sedona by a good 20 lbs, and he's much taller than she is (she's 37" at the withers). He's the biggest dog I've ever seen in my life, and that's saying something!

After our meet and greet with Rorie and Midas, Denise took us into the puppy room. There, waiting in the corner, were two butterballs just waking up from their afternoon nap:

Owen is the lazy bones and his brother, Sy (short for Poseidon), is the one sitting up. My heart melted when I saw them. I had been waiting for Owen for many years, and I could hardly believe that I was back at Denise's house picking up my baby boy. It was very surreal.

Owen and I had no problems getting acquantied with each other.

Look at that big ol' puppy belly! I had been waiting to squish that puppy belly for weeks! And he had the sweetest puppy breath ever. I tell you, there's nothing quite like the smell of puppy breath. It signals the beginning of something wonderful.

Before heading back out on our long journey home, we took our first family photo:

It was hard leaving Denise's house because I hadn't seen her in years, and I wanted so badly to stay and visit for a while longer. Alas, we needed to hit the road since we had a long car ride ahead of us. Travis graciously took the wheel for the entire trip home so that I could bond with our new little guy. At first he didn't quite know where to sit...

..but then he figured out that mama didn't at all mind having him on her lap :)

And so he slept pretty much the entire trip home.

Of course there were a few times where he ventured into the backseat and then wanted to plop down on the console.

By the time we got home it was late and we were all tired. Owen and I had slept the last hour or so before arriving at the house. We still had a couple of hours to go before we all went to bed since we needed to introduce Owen to all the critters first. To our delight, the introductions went very well. It was the perfect ending to the most perfect day.

Thus begins our new life adventure as mama and papa to not one, but TWO Great Danes. Who knew life could be so good? Stay tuned for Part 2 of his story and lots more adorable pictures!