clickinmyheels

Yesterday was National Dog Day! Did you miss it? I loved seeing all the pictures posted of faithful furry friends. If you know my husband and I, you know we adore our dogs. We were both raised with dogs growing up and learned early on the special comfort and companionship that a dog brings. Since I was little, I knew I’d have a dog or dogs in my own house as soon as I could. I can’t imaging a house without a dog. My grandparents had Dobermans and that’s where my love of the breed began. I remember laying on them in their living room, helping to walk Dobie in the park and woods with my grandpa, playing endless games of fetch, and loving the slobber and wet nose hovering over me from the back of the station wagon on road trips with my grandparents. I smile remembering my grandma sitting in her rocker recliner with her foot tap tapping and playing with a snoozing and happy dobe below. Her feet could not reach the floor, so Dobie made the best footrest. I knew one day, my dog would be a Doberman. My husband had dogs growing up too. It’s so funny because the family that lived in the house before my husband and his family lived there, had Dobermans. As a kid, my husband thought they were beautiful dogs, but he was completely terrified of them. I guess he was easily converted once he met our first dobie, her litter mates, and her sweet momma named Baby. Our sweet puppy Zeppelin hooked us and we knew we were Doberman owners forever.

A year or so after Zeppelin, we got another female puppy named Gretta. The two had such different personalities with Zeppelin being submissive and Gretta being more dominant and protective. Years later, we rescued a third done named Wrigley. Unfortunately Wrigley passed away suddenly after surgery from what we believe was an undetected heart issue.

We tried to adopt another male, but it didn’t work out with him and Gretta and she was in a lot of pain from declining health issues. After ACL surgery, another emergency room trip and a lot of medicine, sadly we had to let Gretta go so she no longer suffered. It was very sad for us all and something you never quite shake off.

My husband looked again online at different rescues and shelters to hopefully find us another dobe to love. He came across a picture of a 10 month old red boy named Barron Von something or other. He was in a Humane Society in IL so we drove a couple of hours to meet him. I was hesitant because we had been through so much. At the time, we had a three year old daughter and a baby just toddling around. I didn’t know if I could go through any more heartache if something happened or if this dog didn’t get along with our sad Zeppelin. When we all got to the Humane Society, I thought Baron was HUGE. He needed a little work with manners and had a lot of puppy in him, but he was a beautiful boy with a sweet face that somehow eased my worries and he joined our family. After a day or two we finally agreed that Baron Von something or other was much too formal for this goofy new boy in our family. Since we both love Seinfeld, we decided on Kramer. His reddish-brown hair and goofy face matched the character and it fit like a glove. Kramer won our hearts and Zeppelin’s. He is the sweetest and most gentle boy with our girls and our aging Zeppelin. After having Kramer for 6 years now, we cannot imagine what our life would be if my husband had not sent me that Pet Finder picture and we chose to not drive to that Humane Society to have a look. He is perfect in our eyes- Our faithful protector and always eager to please.

Since we were settled after moving and ready for a third dobe, we began searching last summer. After a few months of searching and working with different rescues, we came across a family who had just got a young puppy and realized after having her plus their newborn baby that it was just not the right time for them to have a puppy. And that’s when we met our little Zelda Blue.

She was so sweet for the first week or so and then the holy terror puppy nipping and dober fun began. Having children with a puppy in the house was a new experience for us since Kramer was 10 months old when we got him and had already grown out of a lot of those puppy phases. We didn’t have any kids yet when Zeppelin and Gretta were puppies. The stealing and trying to eat anything in sight and running off with socks, Legos, Barbie shoes, really anything she could grab was her number one pastime. She’s kind of grown out of that and is doing better and the girls are better about keeping things out of her reach but there are still times when she’s on the lose with the most random item and I swear she’s smiling the whole time laughing at us. This past December, we lost our sweet Zeppelin. She passed unexpectedly and quick and was hugged in my arms as she left us. It was really difficult for our sweet girls who just loved her like their big sister. I know that sounds crazy, but she was very motherly and was like our first born child. Kramer was kind of lost without her and we were thankful that we had Zelda to help keep him busy.

Now Zelda is a year old and Kramer is 6 years old. She’s a handful and we are at full capacity with dogs at the moment. Our house is crazy, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

In the future, maybe when Zelda is settled down a bit, we would love to help foster for local Doberman rescues like Aries Doberman Liberation Rescue www.dobermanrescuegr.org or even help with Dogs on Deployment organization that helps find foster homes across the country for pets while military personnel are deployed www.dogsondeployment.org.

The number of dogs in shelters and given up by owners is heartbreaking and we are strong believers in rescuing and giving those sweet animals the love and life they deserve.

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”
—Roger Caras