Dani the Great

January 7th, 2005 - we had to put our dog, Shelby, of almost 15 years, to sleep. It was one of the hardest things I had ever been through. I loved Shelby as if she was a family member and I swore that I would NEVER get another dog. Losing her hurt way too much and I told Jason to never even ask to get another dog. Well, in March of 2006 when I was about 3 months pregnant with Sean, we decided to get a dog. I emailed 3 or 4 different sources about pet adoption, but no one responded. So, one night, Jason said, lets just go to the pet store at Macomb Mall to look around & get an idea of what we want. While we were there, one of the employees asked if we needed help. We said we weren't interested in buying a pure-bred dog, we wanted to adopt a dog & we were just looking. She told us that a lady had just called there and asked if they would take a litter of 3 mixed lab puppies. They were 12 weeks old and if she couldn't find a place to take them, she'd have to take them to the pound. It sounded perfect...a medium lab mix who needed a home. The next day we went up there to pick up our "medium" dog and out comes what appeared to be a black baby bear cub, with huge paws. Jason wanted the boy puppy of the litter, but he had a big block head and weighed about 18lbs - 6lbs more than his sisters. Dani was the runt of the litter and so was Shelby when we got her. She was perfect. Since I had decided that I was going to pick our baby's name - I let Jason pick the dog's name. She's named after Dan Marino (of course). We bought a giant cage & huge water bowls, because we thought for sure she was going to be 100 lbs. Turns out that eventhough she's over weight, she weighs 68lbs and she shouldn't get any bigger. Dani's birthday is 12/14/05 and my gestational date for my pregnancy was 12/12/05, so Dani & Sean are the same age!! Other than a chewed pair of flip flops & hole in the carpet as a puppy, Dani has been a great dog. She was very easy to house break and she's incredible with Sean. When Sean was a newborn, we'd get up through out the night to feed him. Dani would get up & lay next to the rocking chair, like "time to feed the baby". To this day, if we get up with Sean during the night, she's right there - doing her share. Sean jumps on her, pulls her ears & on occasion, hits her with plastic bats & golf clubs. She still adores him. Probably because he always shares his food with her. :) But, we couldn't ask for a better dog. I figured she deserved her own post - for putting up with Sean of course. :)