Our Sweet Bossy Phoebe Girl!

She really runs this joint! Ted might be alpha but he rules because she allows it. Phoebe came to us a month before Ted and though we first chose Ted by sight. Phoebe was ordered.
 
When we first found out about Great Danes we wanted a Scooby...brown with dark brown spots.  Forgive us we were being stupid! We had to be told how rare they were and that Scooby Doo was not a color Great Danes normally come in.
 
But we still wanted one, our in laws rolled their eyes but  told us to be patient since it could be a while. We went home with the idea this would take some time, we started the process with adopting Ted.   To our surprise...a few days later, our relatives called. They had found us a Dane. And she happened to be brown with dark spots. Not a lot of spots but she was brown. We were falling hard for the breed so color mattered less and less.  Phoebe had lived her life outdoors sharing food with another large breed dog and was a bit underweight. She had recently had pups and was said to be 6 years old. Having lived 3 years with this owner and 3 years with her first owner. Until she came to live with us, she had delivered pups each time she was in season. She was a little money maker according to the people who wanted to give her away now. This of course turned my stomach. Where were all these Phoebe puppies now? Were they living similar lives? Out in the rain, snow, hail, summer sun, winter wind? Huddled on an old bare sofa in a dismal backyard with just enough to eat? Or worse?
 
August 12, 2002, I drove up to Oklahoma to gather my new girl to home and
found a spitfire with bouncy expressive ears to relay her many emotions. After many baths, it was revealed that she was a Merle only brown from being extremely dirty. So I met a shiny dark blue merle girl, with spots so close in color that she is mistaken for a Blue Dane in most of her pictures.
 
Phoebe had an old injury to her back right foot, a deep slice through tendons of the underside that healed on its own. Her foot was flat, like a frog's.  Of course, Phoebe rejecting all pity for her condition quickly became the Nitro Funny Car of Danes at our house. She is fast, and fishtails all over the yard. Loves to be chased by her Dane Crew. throwing her pursuers off with fake outs and dives into bushes. She leaves them all eating dust, except for Dove.
 
Her unique foot configuration proved especially useful during an ice storm years. While all the other dogs were slipping and falling about like greased monkeys on the sheet of ice that was our lawn, Phoebe was running at her usual speed and sliding to gentle curving stops due to her perfected balance and her flat foot rudder action. Her traction was amazing!
 
Although she came from humble beginnings and lived a rough life previously, one would not know it by the way she marched right into our house August 15th 2002 ( a month before our Ted and her birthday by the way) and made herself comfortable on all the furniture immediately as if she had never spent a day outdoors.
 
So firmly has she embraced her new life...

She will not go outside for her daily constitutional if it's raining, or snowing without her Assistance Human holding an umbrella over her head. As if she has never been touched by weather before and she is not going to start now. Phoebe, our aging matriarch, recently celebrated her 10th birthday. Runs this place with an iron fist. She stands between dogs who bicker, punches dogs that need a good smack in the head and cuddles them soon after. Her sorrowful cries to coyotes at night remind us of all the babies she has had to say goodbye to and our hearts break at the thought.  She and Ted are perfect mates... She lets him be the big man and he lets her believe she is more important than toys.
  
Click Here to learn about Andrew our Third Adopted Dane