what's your dane's story?

[Charlene]

i'm interested to know just how your danes ended up in rescue and how they found you.

ashley was the product of a divorce. neither could keep her. she was raised in a loving home and very well trained. i know it must have been just awful for them to have to give her up. a few months ago, my rescue got an e-mail from ashley's little skin-brother wanting to know how his dog was. it broke my heart but they did e-mail him back and tell him ashley is doing fine.

pea was bought as a puppy. when she turned 6 months old and was no longer cute (huh???), she was tossed out into the yard. she was fed and watered but had very little human interaction and NO socialization for 2.5 years. the neighbors felt sorry for her and finally convinced her owners to turn her in to rescue. the rest is history.

bentley was also bought as a puppy. circumstances changed when he was 3.5 years old, the mom had to go to work. they left him outside all day. he was so lonely and longed for company so he started jumping the fence. they didn't want to deal with it so they turned him in to rescue. he's out here now, free as a bird and loving being a farm dog!

[crdane]

Carlie was taken off of the streets as a very skinny, flea infested 5 month old puppy in a trailer park. The woman who found her brought her into her home, with her two small children, without vetting her or anything. She infested the woman's home with fleas and went to the bathroom all over, so a week later, she turned her into rescue. She had a very bad skin infection from the fleas, and was half bald. She had tapeworms. She was horribly skinny. She has a collapsing esophagus issue to this day, so we think maybe she broke free, or had an embedded collar at some point. She was deathly afraid of trucks and, to this day, reacts to certain men. Who knows what happened to her. She very much wants to take care of herself, and even though we have worked hard with her, she is always on the lookout for danger. It is kind of sad that she can't just let it go and know she is in a safe and loving home and we will always take care of her.

[Mom x 2]

Capone and another Dane named Gretta were originally purchased as a breeding pair by a family in NC. They already had 14 Pugs they were breeding and wanted to get into Danes. But about the time their next Pug litter came along – Capone was 8mths old & Gretta was 6mths old and they were both terribly rambunctious. It didn’t take them long to see it was a bad combination. And about that time – they were going through a divorce anyway. So Capone & Gretta were both turned over to rescue.

I was already approved by the rescue and the volunteer that was taking care of Capone had to travel to my area for a family member’s graduation. She offered to bring Capone along with her and let me watch him while she attended the graduation. He was a hit with me & my husband the second he got out of the car. And luckily – Shiner approved of him too

Cindy

[Danewillow]

Spencer was surrendered to rescue for the vague "moving, finances" excuse. We were fostering him. The transporters said they had a doxie all dolled up and handed him over like a bag of trash. He slipped out of his collar (which was too big) when they dropped him off at our house and he ended up biting me out of fear once I got my hands on him. Of course, this is the one DH falls in love with and we have to keep him. It became apparent that he was an outside/garage dog. He has since learned that outside is just where the bathroom is and where he goes to lounge in the sun or do zoomies (which he had to learn about). The garage is just the place where his feet get clean when the yard is muddy.

Each of our fosters came with a different story:
Annie - horse farm dog. She started leading their kids' new puppies away and abandoning them so she was the one to go. Came to us thin with patchy hair.
Titus - moving.
Isabel - originally a stray, the family who adopted her from the shelter gave her up because she never got over her fear of the husband.
Zane the Undane - a stray at the shelter. They surrendered him to us with pictures that made him look like a Dane but once we got him we discovered he was way too small and he was pointing at our cats. He was transferred to another rescue.
Harley - his owners let him out into their back yard with their kids and their friends. The kids cornered him on the porch and started throwing things at him. He bit one of the kids and ended up at animal control which was the local shelter. According to the laws in that county he couldn't go back to the family and was scheduled to be euthanized if we didn't get him out.
Kona - divorce. He was her dog and she traveled too much for work.
Pollyanna - she and her sister were outside dogs. The wife wanted them in the house, the husband said only one could come in. Pollyanna was the lucky one to get a better owner.
Shane - long work hours that were getting longer. He's crazy after 8 hours, I can just imagine what he'd be like after 12!

[strickler]

Merlin's mother-a black and tan coonhound-had just had a littler of puppies when taken into rescue by Gloria at Charleston Area Great Dane Rescue-the pups all looked like Danes! I adopted him from Gloria when he was four months old. He is a merle-100 lbs now-and Gloria tells me he was the runt of the litter. I originally wanted to adopt one of his sisters, but when I went to pick her up I saw Merlin (he has great markings!) and while I was waiting to sign the adoption papers he got in my lap and wouldn't stop kissing me-so I guess he picked ME! I asked if I could take him instead! He will be seven in March. I saw Amos on Petfinder-it said he was a Dane mix-I fell in love with him-and arranged to have him transported to Georgia from Tenn. When he got out of the van I realized there was nothing Dane about him-but I loved him of course-he and his brother had been dumped at a rural school in TN in the summer-so no one was there-by the time rescue got them it was too late for Andy-he died of dehydration and starvation, but Amos made it! He is a Treeing Tennessee Brindle Cur-and he is the best dog anyone could ask for-I love him so much. He and Merlin and my Dane Ripley are best buddies. I adopted him when he was six months old and he is now four in February. Ripley came from a BYB before I knew better!

[AndreTheDane]

I don't know much about my Andre the Dane other than this:

He is 5 years old .... He was about to be put down at our local shelter because he has heartworms. A shelter employee took him home and she said a month or so later she said 'he just didn't fit with our household'. I don't know what she meant by that but nonetheless she posted him up on Craigslist, I saw him and the next day she brought him to my job. The rest, as they say, is history!

[bringmetoast]

Mable was picked up as a stray in Kansas. No one knows if she was dumped or if she escaped. She had anxiety sores all over her feet and her pads were ripped up. She also had bumps on her back.

She had been very recently bred and the rescue wasn't sure if she'd had 1 or 2 litters to date, she's about 2 years old. She wasn't underweight so I don't think she was a stray for long. But she is terrified of yelling and cigarette smoke. She takes a long time to warm up enough to play (Nova's going to have to wait a few weeks again until Mable is up to playing with her, lol). She was brought to a foster family in Nebraska who works with a rescue here in Colorado.

I chose her without meeting her, working off one photo on the website because she had sad eyes, and a report that gave a possibility to a HW issue. And a week later, they brought her out and we have loved her ever since. Heart worms and all

[intensgrl]

I posted this on another thread yesterday so I hope it is not redundant.

My rescue dane Harley who we got in November of 2000:

Home #1 cropped his ears but never bothered to tape them so they collapsed at the bell and caused him severe problems as an adult, as well as looking horrible aesthetically. Never learned why they gave him away.

Home #2 Got him when he was 9 months old and named him Harley after the dudes motorcycle. Owner was some pseudo bada$$ biker, who finally gave Harley away because "he got too big" (He was Green Bean size), but not before he and his friends regularly beat him and made him fearful of men. He lived outside at a biker clubhouse.

Home #3 were in their late 50's and the hubby always wanted a dane. He was good to Harley (neutered him), but when they bought a new house the unreasonable wife, who hated Harley, refused to take him to the new home "because she did not want slobber on everything that was new and nice". The man tried to find Harley a home for a month, but no one would take him. The man (who worked with Jeff) told Jeff at lunch in the cafeteria that he had an appointment to PTS the dog that evening. Jeff offered to take him, but had to pick him up immediately after work that very day. We had no preparation, it was my birthday and I was on a bedrest pregnancy. Jeff brought Harley home unannounced - called me to the door, I stood on the front porch (November and snowing - dark cold night) and Jeff opened up the back dooe of our 4 door pick-up truck. A LOOOOOONG elegant leg appeared and touched the ground, followed by a ginormous black dane. I was speechless! I had longed for a dane from childhood, when my best friend had a brindle, but I never thought I would ever be allowed such a luxury of having my dream fulfilled! The Universe brought him to me when I least expected it. I Loved harley to death. He had his share of challenges by the time we got him but I gave him my heart and soul and we conquered them together. He was a huge personality!

He was a sweet GIANT of a dog who lived out his last 3 years spoiled rotten as one of our family, but he had a tough road getting here! BTW the pregnancy ended with my last son Gage, who was born a 2lb. 12 oz preemie and Harley was the perfect guardian, it was amazing to see them together.

The stories out there break my heart, sometimes I wonder about humanity. God Bless you all for sharing your lives with rescue danes.

[LoMax]

Murray's very pregnant mother Molly was brought into a vet in Jordan, Utah and left. One of the vet techs called her and called her, the owners response was that she couldn't handle Molly or the puppies. Murray's father was tracked down and was owned by a family with 3 little girls under 5, they wouldn't take Molly or the puppies since their girls would be heartbroken when the puppies would have to find homes. The tech ran a cat rescue and saw the purebred puppies as a chance to raise money for her rescue, so she took them home. Molly soon gave birth and her 8 puppies were immediately listed on Petfinder. I looked for 2 years for a rescue puppy and quickly contacted the rescue, 7 weeks later I was picking up Murray. I almost walked away, seeing the condition of the rescue, but Murray ran out to greet me while the other puppies hid. I brought him home, dealt with a case of pneumonia, and the rest is history.

[Charlene]

LOVE all of these stories! reading them really does restore my faith in humanity!

[BigLittleSmall]

Bain

I got Bain when he was 4 1/2 months old. Everyone at school knows I'm the crazy pet lady, so I get asked to take or help re-home animals all the time. A girl that went to school with me (the quarter I got Bain was the last quarter I saw her, she hasn't returned to school since) heard about my love of animals in need of a home and started hinting around that she had a couple of dane puppies. Honestly, I thought she was trying to sell me on, so I dind't act real interested at first.

2 weeks went by and she was talking about them more and more. I went home and told my BF about them, to see what his interest might be in a great dane, and he seemed pretty receptive to the idea.

The next day she flat out asked me if I would like to have one of the 2 (a merle and a black) and if not could I help her find homes for them. Then she told me their story.

Evidently her grandfather bred them and passed away leaving her family in posession of a family of danes. The girl's mother raised toy poodles and was afraid that the dane puppies were going to hurt her new litter of puppies, so they all got banished outside. Bain was born in November, so you can imagine how cold it must have been when they got booted outside.

The dogs lived in a spare, junky backyard (with a 6' privacy fence) with no socialization except seeing a person come out once a day and dump food in their bowls and leave.

When I went to see the puppies Bain really caught my attention. The other puppy was wild and rambunctios, but bain sat casually by the dog house, just observing. Little did I know that what I saw as calm was actually fear. Bain is terrified of people. I don't kow what happened to the other puppy, but I wish everyday that I had brought them both home with me. Bain nor the black puppy didn't even have names, at 4 1/2 months old.

Trinity

I saw Trinity on Petfinder, she was in a kill shelter slated for execution. I drove 3 hours to GA to get her, 3 days before her time was up. She was impossibly thin, had a bad case of fleas, and a scar along her entire spine .. but she was so happy and carefree.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason she was surrendered by her owner (to a kill shelter) was because she has such a sensitive tummy. Any deviation from chicken or beef sends her tummy into explosive fits (which is why I think she was so thin, she couldnt' keep anything down).

I'm sure whoever had her (her name was "momo" according to the sheet I received with her) didn't like cleaningup mounds of liqui-poo everyday feeding her whatever cheap ass kibble I'm sure they could find.

[Charlene]

i really have to hand it to you people who have taken in sick and traumatized dogs. even though pea was an unsocialized mess when i got her, her problems were nothing compared to what i have been reading here. there is definitely a place in heaven for ALL of you!!

[13frajja]

These stories makes me sad. I so glad they found loving home. My two was born into a home that loves them. Thor was the dress-up dog for the breeder kids. He loves wearing dresses even when he got older. Freja was loves even though she was very fearful. They never knew anything but loves. They died feeling nothing but loves..

[OdinsMom]

We got Kevin from our local shelter at 6 months. He had spent most of his time before we got him in his kennel as his previous owner was horribly allergic to him. As a result, he peed and pooped as SOON as you put him in his kennel and was scared of everything. I've worked really hard with him and he's doing a ton better now, although the smoke detector going off will still make him fear pee! He reminds me of the little squid girl from Finding Nemo saying, "You guys made me ink!"

He was a lot of work but every day he does something that makes it all worth it. Watching him have a zoomie for the first time made me cry. Watching him figure out what toys are for made me cry. He wants nothing more than to be with you all the time. And watching Odin with him makes me realize what a wonderful soul Odin has. When Kevin is scared Odin leans up against him and licks him, and tries to nose him towards the "scary" thing, or goes up to it to show him that it's not scary at all. I can't imagine my life without either of them, it really is like Kevin was meant to be with me, with us.

[lornadoone]

Mojo from Kalamazoo

My husband and I rescued Mojo from the Kalamazoo Animal Shelter on his sixth birthday. Somebody posted about a dane in need on this forum, and I sent the hubby over to claim him within the hour.
Mojo's owner was put in jail on charges unrelated to animals, and no one else was around to care for him. The family came to claim him a couple of days later, but didn't have the $25 to get him out of the shelter.
The shelter let us have him for the $25, plus a deposit that would be refunded if we had him neutered. AND they handed us his AKC papers. They didn't know us from Adam and Eve, and here they gave us a pedigreed stud dog!!
Poor thing, he was just skin and bones and terrified from being in a cage. He ate non-stop for ten days; he weighed in at 110 pounds on day 11 (the day that he was neutered). He stabilized around 160 pounds. He was a gentle natural-eared fawn that was always appreciative of the cushy life that he landed in. He was with us 'til shortly before his tenth birthday.