I was just thinking

after reading my last post I was just thinking how up until about 3 years ago Brittany would always end up sleeping on our bed. She would find her way up there and get nice and comfy - she didn't care either if she had to lay on top of me or Scott - she just wanted to be on the bed with us. I remember a few times Scott would wake up short of breath only to find the reason he couldn't breathe was because the dog has her head lying across his neck LOL! Or I would wake up to see Britts sleeping right inbetween us with her head on the pillow. The worst though would be when she would dream - she would start "running" in her sleep and would kick the heck out of me all night! I would sometimes stack up some pillows so if she did start running I wouldn't take such a beating LOL! On a few occasions I remember Scott storming out of the bedroom with his pillow and going to sleep on the couch and under his breath muttering "this is bullshit" LOL! That all ended though when our new bed was delivered. We went from a Queen size to a King size and the mattress we bought was very high off the floor so there is no way Brittany can get herself up there (especially not now she is over 10 yrs old and is really showing her age these days) but I know if she could she would be up there in a heartbeat snoring away :-)and of course I would welcome my sweet girl :-)

Ahhhh the "crate"

Well it is easy to say that life with our pup was certainly alot different than life with no pup LOL! We now had this little sweet puppy who totally depended on us for everything. Luckily Scott was working nights so he was home all day with her and then I was home all night so she never really was left alone.

When we first thought about getting a puppy everyone was adament about "crate" training and told us oh it is the best thing to do and if you don't you are crazy blah blah blah. So we took their advice (who were "they" anyway I cannot even remember LOL) and the night we bought our puppy we also bought the biggest most expensive crate we could find. We came home that first night and set that crate up and thought oh yeah this is gonna work - this will be sweet Brittany's home away from home - a place where she can retreat for some R&R and some privacy - oh yeah SURE!! Let's just say the first night in the crate was perfect - we didn't hear a peep out of her. The second night was not so bad either maybe just a little whimper here and there. We actually thought this is kind of odd - aren't puppies notorious for keeping everyone awake during the night? Well yeah our sweet little bundle decided to wait til that third night to show her true "nighttime" colors. She probably figured by this time we were totally in love with her so alittle "crying" during the night couldn't hurt. So that is just what she did - she barked and she whimpered and she "cried" on and off for most of the night. I of course would get up and go out into the dining room (that is where we kept her crate since at that time we had no furniture in there) and make sure she was ok - I would stick my hand in the crate and pet her and just as she would settle down I would head back to bed only to get nice and comfortable under the covers when the barking and crying and whimpering would start up again. Of course Scott slept right through all that. Funny how a guy can do that - sleep right through anything that happens during the night? Crying babies or crying dogs nope they sleep right through it. I guess their hearing is not as good as ours LOL!.

So let's say by 5am I was just at the end of my rope I was SO tired plus I felt horrible :o( I felt like here we just ripped this poor puppy away from her mom and brothers and sisters and the only life she knew and threw her in this crate in this empty room all by herself - how cruel!!! So you can all guess what I did next - I know someone who tries to be "logical" and do the right thing I did the totally wrong thing - I let that little darling fuzzy puppy out of her cage and let her follow me down to our room and into our bed. I know BADDDDDD thing to do but really I just couldn't help myself. Of course as soon as she got herself settled nice and snuggly between us with her head on the pillow she was snoring in no time! And I too was able to go to sleep (not knowing that this particular "scene" you know with her nice and snuggly between us with her head on the pillow would be going on for the next 7 years!!!)

getting to know our new puppy :o)

the first few days with our pup were pretty much a blur. We did have to come up with a name for her - we tossed around a few ideas (I had really liked Gretchen but Scott didn't) so eventually we came up with His Majesty's Sweet Dreams Brittany (we call her Brittany or Brits and now sometimes "Brittles" :o) His Majesty's represents His Majesty's Mastiffs (they are the breeders - Eva and George - who we got our pup from - and once again they are awesome and even now 10 years later we still keep in touch with them :o) I actually came up with the "sweet dreams" part because when Scott and I were first married he worked nights (10pm-6am) - the first 4.5 years we were married we lived in an apartment so I was not too nervous to stay alone all night but then when we bought our house I was a wreck. Seriously we lived in our house for alittle over a year before we got Brittany and in that year I might have slept maybe 3 hours each night - I was scared plain and simple to sleep there alone. We live in a really nice area too but yea I was scared so I guess I would fall asleep around 11-12am and then I was wide awake again at 2am and I would stay up pretty much til around 5 and then I would fall back asleep just in time to wake up for work (rolleyes). I knew every single show that was on from 2-5am LOL! I even found this old cartoon Wait Til Your Father Gets Home that I used to watch when I was kid they were showing it on Cartoon Network and I actually used to look forward to watching it in the middle of the night! Anyway once Brittany came to live with us all of a sudden my "fears" were gone. How can that be I mean she is just an 8 week old pup but for some reason I just felt "safer" with her there. As the years went on you can see why as at her top weight she was about 175 lbs!!! She was and still is my best pal and my protector :o)

But getting back to the first few days as I said in my previous entry we had to introduce her to Samantha our "attack" cat - that made me alittle nervous because I really didn't know how either would react - though I was pleasantly surprised to see that Brittany really didn't give a hoot at all about the cat and the cat - well she was very "cautious" she would walk around the pup with her back arched (she was declawed so we didn't have to worry about her hurting the puppy) but she remained pretty "civil" towards Brittany thank goodness. Of course there were the few minor scuffles - you know like when the cat would sit in the hallway and wouldn't let poor Britts go by - and this is when Brittany was older too she wasn't a little pup anymore LOL! Samantha would sit in the hallway and when Britts tried to pass she would bat her really fast with her one paw and poor Britts would run the other way LOL (big attack dog right LOL!) I also remember a time when my parents were over and all of a sudden we see Samantha racing through the living room jumping over the couch and hiding behind it within seconds Brittany was right behind her she actually jumped up on the couch and all we could see was this little black paw popping up batting the air LOL! I look over and my mother is crying I was like WTH??? why are you crying?? "because that dog is going to hurt the cat" and I laughed and said "that dog" will never catch the cat LOL! and they were not hurting each other they did that all the time - not once did the dog or cat ever show any "real" aggression towards each other. On the other hand the cat did show aggression towards Scott all the time LOL!! But that is another story entirely :o) (to be continued)

closer to finding our puppy :o)

So like I said in my first entry I worked for an Animal Health company so I had access to alot of different Dog magazines - Dog Fancy was one that I loved to read so I started looking through the section where they named some different breeders and I found a breeder in Maryland (I think that is where it was sorry it was 10 years ago so my memory is alittle foggy on all the little details). Since Maryland is drivable from NJ I figured what the heck so I called the number and ended up speaking to a woman who told me she didn't have any pups available at that time but she did know of someone in NJ that she knew to be a reputable breeder and that had pups available. She gave me the number and I quickly called and that is the first time I spoke to Eva. She was so nice on the phone and she told me she did have 3 pups still available so we set up a day and time to go see the pups. We were so excited - it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the house and when we got there we were invited in and we talked with Eva and George for a little while and then they brought in the "dad" of the litter. He was beautiful! I can still remember him - he walked into the living room and he looked like a big teddy bear. He has the kindest face and he walked over to me and I would be lying if I didn't say I was nervous honestly I had never seen a dog that big in person LOL! He came over to me sat down and put his head on my knee and at that moment I KNEW I had to have one of these dogs. Eva then brought out the "granddad" he too was awesome - my husband still talks about him and always says when we do get another mastiff if it is a male he wants to name him Virgil after that gorgeous dog. We also got to meet the "mom" who was also just beautiful. Then Eva and George brought out the 3 pups they had left :o) These were the 3 biggest cutest puppies I had ever seen. If I could have I would have taken all three LOL!!! They were just soooo cute and "warm" and they had that puppy smell and they were all really tired looking LOL! We decided that since we liked all 3 that we would let the pups decide - we sat on the floor and we waited to see which pup "picked" us - and sure enough the biggest of the 3 came wandering over and sat down and just hung by us the rest of the time. The other 2 came around as well but this one in particular was the "one" - though honestly I didn't think we were actually buying right at that moment until Scott said "ok I guess we will take this one right?" OMG I was SO happy!! But I was nervous too - isn't it funny how you could want something SO bad and then when you finally get it you all of a sudden become nervous? So we took care of all the sale "details" and then we were off with our new pup. Only we didn't even have all the "supplies" we would need for her so Eva and George said they would come with us to the local pet store because they needed a few things so they would help us get the things we were going to need (didn't I say they were awesome) what a totally "different" experience than the first attempt we had at buying a Mastiff LOL! At least here there were no swan/duck like things chasing Scott around the yard (hehehe!!! I swear I still cannot tell that story without laughing - mostly because he didn't think it was funny not then and not now LOL!)

At the petstore we ended up buying the food we would need along with a collar and the all important "crate". Ah yes the crate - we were all gung-ho about the "crate" training (which lasted all of about 2 days LOL! see can you tell already I am a total pushover for this dog??) My sister laughs because just the other day I told her I think I have found my "passion" in life (of course my 2 girls are my passion) but I also think that the Mastiff is my passion - she said I could have told you that 10 years ago LOL! Anyway after we bought all our supplies we thanked George and Eva and we headed home with our brand new addition :o) I held her on my lap the whole 1.5 hours and I'd be lying if I didn't say by the time we got home my arms hurt - I mean who's arms wouldn't be sore after holding a 22 lbs puppy for 1.5 hours :o)

The best part was we hadn't told anyone we were buying the pup - so no one knew we had her except for us. So when we got home Scott set up the "crate" and we tried to get her familiar with some of the house. Now there is one part I forgot to mention and that is Samantha. Who was Samantha - well Samantha otherwise knons as "the beast" was our little black cat. Who BTW was not your average cat. Nope unfortunately Samantha was one of the meaniest cats on earth and how we ever got so lucky as to own her is beyond me. I have no idea why she was so mean since everyone knows my pets are treated with the utmost kindness - for heaven's sake these animals are treated better than some of the people in my life LOL! So anyway we have this really mean cat and now this new puppy so we have to try to introduce them to each other without the cat going beserk! (more to come so stay tuned :O)

continuing our story

so in my last entry I ended at us calling the number in the paper about the mastiff pups for sale. I spoke to the woman who was the so-called "breeder" and we set up a time we could go down to her place to see the pups. I was VERY excited as you can imagine and so was my husband (even though he tried to play it "cool" - I knew he was excited simply because he ran to the bank and withdrew the $800 in cash - oh yeah that is what the woman was asking for the pups $800 which right there should have sent up a red flag but really what did I know? I thought WOW that is a real bargain LOL!) The day we were going to see the pups I got out of work alittle bit early and we headed down to the woman's house (which luckily was only about a hour away from where we lived). Now mind you this was January and it was EXTREMELY cold so when we got to the woman's home we expected to be "seeing" the puppies inside the house. Nope WRONG! These little pups were being kept outside in the yard - they were in a fenced in enclosure and there was a little dog house with a "heat lamp" in it. Right there I was turned off - not that I am bashing anyone who keeps their dogs outside - I mean that is what some people choose to do I guess I was just turned off because it was FREEZING outside and the dead of winter and these were just 8 week old pups. Moving on we looked at the pups and they were all pretty cute only they were a bit on the scrawny side - all but one - he was pretty hefty looking and the breeder proudly told us "he's the biggest he weighs 16 lbs!" now not knowing a whole lot about mastiff puppy "sizes" and really what should be the healthy weights at a certain age we thought ok he looks good so hmmm maybe we will take him only to find out that he wasn't for sale. Ok WTH? Then why show us him? The breeder told us that someone has already come and put a deposit on him BUT if we really wanted him we could have him. Uh ok I thought the reason you put a deposit on something is so someone can't snatch it out from under you? That didn't sit too well either. But he was pretty cute and I really did want a puppy so before we said we wanted him we asked if we could see the mom and dad - which according to the woman when I spoke to her on the phone were "on the premises". Only somehow now that we wanted to see them miraculously she didn't remember telling us that both parents were there - only the mom - the dad was somewhere in LBI??? HUH? Well whatever we thought ok let us see the mom. Now from what I read and from what people have told me that the way you can sort of predict what the temperment of the puppy will be is to "meet" the parents - if the mom and dad dogs are approachable and "nice" then most likely the pups will follow suit. Well here that didn't seem to be the case. We were not allowed near the mom (who BTW was chained up way in the back of the yard). There was also another Mastiff over to the other side of the yard who we were not allowed to go near either because apparently he had been abused and didn't like strangers :o( So ok now I am really getting turned off and I think my husband probably would have left even sooner had I not been asking some questions. We decided to talk privately so we took a little walk across the yard and now here comes the part that even 10 years later when I think about it I start laughing out loud. As we are walking we come across what looked to be a giant swan of some sort - so my husband (oh my gosh now I am laughing) decides he is going to try to pet this thing and just as he is reaching out to pet this swan-like duck thing the woman yells NOOOOOOO!!! Don't touch him!!! and with that this ducky thing raises it wings (and now it looks huge) and kind of lurches forward and starts chasing poor Scott through the yard. He is running like hell and I am just standing there not know whether to laugh or somehow try to help him!!! Eventually this duck/swan got tired and stopped chasing him and wandered back wherever the heck it came from. I think it was at that point that we both decided that this was not the person or place we wanted to buy our puppy from. We didn't want to totally insult the woman so we just told her we needed to think about it some more and that we would contact her. She proceeded to follow us to the car telling us how that pup would be gone and how it's now or never blah blah blah. But we stuck to our guns and we told her we would call her (which of course we never did). One thing too I forgot to mention was this woman was also supposedly breeding Labs and Rottweilers. There were also about 50 cats roaming around the "grounds" as well. It just didn't sit well - even though it killed me to leave those puppies in her hands. Honestly if I could I would have taken them all (I believe there were 8 total). But I think we made the right decision in not taking the pup. I had hoped to be driving away with a puppy in my arms but the more I thought about the more I realized with a dog this size we REALLY needed to go to a reputable breeder - one that really cared about their dogs and one that we could trust to help us if we needed and one that was honest and just flat out a loving dog owner - not just in it for the $$$. And lucky for us about a week later we found that person :o) (to be continued)

From the beginning

I am semi-new to this blogging "thing" so I hope you can all bear with me til I really get my "mojo" going LOL! I have decided to start this blog just so I can document my life for the past 10 years with my "beautiful beast". I wanted somewhere I could come and just jot down all my memories past/present of her and hopefully give a few people a good laugh because hell knows we can all use one now and again and I think my sweet girl can provide that (I know she does for me).

Anyway a funny thing happened to me about 10 years ago - I bought my very first Mastiff. I had always been an animal lover and have always wanted a dog from the time I was little only for some reason my parents never thought it was a good idea to have a dog. I mean really what is a family without a dog right? Well a family without a dog was my family LOL!

So when I "grew up" I figured ok so I will probably get married, buy a house and then finally get to have my dog. And pretty much that is how it went down. We were in our house for maybe a year when my "need to have a dog" itch got SOOO overwhelming that I was becoming unbearable. And I swear at that point I would have taken anything - anything with fur and 4 legs that barked yup I would have taken. I was that desperate LOL! My husband on the other hand had different ideas. He had worked a few years for a private company and the owner of the company had a dog called a Neopolitan Mastiff. My husband was beyond impressed with this dog and often brought up the name when we would talk about getting a dog of our own. When I new the time was drawing near I decided to start doing some research on the "Neo" - needless to say I was not too impressed. I thought they were ok looking but I was alittle hesitant when I read all the information on them - though they are a good family dog for the most part they are alittle on the "tough" side and that kind of intimidated me. Also they were VERY expensive and honestly I had no idea where to even start looking for a breeder because 10 years ago they really weren't all that popular. So I kind of "nixed" the idea of that particular dog but in doing my research on the Neo I happened to come across the "English" Mastiff (which BTW is now known as simply the Mastiff). The more I read the more I absolutely HAD to have one. I printed out all kinds of materials on the Mastiffs and brought them home for Scott to read. He too was very impressed and that is when decided this was the dog for us. (I should mention that back about 2 years prior we had seen a Mastiff pup in one of the local pet stores so we knew what the pups looked like only at that time we knew nothing about the breed). So now that we decided we wanted one we now had to find a breeder to buy a puppy from which 10 years ago was not easy because again the Mastiff was not a very popular breed. Luckily at that time I was working for an Animal Health company and I was in the department that dealt with Heartworms/Fleas and Ticks and all that good stuff - so I had plenty of dog literature to look through to try and find us a breeder. I also kept checking the local newspaper and hoped to get lucky and one day low and behold I see an add "Mastiff pups for sale" and I immediately called the number! (more to come :o)