This is Wally. He was the love of our lives and he died a year ago today. Such a beautiful boy and a reject of course! We got him from purebred rescue (I had gotten another mastiff this way) and he had been hit by a car, thrown into dog prison (the pound) and held for a bunch of hours as required so he could then be put up for adoption without being returned to the people who dumped him. He was so good no one knew his knee was dislocated until his post pound check up. Besides the bum leg he only had one eye. He was an absolute jewel - gentle and giant and very much our dog and no one elses.
This is my favorite photo of him - he picked an Asian Pear off the tree. It was his favorite fruit and yes, the entire fruit is in his mouth! Another funny time was when he had an entire bagel in his mouth and he roamed around kind of whining. Hmmmm Hmmmm. "What's wrong" I thought and when I pried open his giant, soft mouth he had an entire bagel speared on his teeth - he couldn't get it out or chew it! Very funny.
He didn't like to go on couches (even when we wanted him there) but he would put his head on the foot stool to rest it and liked his ears massaged.
Here he makes sure the de-stuffed porcupine isn't moving anymore! He loved to dismantle stuffed things for the squeaker.
Here is a wonderful trick our friend Rob and his wife Jill taught him - how to eat whip cream from a can! At first the noise scared him but a short slow release of the cream shoots it into his mouth from a foot away!
We loved him more than anything. Unfortunately most mastiffs only live 8 or so years on average. He lived over 9 really wonderful years. If you are a dog lover there is a really good book you should read - when I read it I think of many Wally stories. A Dog''s Life by Peter Mayle. Not a sad story at all, it is a dog's life from his own perspective and involves balls, and chickens, farting and sneaking food. A wonderful read!
2 comments:
Awwww :(. I love Wally!! He reminds me of my friend Junior!
(We are actually looking to get a bull mastiff puppy flown down to us, once Junior starts breeding.)
I couldn't even imagine losing my baby (Kuta, who is 10). Like, Wally, he is one of a kind!
Wally was the best - a total couch potato and definately not an outdoor dog. They overheat easily and don't really "play" but are lovely one or two person dogs (not big on strangers). He was too old to move and the heat would have been bad for him and that is why we didn't move here earlier. He was 160 pounds of joy - we made him bark for biscuits which was a bad thing to teach him (although he was dumber than dumb) - he would look with his one eye at the jar and bark and sit. I would give him biscuits after he did his stuff so he learned to stand at the door, go out and twirl on the patio (so his feet didn't get wet on the lawn) then come bark and sit at the biscuit jar. He LOVED biscuits and even at 160 pounds was still lanky so we let him have them! I love the breed, but mutts live the longest and are usually healthier. Junior looks like an English not a bull...head looks long and legs are long, bullies are more stocky and stay a little smaller! katrina
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