The Long And The Short Of It

Alayne took this photo of Claude, our Great Dane puppy, and Bailey the miniature Dachshund, sharing a dog bed on our living room floor.  To be honest, Bailey and the rest of the short-leg crowd are not very fond of "Clod," as they refer to him.  He's huge, he's mostly blind, and he's a puppy, so he's clumsy as heck. 

Claude has microphthalmos, or shrunken eyeballs, and they're also pointed downward, so his vision is pretty much limited to seeing the difference between light vs. dark.  We think sometimes he also may be able to see large shapes ... but that's about it.

Thus Claude doesn't see the little guys 'way down there,' and he often inadvertently walks over them.  This leads to a lot of Doxie growls of "Look where you're going, you big oaf!"  But Claude is learning to be more careful around the short-legs, and they're learning to skee-daddle out of the way when they hear him coming, so peace is (almost) at hand.

And, as you can see from the photo, they do just fine together when they're in dreamland!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Comments

[LuAnn]

ohhh, you guys are killing me......I've always wanted a great dane....what a beauty, baby claude is. Good thing I live in California right now!!!

Sorry to hear about all the strange ingestions....how weird that Buzz and the Birdie and tho Cinder didn't ingest anything she does have a full belly!! Wish I could help with the kitties. Good luck. I hear my sister and parents are coming out for a tour. Wish I could be there!!! Blessings, LuAnn

[ginger & Tobias (the greythound)]

What a sweet photo of Claude & Bailey!
I had my own bad day at the vet. I noticed Tobias was licking his front paw last night while I was watching a DVD. He seldom does that, so I turned on the light & he had a cut about an inch to an inch & a half long on the top side of his foot. He only goes out in my fenced in backyard, so I have no clue how he did that. Naturally greythounds love to run, so since things have gotten dry, maybe he found something sharp. I'll never know. He was limping on it today so I called the vet to tell them I was bringing him in. He not only has a cut, but also broke a bone in his foot! His foot is all bandaged up & will have to be for 4-6 weeks! I gave him a pain pill after we got back home & a little bit later he came upstairs while I was working on the computer. How he did that, amazes me. He still hasn't gone out his dog door with his foot bandaged, so I'll have to wait & see how that works. (& I only thought he might need a few stitches!)
ginger & Tobias