All Creatures Small & Great

My wife's and my first puppy was a red cocker spaniel that we bought at a kennel in Kent Washington. Naturally we called him Copper. We had him only a short time as neither my wife nor I knew that one had to take a dog out on a leash.

Ethel told the dog to stay in the back yard, but, being a puppy with an independent disposition he tried to cross the street in front of our home. I think it was his first time out by himself. He only made it half way. I felt very bad about having scolded him the night before for having chewed up my slippers and my new felt hat.

Soon after we moved out to the country where I was building the first home of our own. We lived in the basement while I finished the upstairs.

We had about six acres of our own so we figured we would get a big dog. Our choice was a Great Dane. We bought him from a young couple who lived in the city and realized a city lot was no place for a large dog. At that point the only thing large about Dirk were his great big feet.

While he was still a puppy he formed an attachment for my wife's chair. I think it was called a lady's wing back chair. At first we would find him and make him get down. Then one time we found him up into it. He looked around to see if we were watching him. I've seen the same silly look on the face of Pluto, Mickey Mouse's dog. Finally we gave up and it was his chair.

As he grew larger it was so ridiculous to see this giant animal draped over this small chair with both front and back feet reaching the floor.

By this time he had grown into those big feet.

As I said, we were living in the basement of the house I was building. One night there was a party going on in the woods adjacent to our land. It was a very loud party with a radio blaring. Dirk barked very loud which made the bare furnace ducts reverberate. We knew we'd never get to sleep so we put Dirk outside thinking he'd go down bark at them and chase them away. As soon as he was outside there were some infinitesimal woofs. A fearsome people chaser he was not.

There was a time a man drove down to our house and told me Dirk had just killed four of his chickens. He told me that he had chased him away by throwing rocks at him. Yet Dirk was very friendly to him. I'm sure Dirk wasn't sophisticated enough to pretend to be friendly with the man who had just been throwing rocks at him. Anyway, I paid the man for his chickens.

There was the time he came home badly injured and losing a lot of blood. I took him up to the veterinarian who stayed up with him all night and nursed him back to health. The evening of the accident a lady came to our home and asked if I would help pay for fixing her car. In retrospect I supposed she had every right to expect to be reimbursed. However I didn't pay her.

One time my wife went down to the local lumber yard to pick up something for me. She took Dirk along for company. She went into the office, made her purchase and then went across the street to the yard. The yard man stooped over on the passenger side to ask what he could do for her. At that moment Dirk, who had been lying down sat up on his haunches. Imagine the young man's surprised to be looking eyeball to eyeball with this huge dog.

In the comics in the newspaper there is a Great Dane name Marmaduke. There is hardly a comic that didn't remind us of Dirk. I think one has to have owned a Great Dane in order to really appreciate Marmaduke.

Eventually, due at least partially to the damage from the car wreck and the loss of blood, his health deteriorated to the extent we had to have him put down.

We always loved Dirk, he was such a sweet, gentle giant. I have always felt I was very privileged to have known him.