Last week Huckleberry was being really clingy to me. One afternoon he was suddenly drooling thin, watery saliva. Drip. Drip. Oh...noooo! Lucky for us, the only time he drools when he is either scared, sick, or hurt. When he's scared, he runs to Dad (a.k.a. Jaime); when he's hurt or sick, he comes to his mom (me). Since he was clinging to me, I knew he was probably not feeling well. Naturally I was concerned and confused.
I kid you not, exactly between 3 pm and 5 pm on Friday afternoon, I glanced up at Huck and then did a double take! I peered at him a little closer. (Gasp!) He was noticeably bigger! Thinking my eyes were deceiving me, I stood up and petted him like usual. It felt different. Running to the coat closet, I pulled out the tape measure. 35 1/2 inches tall up to his shoulder. That was a good inch and a half more than the last measurement! Later Jaime came home and looked at him twice. "Yes, he had a growth spurt today." Friends of ours echoed the same confirmation when they saw him, "Something's different! What happened?" It's true.
When he was little, he used to drool and cling to me when he was growing. I dismissed that possibility at this time because Huck is three. Information from different sources say most Danes are full grown by age two. He must not have been quite finished?
Before any of you charge me of exaggerating, let me explain that Great Danes DO have dramatic growth spurts. Up until about four months old, Huck would sleep underneath our bed. He crawled under there and went to sleep one night. At about 4:30 in the morning, Jaime and I felt the bed going "Whump! Whump! Whump!" Huh? Jaime stirred and looked at me, thinking I was kicking the bed trying to wake him up. I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders to tell him, "I don't know either. It's not me." We slowly peered down to check on Huck. This giant puppy was trying to get out from under the bed. Problem was he had a growth spurt during the night and now his skull was too big to fit between the floor and the bed frame. He was banging his forehead on the bed frame trying to figure out why this space was giving him a hard time all of a sudden. Jaime had to heave the bed up a few inches. Huck scrambled out and was never again able to get back in there.
In a world of turmoil and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to make our families the center of our lives and the top of our priorities. (April 2003. L. Tom Perry. The Importance of the Family.)
1 comment:
I didn't know that! That's just like a corn stalk that you swear you can see grow in the summer. If he grows much bigger you'll have to get a minivan because he literally won't fit in the back seat of the car!
Dad
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