Loss and a Successor

A few weeks ago we had to put our sweet Weimaraner, Jackson Kramer (yes, there was a good reason to call him Kramer) to sleep.  He hadn't been eating well for a few days, although he'd eat the little treat/snacks we had for him and drink his water, so we took him to the vet. He felt a firm tenderness in Jack's stomach and gave him a shot for pain and said to take him home and watch him. If he still didn't eat that night, call in the morning and let him know. Well, he didn't eat and Doc had us bring him back in for tests and an x-ray. Jack, it turned out, had a fast growing cancer and it was already the size of a grapefruit. It grew so quick, in



Jack letting me practice my macro photography



fact, that what Doc felt as a firm tenderness the day before was now an obvious lump/growth. It was also obviously visible in the x-ray as it pushed his intestines aside. Considering his age and the pain he was experiencing, we made the decision to put him to sleep. A very hard choice to make when you love something that much. But love doesn't mean making it hard on the object of your love.

Well, we found that the house was much too quiet and that we needed a dog in our home. We just have never been without one in our family from the time I was a kid and so began our search for Jack's successor (never replacement!).  We found Von Greyson Weimaraners about two hours away from us (in the backside of just past the middle of nowhere!) and, after asking both him and our vet numerous questions, made the decision to buy one of his pups.  Our vet was impressed with the care William takes of his animals (starts taking them to his vet as soon as they're old enough) and William was impressed by (and glad of) the fact we'd already had a Weim.  (he, apparently, doesn't sell his pups to just anyone who calls... another plus in his favor). 

We travelled the two hours into the back of beyond to meet and, hopefully, retrieve, our newest family member.  I'll tell you this, the man has TWENTY-ONE  Weim's running his place (it's a ranch) and they are great dogs.  Some snarls as Alpha-order is established and defended, but no fighting and all are sweet, healthy, happy animals who love him.  Another plus in his favor.  After an hour in his (and the dogs') company, we came home with our own sweet fella.  May I present our newest family member (and the reason I've not been crafting or blogging for two weeks), Zackery Tillar Sears:



1st day home... who wouldn't love this face!?
But,  look at those PAWS! Only 10 weeks and
already weighing in at 25+ pounds



A week and a 1/2 later. We could almost SEE
him growing!

 

This was taken at our vet's office just yesterday.
You can see how calm he is. And another glimpse
of those huge paws.  Yesterday (12 weeks of age)
Zackery weighed in at 29.5 pounds.


Yes, he's going to be a monster. William breeds his Weims to the original German standard and his dogs are larger and sturdier than most American lines.  The dam was about 85-90lbs and the sire was well over the 100lb mark.  I don't doubt my little Kraut is going to be a solid 105lbs at least! 

And now you know what I've been doing and why I've been absent (and may still be sporadic in the blogging and creating until this not-so-little one doesn't have to be so closely watched, the chewing little sneak).

New Family Member

I got nothing done this weekend and I blame it on the animals in our lives.  This past week we had to put our 10 year old Weimaraner, Jack, to sleep due to a cancer that wasn't caught until it was too late. It was a little hard but what was harder was the silence in the house. Quiet as he was, he filled a spot in our lives that wasn't noticed until he was gone.  We decided we needed a puppy to at least fill the spot (but not replace Jack, of course) and we did a search.  We wanted to stay with the Weimaraner breed because we loved Jack so much and he had SO much personality (they say Weims are as smart as your average 10 year old child... they're not far off, believe me!)  And, just for your personal info, Weims are in the sight hunter class of hunting dogs and, due to their coloring and style of hunting, are nicknamed The Gray Ghost.

Von Greyson Weimaraner's is the breeder that caught our attention. He breeds to the old, original German standard of Weims so his dogs, especially his males, are huge!  Up to, and over, 100lbs. We spoke with William and decided (mutually) that one of his puppies would have a good home with our family.  He invited us down to his ranch (in the desert!) to see his... well, the only way to put it is "herd!"  Counting the puppies, that man has twenty-one (that's 21) dogs on his property! They're well bred, well behaved and well cared for. And they LOVE meeting (and being petted by) new people. 

We chose our puppy, a very healthy 22lb (at 8 weeks!) little boy and brought him home. 

That was Saturday.  Needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening mooning over our new little addition.  He's aDORable!  We also spent the rest of the day making sure he went OUTside to do his "business".  (snerk!)  He seems to be settling in okay, although there's a lot of sleep involved still (he's still a puppy, after all, just a rather large one) but he's following us around and beginning to play more with us.  Oh, yeah, and today he became an escape artist. He's very proud of himself for getting out of his pen.

Anyway, here's our newest family member. Please meet Zackery "Zack" Tillar Sears.


He wasn't going to be allowed on the furniture since he's
going to be so huge... You see how long that lasted!
And Saner Sister is giving him snuggles and cuddles while
he naps....  and naps.... and naps some more after playing.



Close up of that adorable face

 As you can see by his paws, he's gonna be a moose.  And we're gonna love every minute of it.