Patch's Diary

Me and Patch in the local newspaper!

May 3rd 2006 On May 3rd the Jupiter section of the Palm Beach Post wrote a very nice article about me, which you can read here if your eyes are good :) And of course Patch is mentioned and got into the picture too! Over the next couple of weeks I met many people who had read it, and for those that hadn't, my friend Shelagh had a copy in her car always ready to show newbies :) Thanks Shelagh!

A Patch update - he's still healthy and happy and goes to the dog park at least 4 times a week. He spends the first ten minutes sniffing the ground, mostly, then visits people to get attention and petting. After that he turns his attention to playing, if the weather isn't too hot. Lately he's been face-wrestling and "paw-on-the-other-dog's-back" playing with Jake, Shelagh's dog. Jake has figured out how to get past Patch's defense's pretty well: he goes low and tries to knock Patch's feet out from under him! Patch really enjoys the games and sometimes gets into "zoomy mode", where he's so excited that he just has to run as fast as he can in a big circle around the park! It's always great to see him do that.

A Night On the Town

April 8th 2004
Most of the night life in West Palm Beach is along Clematis Street and on Thursday nights they've been having free concerts. This week was a Beatles cover band, so Deanne suggested we go along. I love The Beatles and a few years ago I used to sing "Something" with the Westgate Concert Band back in Melbourne, Australia. Our friends Vicky and Scott came with us too and we all had a fun evening out, while the last week or so of nice weather is still upon us.

We decided to take Patch with us, as we'd seen lots of other people with their dogs around there at all times of the day. He must've met a hundred people and there wasn't one growl or bark, though he did jump at one lady who was bending down to talk to me as I crouched next to Patch, but she had to shout since the crowd and music were so loud. He must've thought she was threatening me and he jumped at her, just a little....but a little from him is a lot for most people to handle.

"Oh no...is she OK ?"

"Ha ha ! Oh, he's cute ! He wants my beer !"

It turns out she had owned lots of big dogs in her life and had no problem with his little jump. I thanked her and turned Patch around and moved out of the crowd.

Phew ! We had been watching him carefully and he'd seemed pretty cool about all the attention, but I guess the raised voices and bending over seemed too aggressive to him. I'll make sure I don't put myself in a position where people have to bend over and yell at me while Captain Patch of the Brian Defense Squad is on the case !

The main reason for writing tonight's entry is to thank the general manager of Spoto's restaurant. We noticed they had outside tables and wondered if they'd allow us to eat there with Patch, as many restaurants don't allow that. While Deanne was asking, however, another group of people sat themselves at the only remaining outside table. But Ed, the general manager quickly moved in and told them the table had already been reserved by the party waiting at the front of the restaurant. "If he's having trouble moving them, I could just walk up to them with Patch and see how quickly they run..." I said, but luckily there was no problem and we sat down to a fantastic meal - the staff were very friendly and asked lots of questions about Patch, which we were happy to answer. Patch got all the extra bits of steak, anchovy and chicken we didn't want to eat, so everyone had a good night.

So it was a fun night out, good music, friends and food. Patch met lots of people and behaved almost perfectly...I only counted seven "You could ride that thing" and three saddle references, which wasn't bad considering :)

"Is That A Horse?"

September 2003
Great Dane owners have been hearing this comment since there were Great Danes. But we had a genuine moment of confusion a couple of days ago and I just had to post it here.

Our neighbour is having her roof worked on and told us that one the workmen approached her at the end of the day and had the following conversation with her.

"I didn't know people in this community were allowed to keep a pony in their house."
"They're not allowed !"
"Then why do your neighbours have a black pony in their house ?!"

That's my doggie :)

Coming to Work

Feb 2003
This has been going on for several months, actually, but I'm going to write about it today. When we lived in Redding Deanne did not work, so Patch was able to spend all day with her at home, or out on long walks or at the dog park. But when we came to Florida, we both found jobs at Document Storage Systems, where I am a programmer and Deanne is a software training specialist. So what would we do with Patch during the day ?

For a while we tried taking him to Doggie Daycare (who used to have a website, but it seems to be gone now), but it was too expensive to make a daily event. During weeks when Deanne was out of town I asked whether he could come and stay in my office, since he's very quiet and and well socialized. DSS said yes, and it's been a regular event since then ! If Deanne is home then he stays home too, but otherwise I bring him to my office after lunch, along with his bed and a toy. He lies in front of desk, soaking up the sun, and gets up to greet and lean on anyone who walks in. I'm grateful to DSS for allowing us to do this, and also to Patch for having the kind of personality that makes him fit in so well around people.

Sharing With Friends

January 24th 2003
He did something today that we've never seen before...he shared.

He was at our friend Vicky and Scott's house, rampaging around with his two best friends, Jacob and Brandi, who are Huskies. He had managed to get hold of the knucklebone that they have been chewing on since Christmas, and he was grinding away at it pretty hard. Well Jacob lay down in front of Patch and did a quiet howl ("Roorooroo !"), at which Patch paused. He then broke off a good-size chunk of the knucklebone and dropped it in front of Jacob !

But the story continues ! About five minutes later Brandi got jealous - the two boys were happily chewing away and their bones, but she had none. A sad, mopey look in Patch's direction and he broke off another piece to give away. Now by this time, Jacob had finished his, so as Brandi was asking for a piece, he asked for it too.

And this is the coolest part :) Patch looked at the both, bone chunk in his mouth, and he decided that Jacob had already had a piece, so he was going to give it to Brandi ! It's really cool to see him not only sharing the bone, in itself quite surprising, but also to recognize the concept of fair distribution...of course "fair" is a relative thing...he kept a piece as big as two human fists, and handed out two chunks that only took five minutes to finish, but it's a start :)

Backflip

January 18th 2003
Patch did a backflip today ! Well, half a backflip...

We took him to a Pet Fair in Markham Park, Fort Lauderdale. It was a great event, though the day was quite cold. We put him in one of my old sweaters, an orange polar fleece kind of material. He got a lot of attention because not only was he the second largest dog there, but his bright orange sweater was visible from half a mile away !

Anyway, he got lots of petting and attention and just after we'd met a lovely couple who had just got a Great Dane puppy called Dana, we watched the US Canine Frisbee championships that were being held there that day. I don't know if watching the nimble collies gave him delusions of dexterity, but when Deanne decided to throw him a toy frisbee that we'd brought along, he jumped high for it instead of waiting for it to land.

I've never seen Patch jump so high !! Unfortunately he didn't really know how to handle it and as he rotated backwards through the air I could see he was going to hit the dirt ON HIS BACK! Hard! The thud was palpable and we were lucky that he wasn't hurt. Yes, apart from an embarrassed look and occasionally limping for a couple of days, Patch is fine. We took him to the dog park a week after this happened and he was fine.

Update from the future: On reflection, this incident may have been the source of a problem Patch had in 2004 with a pinched nerve in his spine. It happened on the day we were evacuating to avoid a hurricane, so it was very distressing to hear his absolutely primal howls of pain when his nerve got trapped. It took about five days to reach a vet near Miami to get him treated. A rough time all round :(

Evil Green Fire Hydrant

2000: During our first trip to San Francisco, when I was filling out some immigration paperwork, we took Patch for a night walk along the Embarcadero. He'd had a long and exciting day, but was happy and sniffing along merrily when he suddenly began barking with a depth and ferocity we'd never heard! But there was nobody there! “What, Patch, what?!” – we're quickly looking around to see what the heck has him so furious! His eyes are firmly fixed on this fire hydrant. His tail was tucked between his legs, if I remember rightly, so he was actually scared of it and was warning it to stay the hell away from him.

Since this happened not too long after we got him, we guessed his previous family must have kept him tied to one of these and seeing it brought back bad memories. Danes are smart...they don't forget. Remember, treat them well and they'll love you, but abuse them and it'll take them a long time and lots of love to get over it.

(Photo by wiseacre on flickr)

Return to Patch's Home Page