Saying goodbye to "Bubba"

Many of you know that I was a nanny to a household who owned an Irish Wolfhound Kennel. I will never forget my first look at those giant dogs as I pulled in their driveway. Somehow I knew just by looking at them, that they were totally safe, even though they were as large as some ponys. I was a bit dismayed when I realized that they were house dogs. You see, I was NOT a dog person. I liked dogs.....I just didn't like to touch them, or get their hair on me, or slobber, or anything else remotely resembling dog residue. But, I needed the job, so I dug in, and boy, did I change! I fell in love. NO joke....I really did. I love this breed. They are a spectactular dog in many more ways than their incredible size. When my boss was 7 months pregnant with Kaelah, we found out that one of the dogs was going to have puppies. I was kind of excited, but my pregnant boss wasn't quite so thrilled. I think spent a couple of nights and a day without sleep while 8 months pregnant, on her hands and knees delivering 12 puppies. The puppies are so small in relation to the mom, that you have to help with the delivery, else they accidently, fatally injure the newborns. Anyway, I digress. Of those 12 puppies, they kept 2. My sister is holding both of them in the above picture. The light colored puppy is my "bubba", Riley.

He was the biggest puppy of them all, and he was the sweetest thing you ever want to know. He was cuddly and had the best personality. He and Kaelah grew up together. She used to crawl up on his back to get in her chair that she liked best. In this second picture, Riley was probably about 3 or 4 weeks old.

Here is Riley at about 1 year. He never grew into the typical "wolfhound look." They generally have much more hair on their faces. He got burrs in his facial hair when he was about 6 months old and I had to trim them out and his hair never really grew back. I don't think Scott (owner) ever totally forgave me for that one! lol The thing about Riley is, he had personality that wouldn't quit. He loved certain people and that was all there was too it. He loved my brother even though he only saw him about 3 or 4 times a year. He never forgot Ryan and even this last July when Ryan saw him, he got so excited he about mauled Ryan right to death!


Here he is with another puppy from a batch years later. He was always very tolerant of the puppies.


And very tolerant of the kids. They could do about anything to these dogs and the dogs would just lay there sleeping.

Seth trying to take a nap on Riley.


Our Christmas picture one year. He loved me to take him in the car. If he was out of the house when I was going home at night he would sneak in my car before I could stop him and then sit down. I would have to literally drag him out of the car.


Me and my baby! Oh....the stories I could tell. The time I came home from somewhere and the halloween candy was gone from the middle of the table--wrappers and all. It was like they just vanished. Or the time I took him to get groomed and when I came back he came close to destroying their waiting room because he was so happy and relieved to see me. The night that he disappeared and they finally found him in a neighbors in ground pool. He was most likely in that pool for over 5 hours. He was close to drowning, and the old lady was in the pool trying to help him when the firemen came, and they were too scared of him to help her out. She had to prove to them that he wasn't mean before they would help. No food was safe from Riley. Even food that you THOUGHT was far enough up or back....well...think again! He was like a magician when it came to stealing food. Whole pizzas have been consumed, loaves of bread, tons of chocolate, plastic bags that were attached to bread (which was embarrassingly excreted while on a walk with me!), and I am thinking he might have even gotten a big roast or ham or something like that. He could curl himself up in a tiny ball when He needed to. He really thought he was a lap dog, even though he weighed close to #160 and stood over six feet tall on his hind legs. When I would sit down, he would get up on my lap and just curl up and relax. Yeah, he was something special......


Riley only jumped up on people he really liked. That meant basically, myself, my brother, Ryan and Scott and Diane (owners). I went over for a visit a week ago or so and he got so excited. He knew when I was "supposed" to be there and when I wasn't . If I was there at an odd time, he would get very excited. I think he was always hoping that I would take him on a walk. Wolfhounds in general have very long tails and about a year and a half ago, Riley got his caught in a door, and yanked it out without the door being open. This ripped off all the fur and skin from the bottom of his tail. Now, imagine a 2 to 3 ft tail-- wagging....yeah, it was not a pretty sight to come home to. It was like someone was massacred in the house. Because his tail is so long and he gets so excited and wags it and hits thing, his tail never really healed up completely. It would get close at times, but then he would wack it on the table or something and it would crack back open. Because of this, we think it weakened him and he developed cancer, and he had to be put down last week. This wasn't the plan, Diane likes to just let them die as long as they aren't in pain, but the vet said he would be better off, so she made the decision. We are so sad and we will miss him. All wolfhounds are magnificent and have great personalities, but Riley was just something special. I considered him "my" dog, because he loved me so much, even though I didn't live in his house. Please forgive my rambling rememberances, but I just wanted to go down memory lane a little bit for my dear, sweet doggy. :-)