Not to name drop, but I knew Doozy, the Instagram celebrity dog who died recently.

I have a sticker to prove it. Condolences from Madagascar.

See IG @doozydoes

#Africa #Madagascar #Antananarivo #Ambatobe #Dogs #Dog #DogLife #greatdane #bigdogs #giantbreeds #Dogstadon #Bike #Cycling #CyclingLife #CommuteByBike #HalfHeartedFanatic

Man given omeprazole for acid reflux later told it's cancer - symptoms he ignored

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/man-given-omeprazole-acid-reflux-36880592

Morning coffee with #Martha

Happy Saturday, Mastodon and the Fediverse.

#GreatDane

Dog breeds with the shortest lifespan as one breed not expected to make it past age 6

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/dog-breeds-shortest-lifespan-36814935

Dog trainer names 'very stubborn and difficult to train' breed they don't recommend

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/dog-breed-to-avoid-owning-36817095

For those of you who need a bit of a palette cleanser, let me tell you a story about Duke.

Duke came to us when he was around four and he’d had a bit of a tough time up to that point, from what we understand. We were going to foster him for our local #GreatDane rescue until he could find a forever home. That was close to seven years ago — turns out we are not good rescue fosters. Anyway, back to Duke.

Every Dane we’ve had has always been an egregious bed hog, completely convinced they are entitled to every square inch of space they can find to fill up, but not Duke. He has always stayed on his bed in the corner by himself, and only occasionally during the middle of the day when no one was looking would we find him snoozing on the bed.

About a year ago, at about 1 or 2 a.m. I felt a wet poke in the middle of my back. I don’t recommend this method of being woken up, but it turns out you can get quite used to anything. Anyway, it turns out Duke was gently nudging me with his nose, so I rolled over and he crawled up onto the smallest corner of the bed he could manage, which is not all that small for those of you with dog-sized dogs, but was quite small for those of us with pony-sized dogs. He slept quietly there, curled up and hardly moving for the rest of the night. He didn’t do it again for several nights, but eventually I felt that cold, wet nudge in my back and we established our little ritual that has gradually become an almost every night occurrence.

The other thing that has happened with the increased frequency is that he has become much more relaxed about the space he takes up, and the deepness of his sleep. For the past month or two, he has taken to having what I can only assume to be very vivid dreams about galloping through a forest chasing boars at a high rate of speed. Running is not really something his hips have left in them at his age, so I can understand where his sleep brain is coming from. However, this is very bad news for both my night stand, where his paws hit when they twitch madly as he chases the dream pigs, and for me as well because the shaking and twitching and dream barking are not nearly as cute of a way to be woken up at 4a.m. as is a wet-nosed nudge in the small of the back at 1 a.m.

And now you know why for the past few months my Mastodon activity has been very early morning oriented. My couch and my iPad are my refuge, and my back is not well pleased with me, but old Duke seems to have finally embraced his inner bed hog.

#rescuedog #dogsofmastodon