When you name your dog Bear it can only mean a couple of things. One, that he’s a cute little furry fuzzy pup that resembles a cute little teddy bear. Two, he’s a stout guy, big barrel chested eighty pound bull of a dog. Or three, he’s just a freaking huge beast of a dog. Our Bear was an English Mastiff purebred that “Only” weighed 42 pounds at 12 weeks old. A shy gray and black brindle pup, Bear was so sweet and loveable. A gentle person in a sea of crazy wild brothers and sisters. The story goes that we were going to go to a breeder farm for the English Mastiff we were pursuing. It was in Lancaster and a long ride to check him out. The same day we had stopped at our friends Howard and Leslie Arensburgs house to wish their daughter luck on leaving for Boston and attending Boston University. Lindsay had just returned from her last day at her job at Petsmart. She had picked up on our conversation and let us know about a customer that had just wheeled in five Mastiffs in a shopping cart at the store trying to sell them! She had his phone number and we called to see if we could meet him. In a short explanation, the owner and his wife recently split up and they needed to move the pups. She would come in the morning to feed and watch them, the mom and pop dogs also, and before the husband came home, the wife would remove a piece of furniture without him knowing. It was a tough situation….the dogs needed homes. We chose mild mannered pup and named him…”Bear”. Now, Bear liked to eat! His average meal, once a day, was a large bowl of dry Beneful chunk dog food, then mixed in with two cans of Alpo beef chunks wet food. That was a twenty pound bag of dry food and 14 cans a week of wet foods. From 42 pounds at twelve weeks old to 202 pounds in about a year and a half. He was a monster! The sweetest monster of a dog around. He loved our boys!
Bear used to go to the jewelry store too. He would lay around the back and just sleep unless something caught his eye. If so, he would jump up with both paws on top of the counter and bark. That was scary!! He was like 7 ft tall on his hind legs ! Bear would also wrestle with our boys gently tossing them around at home. With me, forget it. It was war! And he always won. What a battle! We went at it hard. He knew though when to let up on me. I was still his master. He never wore a collar or a leash. Super smart and obedient, we sometimes forgot that we had let him outside and didn’t let him back in. No fence, no gates, no worries. He would just hang out back on the deck until we got home. Good boy! He would sleep with the boys and nap on the sofa while we were out. Poop cleanup was no fun. Monsters make monsters…lol. He never begged or ate table food. Well, hardly ever, his chin could rest on our dinner table. What a wonderful addition to our family. We all adored the big lug, and he us. Welcome Bear!
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