Whippet Mix: Charlie the Grippet (great dane/whippet mix)

by Catherine
(Massachusetts)

I was volunteering at a shelter.
One morning at the shelter, about a year after I had lost my great dane Peanut to bloat, I went to bring some new puppies out for a walk.
It was January and very cold. The puppy I was holding in my arms, all gangly and paws, did NOT want to be put down on the freezing ground.
I thought I was holding a greyhound mix but the paws where not catlike, they where definitely huge like a dane's.
This puppy was also all black like my dane. I found that indeed the puppies were of a whippet mom and gulp! a great dane dad.
I promised my husband that I could work at the shelter and not bring any dogs home (we already had 3).
Well, I broke that promise, after 3 of the 4 in the litter were adopted and the only one left was the one I couldn't put down on the ground, my heart melted and Charlie had to come home with me. Charlie was an instant part of our family loved by all.
Even though I know he would like to do serious harm to the squirrels in the yard, he became best friends with a hooded rat named Gus.
Charlie became the recipient of a donor cornea (scottish terrier's) last fall when he had a large tumor removed from his eye. He never lost his sight.
Charlie and I enjoy hiking at a state park where he can run freely and think he's chasing squirrels!
Charlie was the runt of the litter.
He is 60lbs, 1/2 a dane and double a whippet, PERFECT!