Morpheus; God of Dreams

Morpheus; God of Dreams

On July 4, 1995, my husband and I were in Tacoma, WA celebrating the holiday with some friends. We had spread out a blanket and were waiting for the fireworks to begin. As we sat and talked, a man sped by on roller blades. Out in front of him, only too happy to be pulling his human along, was the most beautiful animal I had ever laid eyes on. I had to know what breed this handsome creature belonged to, so we stopped the man the next time he came by and he told us that his furry friend was an English Mastiff. That was all it took. From that day forward, I knew that I had to have one of my own.

For many years after my first encounter, my heart ached every time I saw an English Mastiff. But, my husband was in the Army, and the timing never seemed to be right for getting a dog of that size. We adopted Ariel, a beautiful and sweet Husky/Shepard mix, from the military animal shelter. From the day we brought her home, we could not have asked for a better dog. Topping out at 70 pounds, she was a good size for no matter what type of housing we were in.

In 2001, my husband got out of the Army and we settled down in my hometown. We had a home built and, shortly after moving in, we got suckered in by the sweetest puppy face we had ever seen. Chloe, a Shiba Inu, was adorable. She looked like a tiny little fox cub. We soon found out, however, that looks can be deceiving. She tunneled under our fence, ran out the door every chance she got, and dug a hole in the middle of our living room carpet. It took three years of persistence, but she is finally a sweet and loving dog that we wouldn’t trade for the world.

Even though we had these two sweethearts, I still yearned to have a magnificent Mastiff. Then, I found out that one of my clients had a beautiful female. He brought her to my office every now and then and shared everything he knew about the breed. Everything he told me about his baby was reminiscent of what I had learned through my research.

Then, during tax season, a client who fosters dogs came in. She was looking at all of my pictures and was telling me about her current group of rescues. One was a mastiff mix, so we naturally ended up discussing my desire to have an English Mastiff. She told me that I had to check out a website; then she wrote down SOSMR’s web address.

For months, I visited the site, looking at all of the dogs. Finally, my husband convinced me to fill out the application. The dog we were interested in was already adopted, but we went ahead and set the appointment for the home visit so we could get our approval and be ready the next time. Steve, our volunteer, had surgery, so we had to wait a couple of weeks to do the home visit.

When Steve came to the house, we talked for quite some time. We introduced him to all of our fuzzy babies (Chloe & Ariel, our two cats: Frostbite & Tigger, our prairie dog: Tubby, and our marine snail: Gary, who is not fuzzy). After a while, he asked us if we would be interested in meeting Bo Jangles. He was a hurricane victim who had been living in the wild. He had been treated for heartworms and conjunctivitis, but was otherwise healthy. He was so new to SOSMR that there were no pictures, but Steve thought he’d be perfect for us. We agreed to meet the following day.  We spent the rest of the night trying to come up with names and hoping that we all liked each other.

The next morning, my husband, my daughter, my daughter’s best friend, and I started the one hour drive to the state forest where we were meeting Steve & Bo Jangles. When we arrived, my heart skipped a beat. There, waiting for us with Steve, was a handsome, 125-pound, fawn-colored Mastiff.

As we walked toward him, he watched us very closely. As I got close to him, he let out a bark and tried to hide behind Steve. I stopped where I was. I was not afraid of him, but I wanted to make sure he was not afraid of me. After a minute, Steve handed me the leash and stepped away. Bo Jangles tried to follow, but then realized who had his leash. He was no longer scared, so he sniffed my toes for a minute and then let me walk with him. Each one of us had to go through the toe-sniffing ritual, and one by one we passed the test. He was soon staying near the kids and noticeably more comfortable with us. We decided that we would take him home.

For the first few days, he seemed sad. He would wag his tail from time to time, but he was not your typical happy puppy. We just kept telling him what a good boy he was and playing with him. A few more days went by, and he was soon wagging his tail all of the time. After about two weeks, the sad and quiet dog that we had brought home had melted away and was replaced by a happy, energetic, 134-pound clown.

He now plays every moment that he is awake. He has bonded with Ariel and Chloe, although he clearly prefers Chloe. The three of them are constantly rolling around the house. Their favorite thing to do is to jump on my bed. They go running across the house, jump on the bed, wrestle around, then jump down and do it again. They play tug-of-war and like to chase each other around the yard.

Since he has come to live with us, not a day has passed that he has not done something to make us laugh. He greets us every evening after work wagging his tail so hard that his rear end wags with it. Whether he is playing with the other dogs or chasing his tail while laying on his back, he is a constant source of comedy and happiness. It seems that our family is finally complete. We named our little boy Morpheus. Morpheus is the name of the Greek God of Dreams, which we thought was fitting, as he has made our dreams come true.

The whole adoption process was not nerve-racking or frustrating. It was more a process of making new friends and then taking love home, once the right dog came into the system. The whole experience has given me the inspiration to become a volunteer myself. I am looking forward to giving as much joy and happiness into a deserving family’s home as our sweet boy has brought into ours.