Dog stories big and small
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- Published on 02 July 2012
- Written by Jenn Lampila
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Lost and found: Daisy’s 22 days astray / Iris: Biggest 1-year-old you’ll ever see.
Daisy
If there’s one thing Daisy knows now, it’s home.
It’s the middle of a summer heat wave, the five-year-old, Silky Terrier mix’s first in her home with Deb and Rod Klaus on Eastridge Rd. in Crete, where’s she’s been since they adopted her in November. She’s probably grateful for the air-conditioning.
Deb Klaus said the little dog was skittish as first, when she brought her home from the Capital Humane Society. They had no background on her. The couple’s seven-year-old Yorkie, Toby, had a hard time sharing with his new housemate.
In January Daisy should have been enjoying the cozy family room, but she was missing. 
She was gone for 22 days and as the last week of January came, it seemed as if she would never be home again.
On Jan. 8 Daisy left, leash-less and without the company of Toby, who preferred the familiar confines.
Deb Klaus said neighbors and friends scoured the neighborhood for Daisy and she walked Toby along the trails at Doane, all with no luck.
The next day, Klaus and her daughter made fliers and other postings about their lost Daisy. Sightings came in.
One near Walmart, then Nestle Purina.
“There were lots of phone calls,” Klaus said, “but we never did see her.”
She made reports with the Crete Police Department and the Capital Humane Society. Friends even tried tracking Daisy with a their bloodhound and Klaus sought advice from a pet recovery expert.
Sightings started coming in from the north end of Crete so Klaus focused efforts there every day, looking for Daisy.
They were losing faith, she said, that they would ever find her.
Daisy weighed about eight pounds and for all they knew she had not been taken in and was fending for herself outside in the Nebraska winter.
A break came on a Saturday from Janet Jeffries who said she thought she saw a dog resembling Daisy at The Maples off of West 13th.
Klaus began leaving food there. It was being eaten every night, with few more glimpses of the dog. She asked the police to set a live trap. It captured a small dog shortly after.
Upon first sight, Klaus said she wasn’t sure the dirty, scruffy, dog was Daisy, but a micro-chip reader at the veterinarian’s would confirm Daisy was back.
The terrier had lost a couple of pounds off her already small frame and she needed a thorough bathing, medication for worms and re-training.
“We were so excited and blessed she could be found,” Klaus said. “She is still very sweet and likes to cuddle.”
Klaus’ reward was turned down, but she donated it anyway to two special animal causes. Toby is micro-chipped now, too.
“It’s perfect,” Klaus said. “Daisy is well-trained, loves people and animals. She knows where home is.”
Iris
The creators of Scooby-Doo, Disney’s Goofy, the Jetson’s Astro and Brad Andersen’s Marmaduke had it right on the money and Cassandra Kleven knows it.
Great Danes are just not right in the head, but in a good way. Iris is her evidence.
The biggest one-year-old you might ever see goes through a 50-pound bag of dog food every three weeks and can drink from the sink.
Kleven, a native of North Dakota, attending Doane College and living in Crete, said Great Danes are like the tall, gawky kid in middle school who just hasn’t grown into his or her body yet - a little clumsy, uncoordinated and kind of goofy.
A household with Iris is one in which nothing is safe with her head at counter-height and her tail happily wagging about over the coffee table, various shelves and furniture.
“”You might as well just buy another couch,” Kleven said. “One for you and one for your Dane.”
Iris certainly wasn’t always her gangly self. This 110-pound youngster’s parents are AKC Danes Garth and Grace from a breeder in Iowa. She is actually a “petite.”
When Kleven first brought her home at about six weeks old, Iris fit in her hands. Not too long after, that was not the case.
Iris now peers over the six-foot fence in her yard to watch the neighborhood kids at play. And she still has about four inches of height to go. She is only a year old after all.
“People are intimidated by her at first,” Kleven said. “But Danes are very good family pets. It’s a lot of love in that big, goofy body.”
Kleven’s boyfriend, fellow Doane student, Kameron Klozenbucher, has nieces that love to play with Iris as she lounges on the floor, or ride her like a pony.
Klozenbucher takes Iris to the Crete Fire Station, where he is a member of the volunteer squad. She has endeared herself to the members there, sometimes taking over a coach or conning them out of hotdogs from the kitchen.
Locals might have seen her sticking her head out the window of a Crete fire truck in last year’s Saline County Fair parade. At first glance she might have appeared as a Dalmatian. Her Dane coat is called Harlequin, white with black specks.
With all that size, does come power and Kleven said her own small stature is often pulled in a direction Iris wants to go, but early training helps control the canine instincts. Almost.
For an intimidating-looking dog, Iris is finicky when it comes to weather. She prefers an umbrella over her when it’s raining and a sweatshirt if she has to go out in the cold.
Kleven said, despite the undertaking it is to live with a Great Dane, her Iris is a “happy-go-lucky” dog who would just like to take a nap.
“Nothing else prepares you for having a Dane than actually owning one.”