Life with a Great Dane is always entertaining

FORT WALTON BEACH — Most people wish for dream cars or dream houses.

Me? I had a dream dog.

I have been a lifelong fan of the Scooby-Doo franchise. I love the concept of a huge, goofy dog with an endless appetite that — despite his size — is afraid of everything.

My wife Jenny and I had talked about adopting Great Danes before, but always came to the same conclusion: Maybe when we get a bigger house.

That changed on Oct. 11 of last year. Within minutes of the Northwest Florida Daily News posting the story on scores of Great Danes being surrendered to Alaqua, Jenny called and suggested we adopt one.

We didn’t have the perfect house for a Great Dane, but we decided we would provide the perfect home.

The next day we joined hundreds of people from across the Southeast who applied to adopt one the gentle giants. It took weeks, but eventually we were approved and told we could go to Alaqua and pick one.

I was of course hoping to find one that looked like Scooby-Doo. We only saw one fawn Great Dane when we went, but he was a little too hyper for us. There were two dogs that we really liked: Lucy, who was about 2 years old, and Monk, who was under 1. Both were mantle, or black and white. Lucy was great, but I could tell right away that Monk was our dog. He was perfect: playful, loving and goofy.

While we loved Monk, we weren’t in love with his name. Our puppy was going to have a “Star Wars” name. Jenny suggested Kylo, after “The Force Awakens” villain Kylo Ren. But our boy was too sweet for that.

We went with Poe, named after Rebel X-wing pilot Poe Dameron from the same movie.

The first day we brought Poe home, we realized he has some interesting, um, quirks. Poe is a very nervous passenger. Just getting him in the back of the minivan is enough to get him to start drooling. A lot. On multiple occasions he’s gotten so nervous that that he’s gotten sick. Unfortunately, this hasn’t improved in the 10 months we’ve had Poe. We've learned to always keep plenty of garbage bags and paper towels in the van.

Our first few days with Poe were an adjustment for us all. Poe was understandably scared in a new home. He would eat, do his business outside (if it wasn’t raining, more on that later) and chew on his toys or anything else he could pick up. It took time for his personality to come out.

One character trait that Poe definitely shares with Scooby-Doo, and one I wasn’t expecting, is that Poe is a huge scaredy-cat. When we mow the yard, Poe's afraid to go outside. When the bug guy sprays the house, he's afraid to be inside. He's even scared of his "big" brother Mason, an 11-pound Maltese.

Great Danes are known as gentle giants. Poe gets into what I affectionately call puppy mode where runs around the house, jumps on and off furniture and runs over just about anything — or anyone — in his path. It’s hilarious to watch.

Most importantly, Poe is happy and seems to love his life. When we get home, he stands up on the back of the couch and greets us with kisses and hugs. He loves to have his belly rubbed, go on walks and run wild in the side yard.

He’s not a perfect dog. He scratched our new TV and got sick in our new minivan (which we bought specifically for him). I’ve spent hours with him outside in the rain, trying to get him to use the restroom because he will hold it for hours — if not a day or more — to avoid the rain.

But he’s the perfect dog for us. He makes us happy, and we can’t thank Alaqua enough for approving our application.

We definitely got the best dog.

Dusty Ricketts is the editor of The Destin Log and The Walton Sun.