When we pulled the moving van up to our house in September of 2005 there was a four month old Harlequin Great Dane sitting on the doorstep awaiting us. She hung around with us all day. It was obvious she had an owner, but she was wearing no tags and seemed delighted to just be with us. She was just about the sweetest, gentlest puppy I'd ever met.

As we took a coffee break and sat with her at our feet, Woody casually asked me, "What do you think her name is?"

I took a look into her sky blue eyes and answered, "Celeste."

He thought that was pretty funny. A huge dog like that with such a gentle name! The puppy must have found its own way home that evening and didn't reappear for another week or so. This time she had tags on. Guess what? Her name was CELESTE!!

Celeste kept appearing on and off. Because we had to call them so often, we eventually got to know her owners. We enjoyed the dog so much that we told Daniel and Andrea, "If you ever need to find her another home, we'll take her!"

In late April, we got a phone call. "We are moving to Canada and can't take Celeste with us. Could you take her?"

So, we now are the proud owners of an eleven month old "PUPPY!" She must weigh about 100 pounds. She looks very intimidating. But, don't tell potential thieves that she has a tender heart. The biggest risk she poses is leaning into you too hard for affection.

(By the way, since that first day I discovered that Celeste has only one sky blue eye. The other is green!)