This is T Bones Story, it was featured in the final GDR <Great Dane Reporter Magazine 2002> for the Performance/Nationals Edition.

T Bone is now 10 years young, and still the CENTER of Midge's life......read on.

T BONE

"T-Bone" is seven and a half years old and is nearly 36 inches tall.  We found him while we were working overseas in the European country of Croatia, (part of the former Yugoslavia), during the Serbian wartime before the Peace Accords were signed.  He was starving and severely neglected.  His hair was unhealthy and dry as a broom.  His elbows were swollen and bloody from living on concrete and dirt.  He was very skinny, unsocialized and afraid of everything. 

He was only 7 months old.  We know he would not have survived long if we had not adopted him and brought him home to America with us.  We stayed a couple more years in Croatia and tried to help the local animal rescuers who were fighting an uphill battle in a country whose people were very poor and found it hard to put meals on their own table and even harder to help the innocent animals.

We brought “T-Bone” back to the states in late 1997 and made our home in Fort Worth, Texas.  We believe “T-Bone” was destined to be a Texan because he was born with a white blaze on his chest that is shaped like a mirror image of the state of Texas!  And he says he is just darn proud to be here too!

“T-Bone” has been at work since he arrived “home” and has helped to establish Great Dane Rescue in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (website can be viewed at

 http://www.daneangelnetwork.org ).

He has volunteered his time and home to help foster abandoned or abused Danes (which he gets a benefit from because he makes new fun friends).  And he hopes to raise awareness and help educate the public about the rescued Great Dane.

He has also joined the local Great Dane Club of Greater Dallas.  And goes to obedience classes of which he loves every minute, even though he was SO ill-mannered in his first kindergarten class that he was nearly asked to leave if he couldn’t behave better!

So far, “T-Bone” has achieved his AKC Canine Good Citizen Certificate from obedience classes in the Metro All-Breed Obedience Club

(website http://www.angelfire.com/tx/MABOC ) 

He got his ILP registration with AKC and ventured into the AKC Obedience competition in March 2002 for the very first time at age seven!  He won first place and High in Trial from Novice A class, earning his first leg toward his CD! 

He will continue to help the less fortunate Great Danes through the very needed Great Dane rescue efforts. 

And it would be his hope that when others see how far he has come from the scared, uneducated and uncertain dog that he used to be to the now confident, smart and proud boy that he is today, that they will be inspired to follow in his paw prints and step up to the fun and intelligence of learning Obedience and to the challenge of the competition ring!

T-Bone

Owned, trained and loved by

Midge and Skip Kelly of Fort Worth, Texas