Savannah Side Profile

I've mentioned through my various journals that I got a dog. I'll have had her for a year this March. I finally decided it was high time to take some pictures of her! But unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera or even a working film camera of which I could have scanned the pictures and submitted them.

So instead I used my webcam to take these few photos of her. I doctored them up as best I could in photoshop but I know they aren't of the best quality. At some point I'll get around to borrowing someone's digital camera and take proper pictures of her.

Anyways, this is Savannah. She will be two years old in May and she is a mixed breed. Savannah is a cross between Chow, German Shepherd and Golden Retriever. She looks predominately Chow in the face but has more of a shepherd's body design in her torso. Her hind legs are longer than her front, giving her a rather amusing ability to hop like a rabbit. This also means her shoulders are a step below her hind quarters. Her ears are floppy like a Retriever's and her tail is very flexible. She can curl it like a Chow and into an almost perfect circle.

The tip of her tail is black and thus led to the amusing nickname Scorpion tail by my friend Autumn. She has a white splash across her throat and an off white underside. Her eyes are framed by a black lining, making it appear as though she is wearing make-up. Her lips are also black, giving her the appearance of wearing black lipstick.

When I first got her she was a 45 pound, scraggly mess of fur over bones. Now, almost a year later, she is a healthy, active, playful, well groomed 70 pounds of solid bone and muscle. When standing on her hind legs her head reaches my collar bone. I'm 5ft 7in so she's just about 3/4 my height. She is extremely strong, capable of pulling 300 pounds without any effort. We figured this out when yard work was being done. My father had put a harness on her and hooked her up to the cart which is normally attached to our riding lawnmower. However it was too muddy and the lawnmower would have gotten stuck, so he decided to see if he could get the dog to pull it.

So long as the correct gear is used and the weight is centered around the animal's chest, its strongest point, it can safely pull an object. Well needless to say, she pulled it, and not only did she pull it she took off running with it! She had gotten excited and before my father could grab at her lead she took off running down the driveway with it. She only stopped when the cart got caught on a small tree near the garage. It was funny but at the same time scary as I was really worried about the cart over-taking her while she was running. But she was alright in the end if not a bit winded.

I had to darken the image thanks to all the natural light filtering in from the glass panel doors leading out to the deck.