Meet Meraki, A Post All About My Dog.

Welcome, everyone! This is my dog Meraki. Pronounced (mer-ak-E). Which is not the technical pronunciation of the word, just the way we pronounce it. Meraki is a word not used in the English language, it’s Greek. Meraki means to put your entire heart and soul into. We call her Rak for short, or sometimes I call her Peanut. She is a Rottweiler. Half German Rottie, and Half American Rottie. She is my rock, my best friend, and the most chill dog ever.

Rottweilers always get a terrible reputation about them, and honestly I don’t think they deserve it. I believe that most dogs are as great as they are raised. If they are raised well, with love and compassion I believe 9 times out of 10 they will turn out pretty great dogs. Anyway, back to my specific Rottweiler. She is currently 6 soon to be 7. I got her for my birthday right after I came home from living in Florida the first time. (Disney College Program – 1 year circa 2014). We got her from a little farm in Ohio. I found her online and shortly after my mom and I were on our way to get her.

I was very lucky that when I got her I hadn’t yet gotten a new job yet. It had only been a few days since I came home from Florida and I was applying to new jobs. Fortunately for me, that meant I had some time to train and play with Meraki. At a young age, she learned so much. She sits, stays, shakes, speaks, rolls over, plays dead, and a few other things.

The rough part.

When Meraki was 4 she got lyme disease from a tick. Which is something we have always had to be careful of being as we live on some property, which is mostly wooded. I will never forget waking up in the morning and seeing her at the foot of my bed struggling to get out of her bed. Her entire back half had gone limp. We quickly picked her up and rushed her to the vet. The vet was able to get her on medication and shortly after she was fine.

A year later, my vet informed me that if I ever wanted to breed her that I should do it soon, otherwise she should be spayed. I decided to breed her, still not sure that was the best choice. Although, I wouldn’t take it back for anything, but we will get to that.

So, she had puppies. Eight of them. And then the worst thing in the world happened. The puppies started dying. It was absolutely terrible. Again I rushed the puppies and Meraki to the vet. The vet said that because of the damage the Lyme disease had done to her body she wasn’t producing milk fast enough. Because of that, she was killing her puppies. Apparently she didn’t want them to starve, so natural selection came into play. Unfortunately, by the time we learned all of that, we were down to 4 puppies. One that I managed to save, which was very weak, and three strong puppies.

Once we learned what was going on we began to bottle feed the puppies. Every 3 hours they were to be bottle-fed. It was tough. My entire family was exhausted, but it was worth it. We ended up being able to save 3 of the 4 pups left.

It does get better.

We ended up keeping one of the puppies, he is now my brothers’ dog. His name is Apache and he is pretty adorable. The other male, went to the family we bread Meraki with, his name is Tank. Apparently, he is a big boy these days, and his family recently informed me that he is very intuitive, and recognizes when their son (who has had multiple brain surgeries) isn’t feeling well. Absolutely amazing. The third pup was a girl, who stayed quite small compared to the others. She went to a cute couple that was a friend of a friend. Her name is Harlee and she is just as cute and friendly as ever.

So, thats where I don’t know if I made the right choice in breeding my dog, but I wouldn’t take it back because all of her pups are amazing. I just wish there would have been more of them for the world to experience. Anyway, after that she was fixed. Her first year later she gained alot of weight and ended up having to put her on a diet. Now she’s super healthy and happy as ever.

That’s Meraki’s story. Now let me tell you some little things that make her so awesome to me.

She knows when I am having a rough day. She hates sleeping in bed next to me, but when I am sick, or sad she will snuggle up and spend the entire night sleeping with me. Rak also never jumps on furniture without permission, I felt like I should add that.

She also always has to know where I am, she likes to be able to see me and keep an eye on whoever else is around as well. She always knows what is going on.

Meraki doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, although I can tell her to sound very mean and vicious. (All you got to do is say “Get Em!” and she starts growling like crazy haha) She really isn’t mean in any way.

She always listens very well. I could put a whole box of pizza (which is her favorite) on the floor open, and if I told her no, she wouldn’t come near it. And trust me, I have done it before.

Shes great with kids, anytime my little cousins come over and go run around outside she follows them wherever they go. She also always lets kids lay all over her, and if she ever doesn’t want to be there or gets irritated (which usually doesn’t happen) she just walks away.

Another thing I love about her is that she is great with other dogs as well. I can take her anywhere and she has no interest in other dogs. At the same time if I put her in a doggy play area she would be totally fine with other dogs also. Most times she is more interested in people than dogs.

I could go on for days, Meraki is my world.

Anyway, she is amazing. I don’t know what I would do without her. Currently, she is laying at my feet, sleeping. In case you were curious. She is my little peanut. My rock. The best damn dog I have ever had. Now that you have gotten to meet her, just keep her in mind whenever a thought about Rotties being mean may run through your head. Use this as a little reminder that most stereotypes and judgements are wrong. Go out and form your own opinion. Go get you some good Rottweiler lovings. Keep in mind, they slobber a lot.

Thanks for visiting!!