It’s a dog’s life with five Great Danes
DOG lover Angela Atkins has told how she’s had her house trashed and her furniture eaten – by her massive pack of five Great Danes.
Grandmother Angela, 68, calls her gigantic pets “destruction on four legs” and says they once chewed up her whole lounge – even the floor.
She has replaced more sofas than she can remember and long ago got used to giving up part of her bed at night.
The dogs cost £250 a month to care for, she keeps a freezer constantly stocked with meat and she had to buy a van specially to ferry them around.
She said: “It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. But I love them to pieces and I can’t imagine life without them.”
Angela, of Cardiff, began taking in Great Danes 10 years ago, most of them rescue dogs whose owners could not handle them.
Since then she has had a string of them and her current five all stand 3ft tall at the shoulders and weigh a combined 55st.
Angela, thought to be Britain’s biggest owner of Great Danes outside of breeders, often gets help with them from her 14-year-old granddaughter Shannon.
She said: “Shannon absolutely loves them and comes to see them a lot. She’s brilliant with them and can keep them all in line.
“They can be destruction on four legs. They ate my entire lounge, even the floor.
“You cannot be precious or fussy as the whole house will be turned upside down. You just have to accept it. They dribble a lot and you get slime on everything – you’re forever wiping things off.
“They take up a lot of room and they like lying on furniture – they’re dogs of luxury. It means sometimes you can’t get a seat in your own house.
“Two of them even sleep in bed with me at night and obviously they take up an awful lot of room. It’s a good job my husband is patient.”
Angela, who works as an ambulance driver, has to be wary exercising her pets.
She said: “They are very pleasant dogs but they are a close pack and if one was to get attacked they would all go.
“My biggest weighs more than 12st and if he wants to go you cannot hold him back.”
MOST of us could not cope with looking after five Great Danes as Angela Atkins does. She affectionately calls them “destruction on four legs”. Though, strictly speaking, “destruction on 20 legs” would be more accurate.