Freyr came to me in a trade.  I traded one of my female pups to another breeder in exchange for Freyr.  Interestingly enough, Freyr's namesake in Norse mythology came to the Aesir people from the Vanyr people in a hostage exchange in order to settle a war.  In Norse mythology, Freyr was the Norse God of the Earth and Fertility.  In retrospect, I feel badly for the pup I traded for Freyr.  After the deal was done, I realized that this breeder's concept of breeding was to stick the mother & pups out in a barn, where the only human contact they got was at mealtime.  My daughter had bought Freyr's brother, and named him Prince.  When I picked the pups up, I realized to my shock that they were terrified of people.  Danes are normally very people oriented, but these pups acted like they had been abused and were fearful in the extreme.  My daughter's husband was in the navy, and they moved to Washington State right after they got Prince from me.  Once Freyr's brother was gone, I set about working intensely with Freyr to gain his trust, and get him used to people.  Gaining his trust was a gradual thing, but slowly and surely he came to realize that humans were his friends.  As his trust increased, I was able to achieve seemingly minor milestones, such as using a leash, etc.  Freyr & Prince were good examples of why early socialization is so very important in pups.  Freyr had a natural fondness for women.  He got along with men just fine, but it was clear to everyone that women could have him eating out of their hand without the slightest effort.  We got Freyr to be the mate for our Leysa, who was born a month prior to Freyr's birth.  Freyr and Leysa were an instant couple.  Freyr was very romantic with her, and let her have her way in everything.  Freyr and Leysa had four litters together.  Freyr was a good father to his pups, and you could tell he was proud of them and was always gentle.  In fact, Freyr was gentle in everything.  The only fights he ever had were purely in self-defense.  Freyr's gentle, mellow personality extended to his pups.  Each of his & Leysa's litters were unusually quiet and calm, as opposed to other litters we'd had before. 

Very early in 2009, our Freyr developed a sensitivity to carbohydrates such as pasta & potatoes, and I'm sure, to some others as well.  There was something going wrong in his digestive tract, although we were never quite able to pinpoint what that was exactly.  He suddenly got the non-twisted type of bloat, and two late-night sessions in emergency rooms were required to save his life.  This entailed running a tube down his throat to draw air off of his distended stomach, as well as inserting a large syringe through the side of his rib cage and into his stomach to do the same thing.  With heroic efforts by the vet, we pulled Freyr through.  Freyr had never been sick a day in his life, so this sudden change took us very much by surprise.  We took our dogs off of commercial dog food, and began a program of feeding human-grade food, with a menu tailored around Freyr's needs and sensitivities.  This seemed to make a big difference, yet did not solve the problem completely.  Freyr continued having periodic bouts of bloat, but each time I was able to cure it with a quick dosage of mineral oil and Pepto-Bismol.  This would break up the gas bubble in Freyr's stomach, and allow him to pass the gas.  These bouts became less frequent and I was beginning to think we had it under control.

It had been a month or two since Freyr bloated last, when early in the morning of June 5, 2009 he woke me up crying with pain.  I instinctively knew what was wrong, and jumped out of bed to scramble for the mineral oil and Pepto.  I grabbed the syringes (without needles attached) that we kept for just such occasions, and measured out the doses (35ml mineral oil and one full Pepto-Bismol dosage mini-cup).  I quickly administered both, and within 20 minutes realized that it wasn't doing the trick this time.  I gave him a second dose of each, followed by one pre-measured Fleet enema.  The enema worked, but he only passed the enema fluid out.  He did pass gas a couple times, but it still was not enough.  I loaded Freyr into our van and drove at about 90 mph out to our vet's animal hospital.  We arrived a little before the hospital opened, and I spent some agonizing minutes frantically waiting for the doc to get there, and meanwhile Freyr was getting worse and was in obvious pain.  I walked him around the parking lot, hopeful that this would help him pass some more gas.  I kept talking to him and urging him to be strong and hang in there.  The vet's nurse arrived first and let us into the exam room to wait for the doc.  It was just a matter of minutes, but with Freyr in distress, it seemed like hours before the doc got there.  The vets got there, and we quickly got to work.  One vet ran a tube down Freyr's throat, while I held Freyr's head still, and reassured him.  The other vet compressed Freyr's stomach from both sides to help push the air out the tube from his stomach.

The air came out in a big long rush, along with a small amount of fluid, and just as the last of the gas passed out, Freyr suffered a heart attack, and collapsed in my arms.  I gently eased him to the floor, and the doc immediately began CPR, along with three shots of a drug to try jump-starting Freyr's heart.  We got his heart beating briefly, and it stopped again, then got it going again, and again it stopped.  Try as we might, we could not revive Freyr.  Throughout this whole ordeal, Freyr knew we were trying to help him, and never lost his natural sweetness, never snapped or struggled against our efforts.  Freyr had to have been in an enormous amount of pain and stress.  Freyr had always been a sweet, gentle kid.  To say that losing him broke my heart would be an understatement.  Freyr had cheated death a dozen times in six months, and deep down, I knew that sooner or later it would claim him, but I was not ready to give him up.  Freyr was an exceptional dog, and I wanted badly to keep him around for a long time to come yet.

Now, my dear sweet friend is gone, and I'm not ashamed to admit I've shed a lot of tears over him.  Freyr's Mate, Leysa will miss him badly.  They were deeply in love with each other, and together, they produced the mellowest, sweetest pups we've ever had.  Afterwards, I learned that at the time Freyr was dying 12 miles from home, back here at the house, our Thor began howling and got very upset.  The other dogs also got very upset, but my Wife, Katy had a very difficult time calming Thor down.  What makes this very remarkable is that Thor did not get along with Freyr.  In fact, the last couple of years, I had to keep Thor and Freyr isolated from each other to prevent them from fighting.  Thor is an Alpha Male, and does not tolerate other males at all.  When they fought, it was Thor who started it, and sweet Freyr was only defending himself.  Freyr ended up with some nasty wounds on his neck that became infected, and I ended up with a broken right hand from punching Thor in the head to force him to let go of Freyr.  So, for Thor and the other dogs to get so upset and seem to know that Freyr had just died 12 miles away was remarkable.  But for Thor to get so upset and become so difficult to calm down, by Freyr's death, absolutely blew my mind, considering their history.  Our other dogs all loved Freyr, so I fully expected them to mourn his loss, but not Thor.  In the last 24 hours, Thor has been especially needy and seems to share my pain of losing Freyr.  He has made it clear he needs comforting and yet he has also been trying to comfort me.

Freyr, you were a very good boy, a goofy kid, a sweet boy, and your family and I will miss you terribly.  Our time together was all too short, and yet filled with so much love and fun times.  The other dogs will miss you cleaning their ears and your always-cheerful disposition.  You used to annoy me at feeding time, by your over-excitement and whining for your food, yet I would give anything to be annoyed so, just once more.  I loved you with all my heart, and while I have other dogs, and love them all, none will ever take your place.  I miss you badly, and pray that I will see you again some day on the other side.  I was hurt by your loss, but I am glad that I was with you till the end, and that you died in my arms. Goodbye my son, I'll love you always.