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RION
A friend of ours, whose acquaintance we had made in the process of entering the world of Mastiffs, invited us over one day in 1993 to meet her newest litter of puppies, born on August 16. There were four of them, all of them as cute as can be. Once again, I picked one of them up immediately. I think his puppy name at that time was Hagar, the Horrible. I sensed something special in this puppy; not the same as Chance, but there was a real attraction. That puppy lived with his breeder for the first 11 months of his life, growing into a strapping, gangly thing. I visited with him on and off, every time I stopped by his breeder’s house, and found that his name, officially, was Monarch’s Orion Shall Rise, or Rion for short. There were various versions of that name already in use, including “Cryin’ Rion,” and of course, “Oh, RION…” He was always happy to see me, but I never dreamed that he would become the center of my doggy universe.
One day, we were at a fun match, warming up for the dog show season, and Rion’s breeder had him there for the same purpose. She mentioned that she wanted to find a home for him, and I told her, “Don’t do anything until you talk to me first!” Her response was, “Okay, let’s talk…” We brought Rion home that evening, and from then on, he was ours. The bond that began to form when Rion was 3 days old solidified immediately, and we were inseparable from then on. He and Chance got along fine, so it seemed that everybody would be happy. Thea was with us by then, and we were in Heaven on Earth with all these big, beautiful dogs.
Training Rion, whether for Conformation (Tina) or Obedience (me) was a breeze. He was always eager to please, and would do anything you asked of him. Well, he would try anything you asked of him… Anyway, we started showing him in Conformation and in Obedience – Conformation came first, then Obedience. Rion was not the most beautiful Mastiff by any stretch of the imagination, but his wonderful personality and his movement were a very effective combination. Rion had a sense of mischief, too; not quite the same as Chance’s, but still very effective. If you bent over to get some ice out of the freezer (our freezer in those days was on the bottom of the refrigerator), you were going to get goosed. Rhino, as he became known, excelled at goosing, especially since he loved to eat ice. The sequence of pictures below gives you another example of his idea of play:
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L to R:
1)
Rion standing in the bluebonnets, on the way
home from a dog show, March 1996
2)
Taking a picture with Daddy – give him a
nudge with the shoulder, and see what happens
3)
GOT HIM!
Now for a triumphant shake, and
4) Off to brag to Momma – BOING!
5)
Can we kiss and make up?
Now THAT is a sense of mischief.
When Rion began his turn in the show ring, we were not so sure he would do as well as Chance did. After all, Rion was taller, thinner, and had light ears and mask compared to Chance. However, Rion moved like a dream – he had the smoothest gait I have ever seen in a Mastiff, and was incredibly light on his feet, even to his last day. As you can see from the first picture in the sequence above, he was no wimp.
CH Monarch’s Orion Shall Rise,
Rion’s Conformation career went fairly well. He took his majors early, and in the same 22
shows as Chance, he finished his Championship on
Rion’s Obedience career was short, but sweet. After training extensively, he and I managed
to finish his CD title in 3 shows! I
couldn’t believe he did so well; in fact, I still find it hard to believe. However, I guess the judges liked what they
saw. It certainly wasn’t *my* grace and
beauty they recognized! He completed his
CD title on a sultry, muggy day in
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Like Chance, Rion was tested and certified not only as a
Champion of record and a Companion Dog. He
also earned certification as a Canine Good Citizen (CGC), Temperament Testing
(TT), and was a certified therapy dog with Therapy Dogs International
(TDI). He was Chance’s partner in most
of the therapy work we did (see the articles at
Click here to read about "The
Boys" OR
Click here to read about therapy dogs
and death
I think they are worth the time to read). Rion also earned his MCOA Working Dog title,
so his set of alphabet soup was CH Monarch’s Orion Shall Rise CD, WD, CGC, TT,
TDI – he and Chance made quite a distinguished pair.
The Boys: Chance and Rion leaving
a nursing facility after a successful visit – What a team!
Rion really gave us a scare on Easter Sunday, about 6 or 7 years ago. To make a long story short, he bloated. Fortunately, the topic of conversation recently on the Mastiff mailing list we were members of had been about bloat – how to recognize it and what to do. We rushed him to the emergency vet clinic, and as we were waiting for him to be seen, the owner of the practice stopped by to see how things were going. When she heard what had happened to Rion, she dropped everything and spent the next couple of hours working feverishly to save Rion’s life. Rion’s breeder came speeding into town to be there for us (us, in this case, means Tina, Rion and myself). Needless to say, Rion survived, but it was a near thing. According to the vet, what probably saved him was the fact that some of the gas pressure was relieved by passing through the intestine – I was never so glad to smell a dog fart in my life! Rion did fully recover from this incident, and all went fairly well until…
Over the past couple of weeks, Rion developed a hematoma on
his ear. It quickly grew to such a size
that it needed to be drained and repaired, so I took him in on Monday for the
minor procedure. Had I known what would
happen, I would have done it differently…
I left him at the vet’s office at about
So passed CH Monarch’s Orion Shall Rise CD, WD, CGC, TT, TDI
on
