This weekend, I encountered Newfoundland dogs for the first time in the flesh, and, oh, boy, is there a lot flesh!

A friend is considering adopting one of these giant dogs (as a merely-huge puppy), so I went with him to visit a breeder south of Ithaca.

I have never seen a dog this big! I have also never seen a friendly large-breed dog as mellow as these dogs. While kisses abounded, and petting was definitely a must, my friend, the breeder, and I were in a small room with four grown dogs and a puppy and it never got to the uncomfortable jumping-all-over-everyone stage.

This breeder’s male dogs range easily up to a hundred and fifty pounds; the females are a little bit smaller, staying around one-twenty. They can get even bigger than that, I’m told, up to around 170 pounds for the males and 150 for the females.

Newfies are originally bred as working dogs; the breeder casually told us that we could hook them up to a cart when they had reached eighteen months. Just what I need for my back yard: a bear-like pony to haul around yard waste!

Tempting. So very, very tempting. But my kitties look at me and remind me that we’re a kitty family.

And, besides, we’ve got to rip out 3/4 of the house this summer. We can wait for a puppy until after that.

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