This blog feature amusing and heartwarming stories about our late Leonberger dog Bronco, as well as other Leonbergers. It also has a lot of information about the Leonberger breed, the history, care, training, Leonberger organizations, etc. I also wrote a Leonberger book, which I am featuring in the sidebar.
In regard to the daily prompt “What is good about having a pet?” Pets can give you so many things, love, company, adventure, memorable moments, hilarious moments, protection, and playing with them or taking a dog for a walk is good for your health. We have dogs and have had dogs for decades. According to this article from the Mayo clinic dogs are good for your health. Dogs reduce work related stress, help manage stress, increase activity and help combat loneliness.
In addition, our late Leonberger dog Bronco protected us and our neighborhood from a trespasser and a peeping Tom who was terrorizing my wife and other women in the neighborhood. A Leonberger is very large dog, like a St. Bernard. The police could not solve the problem. The private detectives I hired did not catch him, despite the fact they were hiding in our backyard at night. However, one time when the peeping Tom showed up, I sent Bronco after him and that took care of the problem. Bronco probably just wanted to say hello, but a big bear-looking dog dashing towards you in the darkness can be unnerving. That scared him off for good. Bronco saved the neighborhood.
Bronco also saved other dogs and pets on several occasions. He detected when our Labrador Baylor was about to have an insulin shock. He protected our pug Daisy from an attacking German Shepherd. He found our runaway hamsters on a number of occasions. Below are some photos and illustrations of our dogs.
Our Leonberger Dog Bronco at 3 months oldMe with our Leonberger Bronco. He was not yet fully grown.Our large but cuddly 167lb Leonberger Bronco is sitting nu my wife Claudia’s lap.The stalker / peeping Tom is sitting on a lawn chair and looking through our bedroom window at night. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.After the police and private detectives all failed our Leonberger Bronco is chasing off the intruder for good. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.Our Leonberger Bronco is carrying two hamsters in his mouth. Don’t worry they were fine. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.Our Labrador Baylor and German Shepherd Baby. They were both rescues.Our son with our pug Daisy when she was a puppy.Our Japanese Chin Ryu and our Pug Daisy are protesting our travel by sitting in our suitcase. They want to come with us.Our Leonberger Bronco with our new puppy Rollo, a mini-Australian Shepherd.Rollo, our mini-Australian Shepherd could be a pest. He loved biting Bronco’s tail and even swung in it as if it was a swing.Our Pug Daisy and our mini-Australian Shepherd barking at people passing by our house. Notice the joke.
Today’s writing prompt is “Describe a Family Member”. This family member is good looking, fun to be around, and he is a loving character. He loves to play ball, he is very curious, and he loves to eat. However, he is anxious and easily frightened and he can also be a bit of an a-hole, and he hates dogs and cats. Can you guess which family member he is?
Three family members, but there are more of us.The answer is Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd.
You may ask yourself, but he is a dog, how can he hate dogs and cats? Good question, but I don’t think he knows he is a dog. I think he thinks he is a little person. He prefers human company. He got along well with our late Leonberger Bronco and our pug Daisy, but he hates every other dog and all cats.
Rollo loves rolling and chasing balls.As I mentioned, he can be a bit of an a-hole.As mentioned, Rollo is anxious and easily frightened. Daisy’s stroller is a good thing to sit in for such occasions.Today and the last few days Rollo has been wearing a cone. He had to extract a tooth on Thursday.
Today, October 20, 2024, is the 5-year anniversary of the EF3 Tornado that ravaged our neighborhood. Our chimney was smashed by a piece of concrete flying off a neighbor’s house, our roof was damaged and needed to be replaced, our garage door was destroyed, and the wiring and pipes in the attic were destroyed. In addition, our fence was damaged, and my grill flew across the yard. The cost of the repairs was $50,000.00. However, we were lucky compared to many of our neighbors whose houses were destroyed.
A neighbor’s house the morning of October 21st, 2019.Another neighbor’s house. This house was about 100 yards from our house. It took a direct hit from the tornado.
The house of my wife’s parents was more severely damaged than our house. The wind from the Tornado lifted my 89-year-old father-in-law up in the air and he was hit by a broken marble table that injured his back. He had a sore that was about one foot long. He did not go to the hospital. The school where our boys used to go, St. Marks School of Texas, was badly damaged and the walls of the gymnasium blew away. The neighborhood looked terrible afterwards.
Inside Claudia’s parents’ house. This was the morning after. We are walking into their house to check on them (that’s my wife).
It was also a tough time for our Leonberger dog Bronco. He was more than 12 years old, which is old for a Leonberger, and he had various age-related illnesses. Earlier in October he had amputated a toe due to a type of cancer called squamous cell carcinoma. One week after that we discovered a large deep ulcerous sore on the same paw a few inches above the surgical scar. Fortunately, it was not cancerous, as we first thought, but we would have to treat this sore in addition to nursing him back from his amputation. In addition, he also had the first signs of geriatric-onset laryngeal paralysis polyneuropathy (or GOLPP).
Bronco our Leonberger and Daisy our Pug the evening before the big storm. None of us suspected what was about to happen.
We lost power for four days due to the tornado and about one week after the tornado Bronco had a congestive heart failure. He eventually recovered but October 2019 was a very difficult month for him.
Bronco had just had a toe amputation. He did not blow down our fence.We had to change Bronco’s bandages every now and then but Rollo, our mini–Australian Shepherd made sure we did it right.Bronco and Rollo a few days after the Tornado.
I remember October 20, 2019, as if it was yesterday. I was sitting outside in my backyard drinking my favorite SMASH IPA, Yellow Rose, from Lone Pint, Texas, ABV 6.8%. IPA stands for India Pale Ale, a type of beer that contains a lot of hops. SMASH IPA is an IPA brewed with one type of Malts and one type of Hops (Single Malt, Single Hop). The single hop in this case is Mosaic. My phone started making a loud sound. It was an alarm announcing a tornado warning and, in the distance, I could hear a faint tornado siren. At first, I thought it was nothing but when I saw the lightning approaching, I decided to go inside. Two minutes later a hailstorm made things very loud, the wind was strong, and the house shook, and then we heard a loud explosion. That was a concrete block that had smashed our chimney.
I was sitting in my backyard drinking Yellow Rose my favorite SMASH IPA, not knowing that a tornado was advancing down the street nearby.
After the wind had died down a bit, I opened the door to the backyard, and what I saw shocked me. My gas grill had flown across the patio. There were bricks and pieces of concrete all over the patio and the lawn. There was a big sheet of metal lying on the patio. Big tree branches covered the lawn. There was debris everywhere. We had also lost power. It turns out that the EF3 tornado had gone through our neighborhood and passed within fifty to one hundred yards of our house.
Another neighbor’s house (a bit further away from us).
My wife Claudia asked me to go check on her parents. I drove about 50-100 yards when a neighbor’s roof lying across the road stopped me. I turned around but this time I was stopped by a large pile of trees lying across the street. So, I started walking, but this time I was stopped by a group of firemen telling me that it was too dangerous to be outside. They told me to go back home, and I did.
This is the next-door neighbor of Claudia’s (my wife) parents.
I can add that we got some unexpected help from our congressman at the time, Colin Allred, congressional district 32. My wife left the neighborhood in her car, but the police would not let anyone back in. This made it difficult to, for example, go shopping. I complained about this on Colin Allred’s Facebook page and within hours I received an email from Colin Allred’s legislative director (Judith). They had contacted city hall and the police and now the police would allow residents back in the neighborhood as long as they could show ID. Colin Allred’s office had my email from a previous communication. I did not leave that with my Facebook comment. My wife was happy since she now could go shopping.
Below are some additional photos that I took, showing the carnage in the neighborhood.
The remains of the Gap, a store at a nearby shopping center.Destroyed house in the neighborhood.View of the shopping center in our neighborhood.This was a school bus belonging to the school where my boys went.Streetview from the neighborhood.Another house in the neighborhood.The remains of the veterinary clinic where we used to take our dogs. Luckily there were no animals staying overnight at this time.Our street, just two/three houses down from us.
I am so happy to announce that Sally Cronin is kindly featuring my book on her smorgasbord blog. You can read the excerpt from my book on her blog. I invite you all visit Smorgasbord Book Promotions 2024. Comments will be closed here. Leave all comments over there. Thank you so much.
Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd turned six years old on October 12, 2024. However, we were at a wedding in Chicago, so we had to miss his birthday. We celebrated when we came home. In the past we’ve put a funny birthday hat on him. Unfortunately, he hates hats so this time I took pictures without a hat. To celebrate Rollo’s birthday, I am posting 20 photos I took of Rollo through the years, including some with our late Leonberger Bronco. If you’ve been following my blog, you will have seen many of these photos already but not all of them, certainly not the ones I just took.
Rollo eating a pupcake from our daughter’s hand. A pupcake is a cupcake for dogs.Rollo reaching for a piece of a pupcake on the sofa.This is an old photo from his fourth birthday. He is unhappy with the hat.Rollo almost six years ago. He had just arrived at our house. Our Leonberger Bronco is welcoming Rollo.Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd puppy.Our Leonberger Bronco with little Rollo.Close up of Rollo as a puppy.Rollo on his first walk. It wasn’t really a walk. More like carrying him around the neighborhood.Rollo peeking out behind the sofa.Rollo playing with a volleyball.Rollo rolling a soccer ball.Rollo frequently bit our Leonberger Bronco’s tail, and he even swung in it like a swing. He climbed all over Bronco. Bronco was very patient with him.When Rollo was young, he loved chewing shoes. Here the artist is posing with his art.When we left the house we put Rollo in his baby jail for his own protection. We were afraid he would bother Bronco so much that Bronco lost his patience. Rollo ended up loving his baby jail. It was his own special house and no one else was allowed in.When Bronco had a toe amputation and we had to change his bandage every day, Rollo helped out. He was a dog nurse.Rollo liked to play with Bronco. Here he is asking for a belly rub.Our daughter with our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo and Pug Daisy.Sometimes there are scary sounds and Rollo wanted to sit in the stroller we bought for our Pug Daisy.Two friends.Daisy our Pug and Rollo are watching something from the window.
This is another of my 25 Leonberger photos posts. This time the theme is old Leonbergers. Most of the photos are of our late Leonberger Bronco from the age of 11 years old and up. Since Leonbergers typically live 8-10 years, eleven years old and up is indeed old for a Leonberger. One of the photos is a photo of Bronco with my wife standing next to him holding his Grey Muzzle Award. This is an award given to Leonbergers who have reached the age of 12 years or older.
The first two photos are photos of Leonbergers belonging to friends of mine, then there are 17 photos of Bronco and finally there are six Leonberger stock photos. If you’ve been following my blog, you may have seen many of these photos already but not all of them. Below is a list of the previous 25 Leonberger posts I’ve made.
A Canadian Leonberger called Mak with my book. Photo by Debbie Ireland.Digory and Obi two Leonbergers. Photo by Jen O’Keefe.Bronco’s 11th birthday.Bronco taking a resting in the grass in our backyard.Bronco and our Pug Daisy. Daisy is leaving because she thinks Bronco is hogging the sofa.Our Leonberger dog Bronco is coming up to me. Maybe it is dinner time.Our Leonberger Bronco in the backyard with our mini-Australian Shepherd puppy Rollo. This is the first time they met.Our Leonberger dog Bronco is eleven and a half years old and we have acquired a new puppy, a mini-Australian Shepherd by the name Rollo.Rollo wants Bronco to play with him, but Bronco is old.Bronco got his Grey-Muzzle award from the Leonberger Health Foundation International for reaching the age of 12 years old and thus giving hope for a longer life to all Leonbergers.Bronco our Leonberger dog is taking a rest during a walk. He is twelve and a half years old.A rambunctious Rollo is biting Bronco’s tail. Bronco was very patient. One time Rollo swung in his tail as if it was a swing.Our Leonberger Bronco is in the bushes at grandpa and grandma’s house.After a toe amputation due to toe cancer, Bronco needed to wear a cone, a big soft cone. Unfortunately, he frequently cleared tables as he swung the cone back and forth. Here he has just pushed a pile of books and papers off a table.Rollo wants Bronco to give him a belly rub. But Bronco does not know how to give belly rubs.Bronco taking a break during a walk. He is old for a Leonberger. He is 12 years old and 10 months.Bronco our Leonberger is hanging out with Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd. Bronco is 12 years old and 11 months, in this photo. You can see his blue help-em-up around his waist. He needed help to get up. Unfortunately, he only had two more weeks to live in this photo.Big dog Leonberger portrait in the studio Stock Photo ID: 193024763 by Csanad Kiss.Old Leonberger Stock Photo ID: 2342234815 by theimagebooth.Mature big Leonberger Stock Photo ID:731020957 by Peter Josto.Old Leonberger Stock Photo ID: 1844035084 by Daniel Lesk.Old Leonberger Stock Photo ID: 1957113277 by AnetaZabranska.Old Leonberger in the snow Stock Photo ID: 1944789826 by Anna Krivitskaya.Old Leonberger in Norway Stock Photo ID: 1779931691 by Britta Paasch.Closeup of old Leonberger Stock Photo ID: 1942925251 by Wirestock Creators.
Also don’t forget to check out my new blog if you haven’t done so.
I just got tagged by deanne01 – Vegan Book Blogger for this blog tag. This is her last post. I’ve never been tagged before, and I have to admit I am not entirely sure how it works but as I understand I should tag other people by linking to their website. I am also linking to their last post to generate a pingback because I don’t know how you would know otherwise. I selected some random fellow bloggers who I thought might find these kinds of games amusing but I certainly don’t expect anyone to participate. It is only if you feel so inclined. However, the opposite is also true, if you want to do it, tell me and I will add you. Below are the people I picked.
This blog was originally a blog about our late Leonberger dog Bronco and the book I wrote about him “Le Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. The blog and the book is about his life so I chose the name “Leonberger Life”. The blog and the book also feature photos and information about Leonbergers. As time passed, I’ve added other topics too including my adventures and background as well as book reviews. I also launched a second blog “Super Factful”, which is about something different.
If your blog was a person (fiction or real), who would it be?
If my blog was a person, it would be our Leonberger dog Bronco. He was the best person ever.
What helps you create new content if you feel like you need some inspiration?
I get inspiration from looking at other people’s blogs or reading about Leonbergers.
Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with?
I have collaborated with a few people and that was fun. The first person I collaborated with was Jacqui Murray.
Is there anything more you wish you had or would like to learn as a blogger?
Yes, I need to learn how to use the Word Press features better, experiment with themes, and learn about SEO.
Do you have a specific style of blogging?
I am all over the place in terms of topics. When I review a Leonberger book I don’t hesitate to be critical, and I rate it from one star to five stars. I am trying to read all the Leonberger books there are, and I want to review them on my blog, so I need to rate the full spectrum. One day I would like to create a super post featuring around 40 Leonberger books. For other types of books, I like to keep it positive, so I only post books I thought were five stars. All other books I rate on Amazon but not on my blog. I like to add a lot of photos to my dog related posts.
I almost missed that today is Rainbow Bridge Day or more correctly Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day. Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day is a day of reflection and gratitude that takes place every year on August 28th to honor pets who have passed away. We lost several pets through the years, hamsters, snakes, rabbits and dogs. In this post I will focus on the dogs we lost including Daisy our Pug, Bronco our Leonberger, Ryu our Japanese Chin, Baby our German Shepherd and Baylor or Labrador, or rather Yellow Lab mix. I will start with the dog we lost last, our Pug Daisy and end with the dog we lost first, our Labrador Baylor. I should say that my wife had dogs before we met each other, but Baylor was my first dog. I did not grow up with dogs. We miss them all very much. They left a hole in our hearts.
Our Pug Daisy was a sweet and easy dog who lived a long life. On April 5th this year she died peacefully in our arms at the age of 15 ½ years old. This was just a few months ago, and it still feels strangely empty without her. Our dog Rollo, a mini–Australian Shepherd has been alone ever since.
Daisy came to us a little pug puppy almost 16 years ago. Our son David, eleven years old at the time, was holding her. A few months ago, I held her for the last time.Daisy’s 15th birthday. This is one of the last photos of Daisy.Daisy on the sofa after an exhausting day of doing nothing.Our daughter is petting Rollo and Daisy. Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo is still with us. He is six years old.A painting of our late pug Daisy who passed away in April. It is based on one of our photos and created by Etsy. I believe by the same woman who made Bronco’s portrait (see below).
The dog we lost before Daisy was our Leonberger dog Bronco. The Leonberger dog is a very large dog related to St. Bernards, Newfound land dogs, and Great Pyrenees, He died on June 16, 2020, just a couple of weeks before his 13th birthday. He lived a long life for a Leonberger. He was s sweetheart who protected our smaller dogs. He likely saved the life of our other dogs a couple of times, he found run-away hamsters, and he saved our neighborhood from a nightly intruder harassing the women in the neighborhood. He was also incredibly funny. I wrote a book about him and the Leonberger breed. Look to the right if you are using a laptop and at the bottom of the screen if you are using a mobile phone.
Bronco our Leonberger three months old.Today’s walk with Bronco and rest stop : April 18 2020, Bronco is 12 years 9 1/2 months.The portrait was drawn by Veniceme at Etsy (Natasha Dall’Ara) and it is based on one of our photos.Bronco lived a very long life for a Leonberger. Giant breeds don’t live long. The Leonberger Health Foundation International is trying to fix that. Bronco’s longevity is an inspiration for all Leonbergers and giant breeds around the world. Hopefully his DNA sample will be of some help.
In February of 2018 we lost Bronco’s little friend our little Japanese Chin Ryu. We bought him from Petland not knowing that they got their dogs from Puppy Mills. One time when we went to Petland to buy dog food we brought Ryu with us. As we approached the store he started shaking out of fear. That was a wakeup call for us. He loved howling and it sounded like he was singing an opera. Perhaps he loved howling for the attention he got when he did. Everyone turned around and clapped when he howled. He was a happy fella who died a bit prematurely at the age of 10 from cancer. I was working 16-hour days in Oklahoma when he passed so I could not be with him when he died, which is something I will forever regret.
Ryu loved dancing and singing and Bronco partially visible on the left was his big brother and protector.Rachel and Ryu, the Japanese Shin at the dogpark.Our smart little angel was unlucky with cancer, and I was not there for him. That is Baby and Baylor waiting at the end of the rainbow bridge.
Baby was a female German Shepherd. One of Claudia’s sisters had rescued her. We were told she had been abused by her first owners and she was a very anxious dog. We frequently took the dogs to the dog park, but she was never comfortable there and kept to herself. She was very protective of our Leonberger Bronco when he was a puppy. She played with him and protected him fiercely as if she was his mother. She died from cancer at home on her mattress. It would have been better for her to get an injection at the veterinary, but we did not react quick enough. Another thing we regret.
Bronco, at the age of four or five months, would soon outgrow his playmate Baby.Baby was always a little wary at the dog park.Sometimes not thinking things through is cruel. Watch your emotions. We could have done better for our brave German Shepherd Baby.
Baylor was a ¾ Yellow Lab and ¼ Ridgeback. He was a happy and brave dog who fought bravely when attacked by other dogs. He was also food crazy and stole a lot of food. As he got older, he developed diabetes and cataracts. His passing was the saddest and most shocking. We had left our dogs with a dog sitter during a ski vacation when she called us and told us she could not stay at our house because she had several other dogs to take care of. Something she had not told us. We were forced to allow her to take our dogs to her house. The next phone call was much worse. She had put Baylor out in her backyard because he was barking at night, and he had escaped. It was a cold night. He was found dead the next morning halfway between her house and our house. Hit by a driver who just left him there. Apparently, he had tried to get back to our house. It was quite a shock, and the kids were bawling their eyes out. That was the last time we hired a dog sitter.
Baylor and BabyPhoto of our Labrador BaylorOur Labrador left us tragically and unexpectantly. Evidence that we humans our cruel.The paw prints that dogs leave in your heart are eternal.
This post is not about Leonbergers. It is a post about me or rather about us, the family who would come to raise our Leonberger Bronco. Oh, how do I wish we could hold the hand inside Bronco. We miss him every day. “I Wanna Hold the Hand Inside You” or “Fade Into You” by Mazzi Star was released September 1993. That was when our first son Jacob was born in Akron, Ohio. At the time I was working on my PhD in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering / Robotics at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio. The YouTube video below is from October 1994. I was done with my PhD, and I was working for ABB Robotics in Detroit. Our clients were the Detroit car industry. We were preparing for our move to Sweden where our young son would learn to speak English, the adult language, and some Swedish, the children’s language, or so he thought.
To me it seems like times were better back then, but the facts say otherwise. Crime in the US was much worse than it is today, there were more and worse wars, there was more poverty, more children starved, and the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis in 1994 had just finished. 800,000, nearly a million defenseless Tutsis had been intentionally slaughtered in just 100 days. Another thing that had happened that was close to home was that on September 28 1994 a ferry, M/S Estonia, sank in heavy seas as it going from Tallin to Stockholm, killing 852 people, most of them Swedes and Estonians. Only 137 people on board survived. Some of the vicitms worked at the location where I was going. Times were different back then, but they were not better, or were they? Perhaps the time of our youth is better no matter the state of the world.
This song reminds me of the word poignant. I like to use that word. As I understand it means sad, but beautiful and meaningful. The lyrics are poignant, but you don’t really use that word for music, but if you could, I think it would apply to the music as well.
Fade Into You by Mazzi Star recorded October 2nd 1994
The lyrics for “Fade Into”
I wanna hold the hand inside you I wanna take the breath that’s true I look to you and I see nothing I look to you to see the truth You live your life, you go in shadows You’ll come apart and you’ll go blind Some kind of night into your darkness Colors your eyes with what’s not there
[Chorus]
Fade into you Strange you never knew Fade into you I think it’s strange you never knew
[Verse 2]
A stranger light comes on slowly A stranger’s heart without a home You put your hands into your head And then its smiles cover your heart
[Chorus]
Fade into you Strange you never knew Fade into you I think it’s strange you never knew Fade into you Strange you never knew Fade into you I think it’s strange you never knew
You who are old enough to remember 1993 and 1994, do you think times were better back then?
Many of you know that I have a new blog. The goal of this new blog is to create a long list of facts that are important, not trivia, and that are known to be true and yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many. I call these special facts “super facts” in lack of a better term.
In my Leonberger blog (this one) I write about Leonberger dogs, but I also write book reviews and about non-Leonberger related topics. I am thinking about splitting the book reviews between my Leonberger blog and the Superfactful blog. I am thinking of putting Leonberger books, pure fiction and poetry on my Leonberger blog and non-fiction books and fiction books related to something factual on my Superfactful blog. I wonder if that is a good idea. Naturally the book reviews would not be part of the super fact list but would be on my blog. Any opinions about this split are welcome.
Finally, I would like to highlight my first post on my new blog. It describes my journey through the valley of bamboozlement and miscomprehension. In the past I have had to give up cherished beliefs that were wrong and I had to accept facts that were hard pills to swallow. I consider this growth. Click on any of the pictures below to read that post.
I learned that Earth is not 6,000 years old. It is billions of years old, and we know this with certainty. I learned that lightspeed in vacuum is a universal constant, time is relative, and other strange facts from science. Stock Photo ID: 2024419973 by Elena11. Click on the picture to read my post called Bamboozlement Misunderstandings Big Surprises and My Journey.I doubted human caused global warming, but I was forced to revise my belief after a deep dive into the topic. Natural causes for global warming / climate change would have cooled the planet, not warm it. Click on the picture to read my post called Bamboozlement Misunderstandings Big Surprises and My Journey.
Leonberger Life 