Heather Poperszky and friend

By Wendy Rudnicki

You may have seen Heather Poperszky at a Pearland dog park with her friends.

The friends — Great Danes — are hard to miss.

She's a board member for Great Dane Rescue of Southeast Texas, having been a fan of the breed since childhood.

“Every Christmas, I would ask for a Great Dane, and my parents said no. I already had a horse,” said Poperszky, 33.

The Alvin resident finally got her wish.

Poperszky and her husband, Michael, 37,, have two children, Madison, 6, and Braeson, 4. And she has three "gentle giants” — Woodrow, Boaz and Emma, a foster dog.

"They’re very good with kids. My kids are constantly laying on Woodrow; they used to use him as a teeter-totter."

They also have Cutie, a "Chiweenie," a 12-pound dynamo who is part Chihuahua and part dachshund.

Despite being vastly outweighed, Cutie is the alpha dog of the pack, said Poperszky. She "rules the roost; what she says goes."

Great Danes can weigh between 100 and 200 pounds.

Poperszky became involved in Great Dane rescue when she met other owners at Houston-area dog parks who told her about The Houston Great Dane Meetup Group, an online network (through meetup.com) of Great Dane owners in the Houston area.

"We meet up to let our dogs play and get to talk about things that are going on with our Great Danes. A lot of the ladies were helping to rescue dogs and rehabilitate them and then find them new homes. So many of us wanted to be involved in it that we decided that we would start a Great Dane organization because we hadn’t had one in the area for several years," she said.

They are planning a series of "meet and greets" in the community to let people know about the organization, and meet the foster dogs, "because sometimes pictures just don’t do them justice," said Poperszky, who maintains the organization’s Web site at www.saveadane.org.

The group is always looking for people to volunteer to help with meet and greets and to foster Danes, she said.

In addition to traditional fostering, which provides in- home care for the dogs until they are adopted, the group has a foster-to-adopt program that allows people to "see if that dog fits into your family and if the Dane is really for you," she said.

"It has been very appealing to a lot of people because they know they’re helping that dog out and they’re getting to know the dog before the final paperwork is signed," she said.