OkcPets Magazine January 2024

January / February 2024 • OKC Pets 11 PETS AND THEIR PEOPLE The Best Dogs Ever The Geisters Love Their Canine Clan by Anne Cosgrove Wimberly | Photos by Linda Earley H it by a car. Shot by a pellet gun. Hungry. Scared. Covered in burrs. Scrawny. Young. Old. Large. Small. Healthy. Choked by a rope. Hiding in a haystack. Those are the conditions of the dogs that Alyson and Dr. Brian Geister and their sons — Nick, Bennett, and Brandon — have rescued. Alyson and Brian are lifelong Oklaho- mans who have lived in Oklahoma City since 1978. Brian is an oncologist who is slowing down his practice. Nick, who works for Paradigm Life, moved back to the city after completion of graduate school in 2018. Bennett and Brandon live in Tulsa. Danny, Diesel, Sissy, Doby, Lacey, Crystal, Bella, and Blondie are the lucky ducks — er, dogs — that became part of the Geister family. The current OKC Geister canine clan includes Bingo, Dibs, and Dory. The Tulsa clan includes Ginger, Pepper, and Daisy Mae. The Absolute Best Dog Ever —Danny “I can’t talk about my dogs without talking about my first dog. His name was Danny,” Nick said. “He was just the absolute best dog in the entire world ... but I say that about all my dogs.” Nick adopted Danny, a four-month resident of Oklahoma City Animal Wel- fare (OCAW), on March 7, 2011. Nick was preparing to leave Oklahoma City for graduate school in Utah, where he had no friends or family. He thought a dog would provide companionship. “The first night I got Danny, I stayed downstairs with him,” Nick said. “I woke up at, like, three in the morning, and he was sitting and just staring at me. I think he was afraid.” From that night on, Danny had eyes only for Nick. “It was amazing how his attention would be on me at all times. We could be in a room, a racket could be going on, and he would be staring at me,” Nick said. Alyson, Brian, and Nick Geister walk their canine clan — Bingo (left), Dory, and Dibs.