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We had German Shepherds for the past 16 years. We had 2 girls, one of which we lost a year ago, and one we lost 2 months ago, due to old age. I've been looking for another for a while. I've been visiting the local Humane Society website a couple of times per week.

I hit the jackpot on Tuesday. Thor was placed in the pound after his owner died. He's 6 years old and is an East German style German Shepherd, which means he's a very BIG boy (102 pounds worth of GSD flesh). He is bilingual, speaking both German and English.

His teeth are a bit worn down even though he's not much of a chewer, plus he has some definite arthritis in his hips (which I'm going to address on Monday), so I think he's trained schutzhund (working dog with bite work). Whether he's just trained for the sport of schutzhund or whether he actually worked, we'll never know. Fortunately, my husband still remembers some German from living there for almost 20 years. His grandson is German and handles a German speaking GSD, so he's going to email me a list of the proper German commands.

The commands for "heel" and "attack", differ only with one vowel ("fuss"/"fass") and I don't want to give the wrong command! So far, he's all business like when on leash, and ignores everything and everyone (except me or Frank), including kids in Halloween costumes, other dogs, and cats (my Parker gave him a smack on the nose, just to show who's boss). However, he did alert intently (and pulled on the leash a bit) when he saw a boy was picking up a girl who was laughing and screaming. Thor looked at me with the look of, "Okay Mom, can I rescue her?".

Now he has to learn that he's not a 102 pound lapdog.

To give you the idea of his enormous size, the fireplace opening is 24" wide, the dog bed is 48" wide, and that's a queen sized bed, not a twin size!

Thor's going to get a good brushing today.

Diane,
Congratulations on your new family member. I'm especially impressed with your decision to get an older shelter dog. Most people don't realize the great numbers of dogs that get overlooked because age or questionable backgrounds. He obviously picked a great family to adopt! I lost my best friend of nearly 16 years a year ago. Still too broken-hearted to get another dog just yet, but plan on letting one into my heart in the spring. Your story is inspiring. Thank you.

Brad

Wow that is one pretty animal. He has a lot of love to give.

BradHall wrote:Diane,
Congratulations on your new family member. I'm especially impressed with your decision to get an older shelter dog. Most people don't realize the great numbers of dogs that get overlooked because age or questionable backgrounds. He obviously picked a great family to adopt! I lost my best friend of nearly 16 years a year ago. Still too broken-hearted to get another dog just yet, but plan on letting one into my heart in the spring. Your story is inspiring. Thank you.

Brad

Brad,

I know exactly what you mean about losing your heart. I'm still broken hearted about the loss of my girls. Cassie was my heart, Maggie was my soul, and Heidi was my love. I've found you can never replace any of them. But the human heart has the remarkable capacity to stretch and grow. Each animal holds a separate place and I urge you to go to your local shelter. You honor your lost companion by opening your heart to another.

Thor is our 3rd rescue German Shepherd, and 5th that I've owned. Our first rescue was Cassie, who was 6 months old, from the Hamilton County SPCA, in Ohio, on black Friday in 2000. I never shop the day after Thanksgiving, but I was looking for something special for my elderly mother-in-law. The SPCA set up a special area in the mall with dogs. I saw my Cass and told my husband that all I wanted for Christmas was that shepherd. He had to carry her out of the mall, through the throngs of people.

The second was in 2009, after I lost Cassie. I found my Heidi, who had been turned into the Parkersburg, WV Humane Society to be put to sleep. She was 7 years old in December 2009. I already had Maggie, when we adopted Heidi.

I lost my Maggie very suddenly to a stroke a year ago. She was only 6 1/2, and I still have a hard time thinking about her. Heidi went downhill after this and I lost her on Sept 26, this year; she was almost 13. I had been looking half heartedly for another shepherd over the summer, when I found Thor at the same shelter where I had adopted Heidi. He was put into the shelter after his owner was placed in hospice care and has subsequently died. I've since met a woman who knew Thor's owner. She apparently spent a great deal of time and money on him and his training. She was very worried about what would happen to him.

Below is a photo of my Heidi and Maggie. Heidi is laying down. The fur was completely gone from her saddle and her ears severely infected when we adopted her. The cause waa flea dermatitis and she had issues with her ears for the remainder of her life. She was turned in to be euthanized, because her owner couldn't afford vet care. Maggie is sitting and as usual, she hammed it up for the camera. She loved having her picture taken. She was my athlete and a natural tracker.

they look healthy and happy. Love to see these pics.

Beautiful Shepherds Diane....all of them! Thor has found a good home. No doubt, the 3 girls are still held held w/in you. Shepherds are such an intelligent species. Hard to part with pets that have stood by you through the years...no matter what. My bride loves German Shepherds & had a couple in her younger day. She trained them herself & one went on to become a police dog. The log-haired type. A beautiful creature.

We lost our Yellow Lab after 15 years. Amber had become blind, deaf & was losing all her muscle strength. It was hard to watch. We had to put her down. She was actually my daughter's pet, but you know how that goes. After she passed, I relinquished myself to not having any more dogs (pets). Well that didn't last long. 3 Christmas's ago, our only daughter came home w/ a 6 week old Pomeranian puppy (Bella). A couple months later, I felt Bella needed a companion, so my wife located a Black male out of state. He arrived w/ such a forlorn, lost look, I just melted. I now have a new soulmate. We later found out he's a Pomeranian/Schipperke mix & quite the ball of energy. So much so, that he fathered 3 more a year ago. Yup, so now we have 5 poms...Yikes! No one ever told me what yappers & vigilant these guys can be. :-)

Benji

Beautiful photo Benji. I said the same as you after I lost Maggie and Heidi; I wasn't sure I could go through it again. Even when I saw Thor's photo online, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to the Humane Society to see him. I'm so glad I did. However, 5 German Shepherds would be a handful and a half! LOL

Happy Thanksgiving,

Diane