[twister881]

My parents brought back Butch the German Shepherd, a trained police dog, from Germany where my father had served as a member of the post-WWII Army occupation forces. Butch faithfully would guard my brother in his baby stroller. On evening walks, Butch would “stalk” my parents, then leap from the bushes and (playfully) knock my father to the ground.

Magnificent creatures.

[Vaquero]

In 1975 I was driving cross country and pulled into a gas station just outside of Amarillo TX in the panhandle. The hand scrawled sign read German Shepherd pups $5 parents on premise, no papers. I picked up one of the sleeping pups paid the freight and off we went to NY. He was 5 weeks old. He was house broke in only a couple of days and he was a brain surgeon compared to any other dog I ever had.

He was a 1 man dog but when I got married 5 years later he dutifully obeyed my wife because he knew I wanted that. When my first child was born in 81 he would place himself under the cradle or crib protecting the baby as he slept. No one tought him any of this but he instinctively knew his job and It was hard when he passed at 10 years from the week that I picked him up.