First Christmas Alone

This Christmas is a strange one for me.

It is my first Christmas without a dog for 24 years.

For 24 years I have scoured the aisles of stores looking for a gift for that special German Shepherd in my life. Seven Christmas' with Suki, 16 Christmas with Brett and 18 Christmas' with Polly.

Yes I had two very long lived German Shepherds. I was lucky. The heartache of a loss comes too often to a dog lover and I count myself lucky to have had so few real heartaches.

Polly was the one for toys, she particularly loved a large Kong, with its hollow centre I could put trats and peanut butter inside and leave her for hours just licking and chewing.

Brett loved the luxury of sharing Christmas dinner with me. He always sat at my side, waiting for a piece of turkey or potato to escape. I never worried about my dogs eating human food in moderation, always saving one of my bites of everything for them. A sort of tithing really.

Last but most special, my first. Suki, She loved a huge thick dog bed. It was my first doggy Christmas present and lasted her for all her life, though she did get a little annoyed one afternoon when I fell asleep oresting my head on her bed, It was HERS afterall.

So now I face Christmas alone without a German Shepherd to buy for.I knew this time would come. It has and suddenly Christmas is a lonely time again.

Hug those Furkids for me.

German Shepherd Dog Facts

While browsing the Youtube site the other day, getting a GSD fix I came across this little informative video. I hope you like it.

German Shepherd puppy crate training

This is a great video showing how to train a puppy to go into his crate.

Crate training should be fun and happy for your puppy.

Lots of great tips.

Plus Manfred is a really cute GSD.

A Trip to PetSmart

Last week I took a trip to my local PetSmart.

Walking around the store with his owner was a handsome young German Shepherd Dog. He was about fourteen months old, the owner told me. She was taking him to PetSmart regularly to socialize him.

I scratched him between the ears and he almost immediately began to lean with his head against my leg and hand.

How I miss the German Shepherd lean. They just use you as a leaning post and love it when you just let them stand there.

It is ok to let just one do that. My wife's aunt has two adult German Shepherds, now the lean gets to be a problem. Over 160 pounds of dogs pushing on your lower legs is a bit of a handful.  Often I encourage either Louis or Lady to stand in front while the other stands behind me, if they both lean equally then they merely push against each other!

From the Pound

Over the weekend I had a story in mind. It is written from the view of a dog in the local pound or animal rescue. In my mind the main character is a dog, but it could also perhaps be a cat too, it depends on the readers imagination.

The story is a flash story, these are deliberately short pieces of creative writing, some consist of as few as fifty five words. Some may be as long as one thousand words.

This stiry is less than about three hundred words.

The dog or cat is waiting for its owners to come and claim him back, but has heard that he only has one day left before he is taken away to be put to sleep. The dog only recognises that his life can be saved by his own people.

To read the story in full CLICK HERE.

A Close Shave!

Last night, my wife and I were returning home from the cinema after seeing the movie "The Help."  Great movie by the way.

Well as we turned into the driveway, my wife slammed on the brakes and shouted
 "NO!"

There on our driveway were two skunks merrily playing and stopping to eat the cat food that our neighbor puts out for his cats.

The pair of skunks were quite unconcerned by the cars headlights and continued in their chase and eat game for several minutes.

Only when my wife sounded the car horn for what must have been the fourth or fifth time did they wander off, non too quickly to hideunder our neighbors trucks.

Havong bee n sprayed only a few weeks ago by a skunk in the back yard, and having had Polly skunked twice in four and a half years this time I was not going to get out of the car quoetly. I made sure the skunks knew I was there, talked loudly and sang. They were not going to be surprised by me this time and I ,made it safely into the house without the aroma of skunk filling my nostrils.

Dog Days: My Memories of a German Shepherd

Not long ago, and in part as a memorial on the ninth anniversary of his death. I posted these three stories about Brett on my hubpage.

The stories recount the years from 1988 until early 1995 when Brett and my first German Shepher Suki shared my life.

These are reminders of the funny things both dogs did and the story is the first part of a trilogy.

In the second part I will introduce Hariska Intrigue (aka Polly) that will complete the life of Brett and the third part will bring us fully up to date with the life of Polly as an international traveller and Queen of the Pawcific Beaches of California.

Dog Days: My Memories of a German Shepherd