Rocky, Zeus & Cleo

G erman shepherds are great, they are caring and loyal. When I was a kid there was a guy living down the road from me, he used to keep German shepherds dogs as guard dogs for his premises, they were in behind big gates, I remember thinking how cruel it was to keep dogs as guard dogs. Dogs should be interactive with people, not made to think they are an enemy. 

when people used to pass by they would bark at them, and it made me a little afraid if I'd see one being walked by its owner because they are so strong.  One bite and he'd have my arm off. At the time my family didn't have any pets. I loved the look of them, their colour, the way their ears stand tall when they are on alert and the way they fold back when they are being affectionate. 

A friend of my mothers came to visit one day and brought her German shepherd with her, her name was Sheba, she was young and very affectionate , it was the first time I got really close to a German shepherd and I loved her.  I realised that they are very strong she was passing by me and rubbed off my thigh and nearly knocked me over, LOL.

From that day on I have always loved German shepherds, I never got a chance to keep one myself but Knew people that had them and saw them fairly regularly.

A few years ago I needed some parts for my car and knew a guy who had a scrap yard, I went to his place and met him, he introduced me to "Rocky" Rocky was a Beautiful German shepherd and very friendly, he was about 14 years old. he was being used as a guard dog, which annoyed me but what can you do, I asked the guy who walks him? He said he does sometimes but didn't get much time. 

  This is What Rocky Looked Like

I said I would walk him, My girlfriend and I started to walk him nearly every day, we used to bring my dog "Girlie" with us they got on like a house on fire, Every day when Rocky would see us coming in he would go wild and make all kinds of noises with excitement, he was delighted to see us, we used to walk about four miles every day and we used to let the two of them Girlie and Rocky run together.

They would chase each-other around and around as free as birds, by the time we would return they would be well worn out. Rocky would walk over to his kennel and w go in and plonk himself down for the night, probably looking forward to his freedom again the next day. We continued walking rocky for about a year and a half but just after Christmas 2007, I was talking to the guy that owned him and he told me that Rocky suffered a stroke and had to be put to sleep, I was really sad it broke my heart, I knew he was old but that didn't soften the blow.

A few months later I heard that the guy had got a new German shepherd pup and his neighbour had also got one, they were sisters, The neighbours named theirs Cleo and my Joe named his Zeus,

Emma With Zeus

I thought it was a funny name because she was also a girl dog, they were beautiful pups though and I saw them a few times over the next year, con day we came to visit and Joe told us that Zeus had went rambling around the road which was in a country area the roads were very narrow, she had been run over by a car or something.

   Zeus & Cleo

She was alive, her pelvis was cracked and her tail was mangled and had to be amputated, He said she would take time to recover, she was still at the vets, a few weeks went by and she was back on her feet. My girlfriend Emma and I went to visit, Zeus was delighted to see us she came bounding up to us making whimpers of excitement, It was great to see her back on her feet, when I seen that her tail was missing it looked strange because her tail used to wag like crazy when she used to see us before, and it seemed as if she was trying now  to wag what wasn't there.

   Cleo as a tiny pup

We brought her for a walk and she seemed to have gained her strength back because she seemed to be as strong as ever, the neighbour of Joe's moved away after that so Zeus was on her own and I haven't had the chance to visit in a long time but am planning to visit her real soon, she would be about two and a half years old now. I must take some More photo's of her when I see Her.

 

 Zeus,  her ears are so cute