Happy Birthday Annie!

For many of you, you know about the unconditional love a pet can give. We’ve been blessed by many such pets, including our German Shepherd…Annie. Annie celebrates her tenth birthday Saturday, Nov 22nd. She’ll probably feel a bit special since we’re having our family’s Thanksgiving dinner celebration and she always enjoys having all of the kids and grandkids in the house. She gets excited when the little ones are here. She thinks she’s one of them and wants to play along with them too.

Annie’s passion is her collection of balls. She keeps them handy where ever she is in the house. She knows the difference between her football, tennis balls, and spiked ball as well as her other toys. Just tell her what you want her to bring and she will go get it…knowing for the most part where she last left it. She’d spend all day retrieving balls thrown for her. Though she is starting to slow down a bit.

She also loves our walks in the nearby woods. She gets to chase squirrels and chipmunks. She’ll occasionally will kick out a deer or two, the deer are always faster and she never chases them more than a furlong. She has always preferred to stay within close proximity of us, protecting us from any possible threats.

As German Shepherds go she’s not perfect. But any minor physical imperfection is more than made up in her outstanding temperament, playfulness, devotion and loyalty to her masters. She is the only German Shepherd that kids in the neighborhood will stop to play with. Why not let them toss the ball for a change.

Our neighbors are always willing to look after her when we are away. Their large family enjoys having her as a house guest, the children adore her. When the neighbor kids have friends visiting, they too can be found tossing a ball for Annie.

Annie shares the house with two other pets, a pair of cats which have adopted and accepted each other. At times they play together and can occasionally be found bathing one another. Annie will also let the two know she is the biggest, yet she does it in a gentle manner.

Annie is aging gracefully. The only hints of her aging one can notice is the white hairs starting to cover her muzzle and stiffness when she rises from a long period at rest. She still has the heart of a puppy, and the eagerness to please of an adolescent. But we know she is now living in her golden years, and we’ll cherish the time we have left with her.