George is 16 Today

The puppy pictures of him are all glues into my farm log book and I would have to scan them in. Too much work! But here he is at about 10 years of age and here he is now.

Looking less like a Shepard and more like a wolf.
He is 60% wolf or so the vets tell me, and a remarkable stature which is why he has lived so long, that and being spoiled. The girls here call him " Mom's suck!".

Shepard's have a lower hip line and get terrible hip displacer. George now at 16 has a wavering hip and no long will go on long walks because it hurts. But he does not have these hip issues, because I am told he is wolf.

I bought him from the human society when he was 4 months old. I was to be his third owner already. I had to sign a waiver saying I would not return him. the lady at the Human Society kept telling me " You know how big he is going to be?" I said yes I knew, but that was what I wanted. I had a passion for German Shepard's and I needed him to protect my children from bears and wild animals here on the farm. It is comforting to know that they were protected wherever they went on the farm.

As a puppy he proved to be hard work. Oh he never messed in the house. Him mom had trained him to do his business in the woods. But lamb ears were something to be chewed and if you wanted a drink, suck on a cow teet, free meat in the hen house. Oh the fun and games of it all! He never would play ball, or stick. He would look at you like you were mad to ask him to go get it. He would never pull a sled like my girl Shepard's before him. No he was content to herd dairy cattle into the barn at night time and get them all roiled up so they wouldn't milk. He was lucky I didn't kill him the first two years. But over time a ewe butted heads with him and it hurt. He then slept with the sheep rather then try and eat them. My nastiest of Herefords kicked him sky high one morning ( I saw it) and that was his free milkshake days over. Going after a chicken meant mom chasing him with a baseball bat. No more chickens for him. Although it took him 12 years to forget that porcupines put quills all in your face.

That said he loved the kids. Walked everywhere with them. Protected them from strangers that came on the farm. The milk truck drive and the oil truck drive carry dog cookies with them. The Hydro man still hocks the horn, won't come out for fear of him.

These days he sleeps most of the day. He walks with me to collect the mail at the end of the lane. Follows me into the garden and sleeps while I work .

He is deaf, and his eye sight not what it use to be. He no longer barks, he circles 20 times the spot he is going to lay down in and usually falls outside that ring. I think he has dementia as well. But like an old man, you just want to hug them.

George is 16 today. the longest I ever had a dog.