Jake is a neutered male German Shepherd. I wasn't looking for a full grown dog. I had already been looking at Shepherd puppies. Not one puppy as of yet said "take me home".

My husband Rick saw Jake in the local newspaper. Jake was at the pound( our local SPCA). They were calling him Duke(not his real name). I loved the look of him from his published picture. He reminded me of the bloodlines of my first Shepherd Twyla. I lost her three years ago to cancer and still missed her terribly. The paper stated that he was an eight year old pure bred Shepherd with hip problems. My husband was apprehensive to go and see him. He knew how I get attached to animals and my love for Shepherds was a minus it seemed for this adoption. An eight year old with problems means shorter life span, never mind the hip problems and medical costs that would come along with adopting Jake.

A few days later while coming home from shopping I said lets drop by and just check him out. Rick does have a hard time saying no to me. And with that statement we ended up at the SPCA. It had just closed but the worker let us go through and take a quick peek. Walking amidst of all the barking we came across Jake. There he was, sitting quietly in his run alone watching us. The intelligence in his eyes drew me even closer to wanting to know more about him. Still I was not about to put my fingers through the chain link fence to greet him. We left with plans of coming back. Or at least they were my plans. Of course I could not get rid of the picture of Jake sitting all by himself. He had sat majestic amongst the many barking dogs.

Rick and I talked on and off over the course of the next two days. We did agree that it would be a shame to have Jake destroyed as not too many people would adopt a dog eight years old with hip problems. And of course I reassured Rick that Jake was not eight. He did look much younger.(After adopting Jake we found out he was approx four years old with no hip problems). After much talking we agreed to visit Jake and spend some time with him. What Rick did not know was that with this visit it was our destiny to bring Jake home.

Arriving at the SPCA I hoped that Jake had not been adopted out. Yes, he was still there. We spent time getting as much history on him that they could offer us. Seems like Jake had lived at the SPCA for a month. He had been abandoned by his previous owners, tied in the middle of the night with only his collar and bowl at a boarding kennel. We spent an hour with Jake. It was evident someone had spent time training him and he listened well to both of us. During this time he would not make any eye contact with either Rick or I. This still did not deter me. He was beautiful, just the look I wanted in a Shepherd.

We talked it over an agreed to take Jake home that day. The SPCA was so happy to have him adopted out they gave him to us for free. We had him chipped , licensed and with the paperwork done we were ready to take Jake home.

As I did the paper work Jake bonded with Rick. He was a real mans' dog. The two looked good together. The fellow working at the pound offered up a few more anecdotes of Jake and his month stay with them. One being he didn't like his last border so he was left alone in his run . Now that sounded not to encouraging to me. Especially since this past hour Jake totally ignored all the other dogs and cats around us. Second he said Jake was good at opening latches. An escape artist Mmmm. I can live with that. And to this day Jake doesn't try to open our gates. ( I have them bungeed shut. LOL) Then he proceeds to tell us how Jake picked up a bucket of water by the handle and moved the bucket to the shade during exercise time one hot day. Ok, that I did not believe ... anyway I was already sold and in love with Jake.

Jake jumped in the truck so fast as if he was more than ready to get rid of this lousy motel. LOL I sat in the middle. Jake one side of me and Rick on the other side driving. He spent the whole time trying to get as close to Rick as he could. Finally we arrived at home. We had no food or for that matter any dog supplies at all. As Jake was getting aquainted in his new back yard I got a ice cream bucket of cold water for him. My mouth dropped. The first thing he did was pick it up by the handle and move it. Ok , so now I had to believe I had adopted a wonder dog.