Our amazing dog Shadow
is the non-Doberman lying down on the living room rug. A “throwaway dog,” as my husband refers to him. Dumped as a puppy, Shadow was left to starve and feed on the dead rabbits killed on the roads. He took the biggest risk of his young life when he chose us out of the many neighbors who had tried to lure him into their homes. He showed up when we were fencing the portion of our yard that we planned to landscape. Working on the fence one day, I felt a nose. But when I looked at him, he ran. And hid under the truck of the man who was helping us with the design. The sounds the dog made can only be described as keening. Terrified. And yet he stayed.
We don’t know how old he is but when this Doberman came to live here as a 26 pound puppy, Shadow decided that he would protect him-he still does.
This morning, I watched Shadow, who always gets fed first, he is alpha, after all, waiting until the Doberman got his food. Time after time, he will wait until Ally gets his food before he eats.
Can dogs be polite?
I was reminded, as I watched this remarkable animal, of the many days this skinny dog would appear out of nowhere when the then small puppy Ally (pictured below) and I would walk up and down the dirt road in front of our house. I was taught to have the puppy on a long leash so that I could begin to get him trained to the command, “Come.”
Several times, Ally and I walked by a neighbor’s house with a huge Rottweiler. Invariably, the Rottweiler would run out of his yard when we approached. Then he stood in the middle of the road while I stood there wondering what on earth I should do. The first time that Shadow appeared out of nowhere and placed himself between me, the tiny puppy Ally and the Rottweiler that outweighed him by 50 or 60 pounds, I thought it was a coincidence.
But the 3rd time, I knew this was no coincidence.
His eerie resemblance to the female Shadow dog my husband John had when we met and married made his name self-evident. Stubborn, independent, everything that is said about herding dogs fits this dog. But also a seemingly endless dose of courage that makes us think of him as our amazing dog Shadow.
