{"id":4241,"date":"2011-07-13T15:56:28","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T19:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2013-08-29T22:12:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T02:12:34","slug":"warm-and-fuzzy-story-alexia-the-alert-german-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/07\/warm-and-fuzzy-story-alexia-the-alert-german-shepherd.html","title":{"rendered":"Warm and Fuzzy Story – Alexia, the Alert German Shepherd (by Donna Calvin – a Personal Sharing)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Alexia on the couch holding her “favorite” pillow. She’s allowed on the couches, but not on beds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July, 2011<\/p>\n

Alexia is a German Shepherd. \u00a0She is a very good dog. \u00a0She’s a very smart dog. \u00a0Most of all, she’s a very protective dog! \u00a0When Alexia is on patrol, you just feel safer!<\/p>\n

We don’t just like Alexia, we l\u2665ve her!<\/p>\n

Alexia sleeps in our bedroom every night. \u00a0In fact, one of the highlights of her day is when the whole family (you know the pack) makes the announcement, “Let’s go to bed. \u00a0I’m tired.” She immediately proceeds to the back patio doors where she knows she’ll be let out to do her last “run” for the night. \u00a0Then she comes back in, stops by her food dish, grabs a quick bite, you know, morning is a long way off, then she proceeds to the next bowl, where cool, fresh water is there for her where she drinks a huge amount. \u00a0Then it’s to the steps!<\/p>\n

We all trek up the steps at night, but Alexia has always been the first one up them. \u00a0Of course, now that Alexia is getting on in years, we make sure we all clear away to the side to ensure a cleared route while we encourage her to get a running start, which she has to do to overcome the pain in her spinebone and hips from the horrible disease of arthritis.<\/p>\n

We l\u2665ve Alexia with all there is in human beings to l\u2665ve dogs!<\/p>\n

Two years ago when the vet diagnosed Alexia we began the “Peanut Butter” routine. \u00a0She gets her pain medications, vitamins, calcium, and glucosamine chondroitin\u00a0three times a day buried in peanut butter. \u00a0Recently another “Health Cookie” was added to the meds routine which she eagerly takes and runs over to her “den” — a soft doggie pillow in front of the TV set in the family room where she\u00a0relishes in\u00a0chomping\u00a0away the tasty doggie medication. \u00a0(Shhhhh, she doesn’t know it’s medicine.)<\/p>\n

A few nights ago our carbon monoxide detector started\u00a0chirping\u00a0in the middle of our heaviest sleeping period — you know that perfect spot when sleep is so wonderful you don’t even know you’re alive! \u00a0Neither my darling husband (DH) heard it or me. \u00a0But Alexia sleeps with one eye partially opened and both ears hooked onto “Alert Status!” \u00a0She heard it. \u00a0She knew that it was not a sound normally associated with the still of the night!<\/p>\n

Alexia has another very soft pillow-bed upstairs on my side of the bed, but she went over to my DH’s side of the bed and began her antics to awaken him. \u00a0She snouted him. \u00a0She proded him. \u00a0She gave out low sounding throaty (but friendly) noises. \u00a0He still refused to move out from his sound sleep, so she did the unthinkable! \u00a0She, despite her pain-racked body, jumped up putting just her front paws up on the bed which absolutely was disturbing enough to not only awaken him a little, she bounced the bed hard enough that it woke me too.<\/p>\n

He heard the chirping and got out of bed to investigate. \u00a0I stayed pillow bound hoping to return as quickly as possible to the arms of\u00a0Morpheus. \u00a0(It’s so nice to have a man around the house, right ladies?)<\/p>\n

He changed the batteries in all the smoke detectors and the carbon monoxide detector in the middle of the night after he got out the ladder. \u00a0(My hero!) \u00a0He found it was the carbon monoxide\u00a0detector\u00a0that was causing the annoying chirps. \u00a0Even after replacing the batteries, it chirped on. \u00a0He took it into the garage and it still chirped there. \u00a0So he took it outside where it still\u00a0chirped relentlessly outdoors. \u00a0Being a retired engineer with an\u00a0analytically-positioned\u00a0mindset, he determined the carbon monoxide detector\u00a0was faulty and that it was not a carbon\u00a0monoxide\u00a0incident. \u00a0He took out the batteries to silence the chirping\u00a0noisy\u00a0detector, patted Alexia’s worried head where she was anxiously and faithfully waiting for him at the top of the stairs — for her beloved “daddy” to come back to bed so she could relax and get back to bed too.<\/p>\n

I really don’t think she thought that every thing was okay when she saw him on a ladder in the middle of the night! \u00a0I mean, putting a ladder right next to the balcony railing on the second floor that is opened all the way down to the entry foyer floor could result in a long fall over the side! \u00a0Oh, that would not be a funny splat at all. \u00a0Now that’s cause for concern in the brain of our l\u2665ing Alexia protector! \u00a0You could see her doggie-frame heave a sigh of relief when he finally came back upstairs. \u00a0Now she at last could relax and go back to bed, worry free.<\/p>\n

Now you know why we don’t just think of Alexia as a dog.<\/p>\n

When we had to put our last German Shepherd down, Ferrari, due to hip dysplacia (another form of arthritis), we knew we had to have another dog, my son went to pick out a dog himself. \u00a0We\u00a0got Alexia from the local animal shelter when she was seven months old. \u00a0The shelter wouldn’t let him adopt her without the rest of the family’s consent, which I gave readily. \u00a0Still they made us wait another two weeks for her. \u00a0Alexia wasn’t called Alexia at the shelter. \u00a0Her name was Maggie. \u00a0My son and I spent three nights searching the Internet for the perfect name even before Alexia arrived at our home. \u00a0He and I were like two expectant parents awaiting the arrival of the coming baby. \u00a0When we found the name, Alexia, we knew it was perfect.<\/p>\n

Alexia means “defender of mankind.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Alexia defended us a few nights ago from what she thought was a threat to her beloved family.<\/p>\n

Now I can sleep a whole lot more soundly knowing I have Alexia sleeping with her ear cocked to listen for sounds of danger and smart enough to rouse us — even at the risk of our anger for her disobeying a command to never get on our bed.<\/p>\n

And that’s just one of the many millions of reasons why I l\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665\u2665ve Alexia!<\/p>\n

As time goes by, I’ll continue to share other “warm and fuzzy” stories about Alexia. \u00a0She is a dog with heart, smart and\u00a0personality\u00a0plus!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July, 2011 Alexia is a German Shepherd. \u00a0She is a very good dog. \u00a0She’s a very smart dog. \u00a0Most of all, she’s a very protective dog! \u00a0When Alexia is on patrol, you just feel safer! We don’t just like Alexia, we l\u2665ve her! 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