This love affair with B.B. lasted for thirteen years. She was the best dog!  She loved all of us and we all loved her. She was sooo intelligent!  She knew exactly what we told her to do. She never had to be told twice. But she was a great guard dog also. If our friends came to visit and she had already met them, she welcomed them profusely. However if they came and no one was home, they were treated as if they were strangers.

One of my friends came to borrow some dishes for her Christmas party. She and her daughter came into the kitchen and sat down to wait for me since I was in the basement attending to laundry. I was surprised to see them when I came up because B.B.had not even barked.

A week or so later she came to return the dishes but this time I was not home. My friend told me later that there was no way that she would enter my home with B.B. barking so angrily. She was surprised because of all the other times that B.B. had had no problem letting her come in. Naturally, we figured that the difference was the fact that no one was there. We had never suggested this to her, so this was her shepherd intellect figuring it out for herself.

We bred her two times. The first time she birthed nine pups, but two were still born. She was so upset and worked tirelessly to revive them, to no avail. When she had her second litter, she birthed thirteen pups. But after the first two she left them and went to the door to go out. I thought ‘Oh my goodness! She was such a good mommy to her first litter, does she not want to do that again?’  Well, we let her out and I thought that she looked like she did have to go. She came right back in. My husband was not convinced. Sure enough, she had birthed a still born. Then came in and birthed the rest of the pups. I have never figured out how she knew which one pup out of thirteen in her womb was not living. God has given dogs (and other animals also) such strong instincts, for sure.