DREW'S PHOTOS A Happy Pooch! Meet Drew's parents, Garm (L) and Tia (R) Drew's Daddy and Mommy Before there was Drew and her sisters and brothers, there was Garm (left), a well-known Search and Rescue German Shepherd in Portland, Oregon, and Tia, her mother, who lived a block or so away.  Both parents had pedigrees; Garm was a bit plush, Tia was a standard shorthair.  Through the miracle of genetics, almost all the puppies were the best of all possible dogs, Long Haired German Shepherds.  We are prejudiced, of course, but for people who value dogs with intelligence, no other dog really matches the Long Haired German Shepherd, and for most who have lived with one, no other dog will ever do.  Note that Long Hairs occur naturally, and those that do are to be prized (although breeders often dispose of them, as "not standard"; not being as inbred, they often are more robust and healthy; let a breeder know you want to hear about any Long Hairs they produce).  Check out the link to the Candle Hill Shepherds near the bottom of this page for more to explain why Long Haired German Shepherds are so unique! Although Tia lived a comfortable life at home, Garm's life of adventure led the U.S. Government to fly him to "ground zero", direct from Portland, with his owner and handler Bill, on the evening of September 11, 2001, in the vain hope that there could be survivors in the wreckage of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City.  Alas there were not, and the government returned them to Portland.  Bill said that, despite daily baths, it took weeks to "get rid of the smell" from their 24 hours at the grisly site.  We did not press him for details, and he did not want to talk about it. How It All Began.... Our very first picture of Drew...taken on the day we brought her home, at nine weeks! She already had BIG paws! Drew on the kitchen floor, at about four months. Notice that skinny, catlike tail! Drew enjoys playing ball with us, but we had to get a bigger ball...the smaller ones we started out with she managed to pop. This is a big #7!  Drew loves her tennis ball, shown here--but we've found she loves bouncy blue racquetballs even more! Drew thinks of our kitchen as her home! (And, click on the picture at left to read its "thought balloon"!) One of the first things Drew learned as a puppy was how to get a biscuit out of a jar. When she feels in the mood for a biscuit, she'll still go get her jar and take it into her "house" with her, and wait for us to drop one in! Woof! Drew is ready to dine with her family at the sidewalk tables at San Felipe Taqueria, on her 6th birthday! (She DOES enjoy good Mexican food, as she does Chinese, Italian, and German!) Drew has the back door open and now is trying to recruit somebody to play Whippy Ball with her on the lawn! At the height of autumn color, Drew visited the nearby Reed College campus, on October 28, 2006. As you can tell, she liked what she saw! Something Drew has always done since she was a puppy -- rather touching, and others have told us their GSD has done the same -- is, when she is lying on the floor and someone stops for a rub, she places her paw on their arm (or if more accessible, their ankle) during the rub.  We call this maneuver "the companionable paw".  Clearly she appreciates the special attention!  This photo was taken in June of 2011. Upside Down... German Shepherds enjoy resting upside down from time to time.  But few are caught with this much indignity!  Click on the photo to enlarge...     Comfort... Upside down is comfortable; so is right side up, with some padding.  Here, Drew has her chin on her little rug, pulled up over the lintel of her "house" in the kitchen, and smoothed out.  We have no idea how she does things like this without fingers!  We've never actually seen her do it...just seen the results!  This is also a thumbnail photo....click on the picture to enlarge it. Toys... Like practically all the others on this website, this is not a posed picture.  We spotted this tableau on the kitchen floor on the morning of September 1, 2004, and whipped out the camera and got the photo.  Drew really enjoys her toys, and uses them as a form of communication (brings a toy and presents it, to say hi or to cheer us up if we are blue) and as a medium of exchange (she has learned that if she brings us a toy and presents it properly we'll give her a biscuit).  The stuffed toys also work very well as pillows, and she has learned how to arrange them for her own comfort, as mentioned above.  Unfortunately, sometimes the fun of unstuffing a toy gets the best of her--you see the result under her front paw, and she treasures those flat toys too--but, of course, then we present her with a new one (lower left).  Thumbnail photograph...click on it to enlarge.  On Sunday, August 13th, 2006, shortly after her 7th birthday, Drew joined her family at one of Portland, Oregon's, oldest restaurants -- Jake's Famous Crawfish. There she enjoyed tuna casserole along with dozens of other pooches in a benefit for a local nonprofit animal hospital. She was the only dog to dine from a fork of course! Here, Jane prepares a forkful for her, as Jane's friend Sue Larson prepares to take a photo. Meanwhile, Drew is wondering what Daddy is doing back there with HIS camera... For new "expandable thumbnail" photos of Drew at the table at the Berlin Inn, dining from her fork, all taken at one meal in March of 2008, click here! Drew as Art?? We have a computer photo-processing program which has the capability of turning a photo into a simulation of art, in various styles. Here's Drew, rendered in the "Gothic Oil" style. Rather striking, wouldn't you say?    Drew at Valentine's Day, 2005   Communication and Interaction Like most dogs, Drew loves to send and receive messages to her family...hers are just a bit more subtle!  For example, since she was a puppy, she has enjoyed having a plastic jar in which we would drop a dog biscuit; she would then decant and enjoy it.  Though we keep the jar out of the way most of the time, when she gets a chance to nab it, she does.  She will then set it on the floor near her -- and if we don't notice, and respond, fast enough, we may find the jar gently rolling across the floor right up to our feet!  Or, as in this snapshot from July 22, 2007, she will set the jar in a very obvious juxtaposition to herself and wait for us to drop in the biscuit!  This looks like a posed picture.  lt is NOT!   (This is a thumbnail photo; click on the picture to enlarge and view, and be sure to scroll down to see her head!) Rather than continue to fill this page, and to keep our website as quick-loading as possible, we now are adding pages with featured full-size photos, which you can access via these hotlinks! Drew in Sellwood Park, in Portland, enjoying the ambiance of "Sunday in the Park" 2007! Here's more about Long Haired German Shepherds! For observations about the Long Haired German Shepherd, click here for the history of -- and observations about the Long Haired German Shepherd, courtesy of Candle Hill Shepherds! Click here to move ahead, and get an idea of just how SMART German Shepherds REALLY are!