The fellow who called in Friday about his dog Sham protecting his mother reminded me of an incident that happened 46 years ago. I’m now 63 and hadn’t thought about this for many years. Our dog Shep was a huge German Shepherd who scared anyone who entered our property. One day I was walking with Shep when out of the blue he came after me with a vicious bark and I backed away only to see him get between me and a large raccoon that was coming towards me. They fought for 15 minutes until he finally had killed the raccoon. Shep yelped and howled during the fight and afterwards; I still couldn’t get near him. He was hurt bad but recovered in a few weeks and was still a great pet. Another time when my daughter was a baby, we heard Shep crying and ran into the living room to find that she was grabbing Shep’s skin the way babies do, but he didn’t bite or even try to get away, he just laid there yelping. Later on, she used to ride him like a horse.

Duke from PA