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| Name: |
Athena
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Age: |
Fifteen months old
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| Gender: |
Female |
Breed: |
German Shepherd Dog |
| Home: |
Chantilly, Virginia, USA |
Athena
is special because she has all the wonderful traits of her breed
(courage, intelligence, loyalty), but she also has a clownish buoyancy
and joyful outlook that sets her apart from most German Shepherds. She
is sweet and always has a smile on her face.
What sets her apart is her zestful belief that because she is in love
with the world, it loves her back. She is friends with all humans of
all ages, other dogs, and cats. She meets any challenge with enthusiasm
and confidence. Even bedtime is undertaken with happiness, because when
I get her bedtime cookie, she knows she has to lie on her dog bed pillow
in order to get it. She has taken to bouncing to the bed when she sees
me holding the cookie--she takes several tigger-like bounding leaps and
then almost from mid-air, lands on her stomach and looks up with a grin.
Athena knew I was sad about my grandfather passing away, and on the same
day, she invented a game of giving a single hearty "woof!" to passing
cars while I was driving. I was concerned at first and looked at her in
the back. Her ears were forward, and her lips were curled in a smile,
bushy tail wagging. I started to laugh, and so every car that whizzed
by us, she would merrily woof and then peek at me impishly. It was
obvious she was trying to cheer me up. What was also obvious was when I
was at home crying, she stood on her back paws, put her front paws on my
lap and buried her forehead under my chin and stayed there, very quietly
while I hugged her. Empathy, loyalty, and a sense of humor. You
couldn't ask for more out of a best friend.
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