German Shepherds and Children Part 2 - Prince William of Orange

After my father returned from Vietnam in 1970, we went to live in Maryland, and my parents decided it was time for another dog.  My father initially brought home a toy fox terrier, Odin, but Odin was terrified of children, and attacked my father every time he got into bed at night.  Eventually it was decided that Odin should be given to an elderly lady, and my father told me I could pick out our next dog.

Several weeks later, he took me to meet a lady who seemed to have 20 dogs running around.  I still remember them racing toward me when we walked in, most of them Odin's size...except for two long-haired German Shepherd puppies that looked like little woolly bears.

"Which one would you like?" my father asked me, gesturing at all of the dogs milling around.

One of the long-haired German Shepherd puppies was already standing beside me, licking my hand.  "Him," I said.

I could tell my father was pleased, even though he pretended to be surprised.  "Him? Really?"

I nodded, and put my arm around him.  I still remember how he stayed by me, even as my father went off to talk to his owner, and how he walked beside me when I followed.

That was how Prince William of Orange (named for the Dutch Royal Family) came to stay with us.

Prince William of Orange (right) and his cousin

Prince William grew up to be a gentle giant.  My father took numerous pictures of me, at 5 years of age, with him, and in almost all of them, I have him around the neck in a death grip.  Prince William's only response to such overly friendly tactics was to lick my face.  He liked everybody...except the trash collector.  This unfortunate man was so frightened of him, he would try to sneak up and collect the trash every Monday, and Prince William took it as a personal insult.  He would lie on the front porch, pretending to be asleep, until the man reached the trash cans...and then fly off the steps toward him with a volley of thunderous barks.  My mother says he liked to bark at butterflies, too, but I don't remember this.  What I do remember is how safe he made me feel.

I even thought he could protect me from the things I saw in my nightmares.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to keep Prince William for very long.  A year later, my father was transferred to Alaska, and Prince William went to stay in Florida with a friend of my father's who, coincidentally, owned Prince William's cousin.  The cousin was extremely aggressive, and I remember being terrified of him, but I was never afraid of Prince William.

Everything I can remember about him is good.