My husband and I had always wanted to have a dog but we thought we would wait until we retired so someone would always be home. I thought about a small dog but Tony, my husband, had his heart set on a big dog so we got a big one.

We asked around about where we could get a healthy puppy and after a lot of checking we decided to go to Silver Mountain Shepherds. This place was in Glens Ferry Idaho, it's about thirty miles from where we live.

Tony, Donna(our daughter) and I went to look at the puppies. We got off the highway and the dirt road dead ends into the Silver Mountain property. The place is very large with cannels for the dogs to swim in. There were several buildings on the property and when we got closer we could see, there were about 40 or 50 grown shepherds all free to roam about. Needless to say, we were very nervous about getting out in the middle of all these loose dogs. We decided to see what would happen when we were among them. We were very surprised to see how gentle they were. The dogs never jumped on us or anything.

The breeder came out to meet us and we told him what we thought we wanted. He showed us to a large barn where there were large runs. All the puppies and two nursing females were in the largest run. There were other large kennels for the females in heat. There were seats in the puppy run where you could sit and observe the puppies. There were white ones and black ones and black and silver pups. They were all so beautiful that it was hard to decide. One of the puppies was sitting in the middle of a large feeding container. Some of the pups cane over to smell us and one puppy sat on Tony's foot. They were all sprayed with water because it was so hot. We all smelled like wet dog. Ha.

They breed Shepherds with the sloped hind quarters and also with the normal hind quarters. We must have been there with the puppies about two hours. The breeder came and asked if we had a pup in mind after watching them awhile. Tony decided he liked a black and silver one. We kind of liked this pup too, so we were going home with this beautiful baby dog.

They give you papers on the puppy and a shot and a chip. On the way home I held the puppy first and Donna held her the rest of the way home. We settled on the name Duchess and since we both held her that day, she thinks she has two moms.

Getting Duchess was a wonderful thing for Tony. He has been very ill for quite awhile and Duchess is really important to him. She is a comfort. She is 9 years old now and we love her very much.

Well I guess that's it for now. See you soon?