Soothsayer German Shepherds

Soothsayer German shepherds first started with Lily. I never knew much at all about shepherds.

Only that Since I was a little girl I always knew I would have them.

We picked lily out of three identical pups and she cried all the way home.

She was a model pup and a very quick learner.

We were hooked.

She slept with my youngest son at night, and they became very firm friends. Till this day he

claims fame for training her. She's a very vocal girl and soon learnt to ask for her food.

Our second dog and the one responsible for most of the Soothsayer generation is Herman.

What a placid dog he is and he just loves everyone. Not as quick a learner as Lily, but he

makes up for it with charm.

Then along comes Paige. Now Paige is our Essex girl, our first black who loved nothing better

than to destroy things.

The sofa, the carpet, the kitchen flooring.....Twice! Numerously raiding the fridge and freezer.

No child lock could keep her out, many a time we would come home to a VERY portly pup.

At nine now she has slowed down such a lot, but still on occasions will open the fridge door,

just to let me know what she is still capable of.

Tia is next. My sweet gentle Tia. Hated being told off so much that she wouldn’t do anything

wrong. I call her my smiler, every time you look at her the end of her tail would wag, just like

a rattle snake, a trait she has passed on to her two daughters.

Nothing could prepare me for my fifth. Salem. A Black dog.

He has all the good traits of the others rolled into him, he talks like Lily and is so clever, has

all of Herman’s charm, which he lavishes on the women visitors. You can almost see what he

is thinking; he is what I call my Lager Lout. Loud, but very loveable.

Willow is next. From a friend in Kent. Note: I still call him friend.

She is so focused on me that she will not listen to anyone else. Hates to be separated from

me. She knows when I'm about to leave the room and makes sure she with me.

She's young....She'll get better with age. Plus training!

Cordelia is the first pup that I have kept. She is out of Herman and Tia.

Has the best qualities of both of them and hopefully will carry on the Soothsayer generation.

When Tia had her second litter, she was studded to Salem and Had 11 all black pups.

We had no intention of keeping any of them, but Alice had different ideas.

She has become our eighth and last dog for a long time, (or so we thought).

Alice's story will appear a little later.

Betty came back to us when her owner’s marriage split up. Alice found it the hardest to

except her into the family.

Alice and Betty just never got on together, and Alice would never miss out on an opportunity

to launch an attack on her. Betty most of the time used to ignore her, but sometimes she

would retaliate which would wind Alice up even more...Hence Alice was given the nick name

of the Poison Dwarf (Due to her being only 19" high).

Then Along came Desi......

Desi was born a single pup to mum Betty in September 2003; she was born by C-section

after being 2 days overdue as you can imagine she was a big baby and she grew and grew.

She was so big she could not walk properly until she was 3 weeks old. I was a little worried

about it but the vet assured me that as she got older she would cope fine as her legs

muscles strengthened.

She had all the attention she needed and was a very quiet pup until 3 weeks of age when she

realized there was a world outside her box.

She did not want to be cuddled was very independent and wanted to be with the big dogs.

I knew then that she would need a very experienced home, she never had to Share anything,

with littermates. To her it was all hers.

The older Desi got the naughtier she got, and the more I was worried about getting the right

home for her. A novice home was not for her...

Then disaster struck.

We had fallen very much in love with her... So she stayed.

In October of 2004 the previous owners of Betty got in touch with me and announced they

were a family again.

So in January of 2005 Betty returned to her previous owners where I've been told she is very

happy and they are delighted to have her back with them..

So in total we have nine dogs that all live in the home with us, and now with betty gone there

is less dispute here than there ever was between my two boys.

All my girls are now getting on in age (with the exception of Desi) and last year we had three

of them spayed. Tia, Willow and Desi (because she was really too dominant to be bred from).

Last year Cordy gave us our youngest new member...Horatio...Born in July 2005, hopefully he

will be available for stud (as long as he has a good hip score).

His mum Cordelia will be spayed this year. So there won't be any more puppies for quite some

time. As all the girls stay with us after they have been spayed...There is as the saying goes...

No room at the inn.....

Sadly we have lost our beautiful Paige in July 2006, she had Malignant Tumours, we can't

express the pain we felt at losing her so early in life.

End of September 2006, Cordy has given us our last litter of pups. 5 in total, by C.section, and

was spayed at the same time.

Horatio has also been hip scored, and he is scored a total of 9, and is offered at stud to

approved bitches.

Surprise, Surprise... Out of Cordy's last litter we have kept a boy. Sometimes it is just too hard to part with them.

We have called him Vinnie.

Vinnie has now been Hip scored, a total of 13, we hope he'll be as good a stud as Horatio.

2008, see's us still with all our dogs.

Lily will be 14 in July this year, as Herman will be 13 in April.

Herman is both deaf and blind, so he doesn't go very far, and Lily's legs

are not very good. All the others are doing well, even our little Alice

(who the vet gave a 2 year life span to) is doing well.

She's back on Propalin, and will be for the rest of her life.