Welcome to VonRillca German Shepherds Pat Embrey   Benson, NC
	MEMORIAL

 

RAINBOW BRIDGE

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here,
that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor;
those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we
remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing;
they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and
looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers.
Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his
legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you
cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses
rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look
once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but
never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown..

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MEMORIALS

When a person decides to have a kennel, become a breeder, and stay with it for a number of years, you have a lot of dogs come through your life. None of them live long enough, so the numbers keep multiplying. Some are extremely notable in your life and make a deep impression, following are some of my dogs that will never be forgotten:

BLITZ: In 1956 I got my first German Shepherd who was a West German Puppy named Astor von der Katerinen Ulm.. I was told they didn’t have distemper in Germany, and unfortunately found to my sorrow that they did. He contracted distemper when he was about six months old, and it progressed into what was then call “nervous distemper” which affected his brain, nervous system, heart, etc. The Vet told me to get him out of our apartment, as I had small children, and he was having constant seizures, so a German couple took him in to try and doctor. He did not make it, ending up going blind and deaf, and had to be euthanized. For any of you who have never had to contend with this horrible disease, you are lucky, as it can be a slow lingering death, and even with today’s medications, the dog does not have a strong chance of surviving.

 

REX:   My husband was in the military, we were stationed in Germany with three small children, and as any ex-military enlisted families know, not rolling in money. 

A friend of my husband had a bitch named Cheetah, whom he bred to a West German  Border Patrol Dog (apparently very illegal), so no papers, but I didn’t care, as I just wanted another puppy.  Poor Blitz had been dead about six months when I got Rex, and moved him into the same apartment.  I got his shots, and figured he would be fine.  However, he also contracted distemper, but it was a light case, and the only after affect was horrible car sickness.  (Up to that time, he had loved to ride, but now he could not get in the car for more than a couple of minutes before he was ill. ) He was a marvelous companion, loved to play football with the children, and a great protector of the kids and I. When my husband got orders to come back to the states, we were planning to bring him back with us, however the Vet did not think he could make the trip, so we had to place him with a German couple and there he lived out his life. 

Rex was such a neat dog, mischievous as heck but so sweet and smart.  One time I went down to the laundry room to wash clothes, (which was in the basement) and when I got back up, noticed the cupcakes which I had baked for school the next day were half gone (very neatly, two full rows).  The children were in bed, and I asked them if they had any of the cupcakes and they assured me they had not, but Rex had run to the back of the apartment when I came in, and hid in the small bathroom (which he would do if he did something wrong).  The next day when I was vacuuming, I found tiny pieces of muffin papers under the table, so could name the culprit. 

Another time I locked him on the balcony of the apartment while I was mopping the floors and he was upset about it, and decided to eat part of the rug I had put out there, which was something he never did.

When the children in the neighborhood played football, they would come to the door and ask if Rex could come out to play. 

I will never forget him, that is for sure. 

SHAWN:    The love of our life.  Shawn came to us when my husband was getting ready to go to Viet Nam. Several years after we had left Germany.  We had purchased a house and  I was looking for a male German Shepherd Puppy but had not found what I liked yet.  My husband was in Special Forces, and his team decided they wanted to take a Shepherd to Viet Name as a mascot.  They bought this poor frightened little six month old female, and decided that I would keep her at my house until they deployed which was three or four weeks later.  Well you can guess what happened.  We fell in love with her.  We found out she had been raised in a pen with birds all around her and she could not see out of the pen, had never been socialized, and was a wreck.  After Dick left for Viet Nam the kids and I took her everywhere, to obedience school, the store, etc. etc.  We got her out of her terror at everything (she must have had a basically wonderful background to be rehabilitated so easily) and she became the best  watch dog and companion it was possible to have.  She achieved her CD with high scores and protected our family from any and everything. 

It was so funny when my husband finally came back from Nam, he brought me back some “black Viet Cong pajamas” .  Well I tried them on, and Shawn came into the room and went berserk .  Started barking and snarling, and I kept telling her it was me, but obviously there was an odor about those pajamas that she DID NOT LIKE.

 I could go on for hours about our Shawn.  When Dick was retired from the military, we moved up to our present home, I guess she must have been about 8 years old by that time, and it was time for my children to grow up and leave home.  My eldest daughter was getting married down in Fayetteville, and we went down  there for the wedding, of course.  While we were gone, we received a call from our friend who was taking care of the dogs, that he had found Shawn dead in her kennel.  To this day, my daughter feels if I had been home, I might have been able to save her.  I will never know the cause of her death, but I know she is waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge. 

FREYA:  I decided I would like to start raising dogs, and have a show dog.  So I started doing research and found a very nicely bred GSD up in Virginia.  CH UDX Sire and CH mother.  Of course I wasn’t sure what a “show dog puppy” should look like so told the breeder to pick the puppy out for me.  Welll….. (I know you have all heard this story before).  She was a cute puppy.  All puppies are cute, but she was as far from a show dog as it was possible to be.  NO angulation, scrawny, bad feet (she did have pretty ears).  Skinny as a rail and I couldn’t put any weight on her.  Finally I took her to the Vet and it turned out she had Juvenile Pancreatitis, so no chance of breeding her.  Of course I still kept her, I have never been able to get rid of my adult dogs.  Right after we moved up here to Raleigh, the door came open, and she went out the screen door.  The next morning we found her dead on the road right at our house.  I swore then, I would never let another dog have the opportunity to get loose and killed in the road, and to this day I never have. 

I decided I would go at this breeding thing another way.  I would get a dog from top show lines and breed what I wanted.  I started out with one, who ended up being terribly dysplastic.  This one I was able to return.  Poor little Bonnie. 

  I got another dog from top show lines.  Her name was Tressie.  This one was a long coat.  Well, I could breed her to a dog with a short coat, and get my show puppy, right.  Ha, I had  gotten this one on a co-ownership and the breeder got pick of the litter.  You guessed it, she had a litter of puppies and all but one were coated and of course the co-owner got it.  I think I had about three litters from her, two or three pups in each litter, most coated, no show pups.  I finally gave her to a friend of mine who adored her and she lived a long and happy life. 

 

Does this story sound familiar to those of you who didn’t have a mentor in the show dog life?  This is par for the course.  Sometimes you can luck out and find what you want from the very beginning, but usually, it is a lot of trial and error.

  And unfortunately like I said earlier, I can’t get rid of most of my dogs that don’t turn out.  If I fall in love with them, they are here to stay for their whole life, and my husband, not being a fanatical dog person, says I have to have a limit to the number of dogs I keep so I will never be a top show breeder.  Every litter I breed I try and improve on, and have been doing a rather good job lately.  But of course then you can’t find the show homes.  But there is nothing better than a wonderful companion home with the dog being the center of the universe.

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