Let me tell you a short story. 13 years ago my wife and two kids were in the mall and walked by the animal adoption spot. As soon as they walked in I knew that I was dead meat. A pit in my stomach rose to my eye balls as I knew I was going home with a dog. While I have always had dogs; I had two kids, who needs a dog with kids around?
    My son and daughter picked the ball of fur that ran right out of the pack and landed in their laps. There was no getting out of this one. Hank was only several months old and was a Blue Healer/Austrian Shepard mix. He grew faster than the kids and thought he was one of the kids.    Within the first year he had taken over his job as our protector. I was out of town on business and he normally slept in our bed room. He heard something and went to the front of the house and attacked the front door. The next morning my wife found a big muddy boot print on the front door and part of our retaining wall broken in as the bad guy was running to get away from Hank. This turned out to be only one of many times that he saved my family from bad guys, mountain lions, and lots of insurgent squirrels. He even was instrumental in saving our neighbor from a home invasion from folks that could not understand English.
    As he was getting along in years we decided to get a buddy for him and that helped him stay young. We were surprised, but he took the lead and taught the new puppy all of the tricks, including potty training and who was the bad guy. At night we would say "Night Night" and he would go up to my son's room and the other puppy would sleep in our daughter's room. He would never miss a beat and let me know if some one was around. My wife and I really had a feeling of being protected with a dog in each of the kids rooms.
He again was getting along in years and we got another dog from the adoption folks to have him train the next one. With three dogs in the house it was a little wild. He again stepped up to the task and even seemed like he was going to live forever. The new puppy was trained in no time and we had a pack of protection. It was a good time for years to have a night time routine and have the dogs head upstairs to each of the kids rooms and then have Hank in our room. However, this could not last forever.
      He and I had our last trip to our favorite place at the lake. We spent hours sitting and just going over the old times. He seemed to enjoy the time and even seemed to let me know he was going to be alright. On the way back up the hill to the house, he collapsed. He was not able to go on.
We may have lost our protector, but he has trained two wonderful friends. They are a great source of joy and still know their place in our family. Right in the middle of everything we are doing.
    The purpose of this story is to let you know that if your are looking for protection, it can come in many different ways. One can be just as easy as going to your local pet adoption place and look for a "Hank". He or she will be a friend, companion and the best protection money can buy.

I only hope that I can live up to the person that Hank thought I was. I will miss my best friend. Happy trails, and keep the lead down range. Clark - Carryconcealed.net