MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Imagine jogging on a sandy beach somewhere with your dog and seeing a bottle bobbing up and down in the water. You watch as the next wave washes the bottle up on shore. You pick the bottle up and notice that there is a folded piece of paper in it. Could this mean there’s a message on that piece of paper? Perhaps it’s a map showing you where a buried treasure lays waiting to be discovered. You don’t even recognize the bottle because it’s very old and it’s not even made any longer. Your dog is barking and jumping up on you looking for you to throw the bottle in a game of fetch. You push him away and instead pick up a stick and throw it in the opposite direction. You struggle to remove the rusty cap trying to avoid cutting your fingers. At last the cap turns and you wonder how you are going to grab hold of the paper without tearing it. You shake the bottle and turn it a few times until you position the paper at the neck opening. A corner of the paper lies in the narrow opening and you gently and slowly pull the fragile paper out of the bottle. You make sure the paper doesn’t get wet as your heart beats a little faster in excited anticipation as you unfold the aged worn note. You see it’s dated Saturday June 18, 1921. All the note says is that someday the German Shepherd Dog will be one of the most beloved and popular dogs on earth. You look at the date again and smile in bewilderment knowing this writer wasn’t wrong. You look at your own dog who you continue to throw the stick for and ask yourself if you were to write a message in a bottle about the German Shepherd Dog, what would it be?

So if you were to write that message about our breed, what would you want the reader to know? If like me, you would probably like your message to be floating around the ocean for many years before someone “rescued” it and scooped it up out of its watery home. What would the recipient of your note be reading, lets say one hundred years from now?

You might tell him about the heroics of this breed. You could share with him the comedic personalities this breed exhibits. You could tell him about the beauty, the nobility or just the pure joy of having ownership of this great breed of ours. You might tell him of how he rescued a child. Maybe he alerted you and woke you from a deep sleep when a fire broke out in your house. You could tell him how he visits your Aunt Gertrude in the nursing home and the spark of light it ignites in her eyes every time she sees him. You might even be as bold to tell him that by the time he reads your note, the German Shepherd will go from being the number two dog in the country to the number one dog in the country. And if you really get daring, you could put your message in one of those big soda bottles and include a few pictures to show the world what the breed looked like in 2010! Yeah, I think if you’re going to do it right, you might as well include a few pictures for everyone’s enjoyment.

Who knows by the time someone finds your message in the bottle, there may even be a new breed standard by then. Yeah, I’m sure there will be. I wonder if the person that receives your message owns a German Shepherd Dog and as he looks at your picture and looks at his dog, he marvels at how much they’ve changed. I wonder how the German Shepherd will look in another 100 years!

Will there be dog shows one hundred years from now you wonder. Will the German Shepherd Dog have his own reality show on Animal Planet? Will Animal Planet even be around then? Will shelters be a thing of the past? Will there still be lots of breeders or will there only be a select few? Will there even be an AKC to register them with? Will registration even be necessary? Will there be a National Specialty show to go to? Will the German Shepherd Dog Club of America still be in existence?

If there are shows yet, will there still be professional handlers or have the exhibitors decided to show their own dogs? Will another great book be written about the breed? Will there be a German Shepherd Dog Review to advertise in? Will there be something to replace the internet?

What would your message be about our breed that you would like someone to read many years from now? Mine would be: The German Shepherd Dog was born of greatness, it is right now as I write this and until the time that you read this message in a bottle it always will be. I may be gone, but the German Shepherd will live on as long as people continue to love and nurture them. Time will never change that. Pass it on......


My rating: The German Shepherd for all time: (4)!