“I remember all the dogs jumping around on me and having to push them off me when I was just trying to stand up to go to another part of the room with my family trying to make a choice when we are all stuck on trying to figure out which dog we wanted.”

My brothers and I were driving back from Grand Forks, North Dakota We were just getting on the road early in the morning and just couldn't stop thinking about the 6 hour car drive ahead of us and having to sit in the new and unbroken seats that were not comfortable in the back at all for anyone. We figured out that we could all drive at least hours and then the driving we be split up pretty evenly. I remember that I had to drive through the construction zone and I had to go 40 mph for about 15 to minutes and that slowed us down quite a bit not knowing that when we got home that we were making another road trip for my dad apparently. When we got home my dad old us.

“How was the drive boys, see anything weird..., well we're going to go for a little drive so let's go get something to eat first then will be one our way.”

I remember leaving my house at about 12:30 pm then we got on 35W and started going up towards Burnsville while my mom and dad were in the front two seats my brothers and I Were squashed in the back just waiting for this ride to be over. After about an hour of driving or so we reached Wisconsin and at this point I started to wonder where we really going and why we had to go on this trip if it was for my dad. Every time we asked him where we were going he just said he has to go do something for someone, and I assumed that it something for his company that he owns. After about an hour and a half of driving I thought that I remember this place and I thought to myself I know I've been here before I just couldn't remember when. Then as we went up this person's driveway my dad said.

“Surprise boys were here now let's go look at some dogs ok”

I remember getting out of the car and seeing the breeder Larry, Larry was older man now the last time I saw him was about 12 years ago when we got our first dog from him. Major was our first dog that we had to put down about year ago. He was a very tall man and he was very intense and he was very serious about who could buy his dogs and who can’t. When I first met this man about 12 years ago I remember not even going close to him because he was so big to me and very tense looking. Once we got to his house he was already outside waiting for us.

I remember my dad talking to him for about 5 minutes but it felt like forever because I could hear all the dogs in Larry’s house just barking and whining just wanting to come out and play.

“Hey Larry how you doing long time no see.”

“Hey Dave hey Sherri how have you guys been…”

Then went on and on talking for every and finally Larry brought us inside and I couldn't believe my eyes there were so many dogs I couldn't even count every second another dog would be on your lap and just so excited to see someone different every few seconds. I remember Larry saying make sure you pet them before they sit on you because you don't want any of them to pee on you. We were petting dogs for 30 minutes before my dad finally called us over and we started to see each dog one by one. My dad said right away that he planned on getting 1 boy and that's it.  As my dad was walking around he saw this little baby girl puppy that was out aside from every other dog. My dad asked about this little dog and Larry said she is my prize possession. My dad said right then and there that he wanted to get her and my dad had to really push Larry nut he finally broke and that was our first choice the little girl dog (Chloe). Then about 10 minutes later my mom found this boy that was not leaving her side and we around all of us from the start and when the breeder pulled the dogs away so we could talk this one dog would not leave my mom and right then and there is how we picked our boy dog (Bear). After we grabbed the two dogs and followed Larry into another room so my dad and he could talk business about the dogs. Bear and Chloe is both 100% pure breed German Shepard.

When my dad and Larry were done we all said our goodbyes and we head off for our car and when we go in I remember how crushed I was coming to Wisconsin and now I thought it's going to be even worse going back with two more dogs in the vehicle. When we got on the freeway going back we all just started thinking of names we thought of the guys names pretty fast because from the start he had a great big Bear face so we decided to call him Bear. We were almost back to our house and the entire way none of us could think of a good enough names that would work for the girl. We were all definitely sold on Bear because of his looks and my oldest brother Adam just shouts out.

“Anybody like Chloe and no one responded to it tell about 5 minutes later and then we all started to catch on to it and it just felt right to all of us Chloe and Bear. Once we got back to our house I remember building the kennels from the pet store and those watching them just walk around not really knowing what's going on. After a while our family members came over and met the 2 knew family members and said hello and let the dogs smell them and get used to them and we all got along and the dogs peed inside our house a lot the first couple weeks and after about 2 months they caught on that you aren't supposed to do that inside when you get frightened After our family left the first night my brothers and I sleep next to the dogs all night so they wouldn't get scared or anything and after about 3 hours we let them out because they were whining and making lots of noises so we tried to calm them down but that only made them pee everywhere when we let them out.

After this very very long day I didn't realize it till the end that I was going to have to shape my life around these 2 new family members for a very very long time.