German Shepherd Rex to the Rescue - a tale of a natural Hero

by Sue
(was South Africa)

Peter Warren had a fantastic, gorgeous male GSD, Rex. (Rex was the sire to our bitches puppies). Peter was 30yrs old and still living at home. He and his father were engineers on a gold mine and they were out of the house all day.

Peter's mother, Mrs Warren, did not like Rex. As a puppy he had chewed a hole in her carpet, necessitating a rearrangement of the lounge furniture. His tail was just the right height to knock all her ornaments and flower vases off the tables, and Peter let Rex sleep on his bed and shed fur on it. So as soon as the men went to work, she put Rex outside in the garden. She made sure he had water and plenty of shade because she wasn't a cruel woman ? just a normal grumpy housewife who had too much to do.

One day while the men were at work, the gardener knocked on the door. She knew him, so she opened it, not realising he was crazed under the influence of liquor and drugs. He pushed her inside, slammed the door, and began attacking her.

Next thing, there was an almighty CRASH!! Rex had jumped straight through a solid pane of glass, and ran to the kitchen and knocked the guy down, standing on his shoulders, with his teeth at his throat. Needless to say, further thoughts of attack went right out of the gardeners mind.

Remarkable, really, the effects an angry GSD can have on a miscreants behaviour! He lay there as meek as a lamb under Rex's watchful eye while Mrs Warren called the Police and her men at the mine. Peter had to rush Rex to the Vet for stitches while the Police arrested the gardener and took statements from Mrs Warren.

Rex made a good recovery, and from that day on, as far as Mrs Warren was concerned, Rex could do no wrong. She boiled him up his chicken and rice every day, spoiled him with special treats and after a while, encouraged Peter to get a suitable mate for him. He did, and although Rex is long gone to Rainbow Bridge, his bloodline lives on.

The Police were so impressed that they wanted Rex, but there was no way the family were going to give up Rex after that, so they arranged to have Bruce, one of the puppies Rex sired on our bitch, Britta.