My German shepherd, Nico, was/is the love of my life. I am an animal rescuer, mainly cats but oftentimes dogs so I have met a lot of four-legged friends over they years but no one captured my heart the way that she did. My son wanted a puppy but I insisted he rescue an adult. We got her when she was a wild and crazy teenager. I could tell how incredibly intelligent she was as she was tearing apart my house and my backyard. She definitely needed obedience training and once that was done, she was such a good girl. Because I took her to her obedience classes we bonded immediately. My son went away to college and left her with me. I was so glad. She took care of me and my family of humans, cats, and other dogs for almost 10 years before she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. Now that she is no longer with us we hardly know what to do. It happened so quickly that we didn’t have time to prepare. She’s been gone almost three months and I still cry about her every day. Hopefully a cure will be found soon so that this kind of devastating sadness doesn’t happen to me or anyone else in the near future.