Our dog that I mentioned earlier adopted our family. He belonged to a fellow down the street but seemed to like our house better and was always hanging around. One day, the older gentleman that had him came over and saw why. There were the three of us kids plus the other neighborhood kids that hung around. He said, "Since he really seems to love you all and you all love him, you can have him." He was about 5 years old and so was I. He was officially our dog from that point on and he was the best friend to all of us. He was black and tan but, didn't have the pointy ears or dark facial markings that most German Shepherds have.
One day, when he was ~7 years old, he came up to a neighbors porch almost dead. They called Mom and Dad because they didn't want us kids to see him. Some guy in town that was "still in Saigon" didn't like the fact that he wanted to spend some time with his German Shepherd female and took a machete to him. Neutered in, skinned a back leg and almost cut is tail off. The vet was able to stitch him up and get him to better health. We then brought him home to help him heal up all the way. The hair even grew back on his leg. My mother never wanted him inthe house because she was a clean freak. But after this, my parents set up an indoor place for him in the utility room by the back door of the house. Mopm thought that since he was getting old and had been through so much that he needed a safe place at night and from the weather. He lived 13 more years and died at the age of 20.
As he approached his late teens, he was the friendly big old dog of the neighborhood. During the summer, several neighbors liked him and would put water bowls in shady places fore him. My friend, and later best man, worked for the county Animal Shelter. He would see him on the other side of town roaming around and bring him home. As far as they knew, he was the oldest dog in the county. So, he was kind of like Otis on the Andy Griffith Show. He would not ever have to spend any time in the dog pound. We has in good strong health until his last year. Then it got to where he couldn't walk up the steps and would walk all the way around to the alley because it was sloped.