Before I left for the army, my boyfriend and I got a puppy. As company for a variety of picnic trips, camping trips, and festivals. It was a huge German Shepherd named Gerda. She endured Adam’s departure for the army hard and at the same time amusingly: she looked for him all over the apartment as if he was playing hide and seek, carried his slippers around the apartment, looked out the window, by the time he came back from work she was already on the doorstep.
In time, of course, she got used to Adam’s absence, but every time we managed to talk to him on the phone, Gerda would jump into the receiver, recognizing his voice and barking at him for his long absence.
When he came back, she acted hilarious! She pinned his feet and would not let him get up for a good two hours, burying her wet nose in his palm. As a joke, Adam told me to study because “Gerda missed me more than any of you,” and she was waiting for him, of course, more than anyone.
It would have been very funny if it wasn’t so touching. Dogs really are very faithful. I can only hope that on my temporary departure to my parents she will miss me just as much. Otherwise I would be offended if it turned out she only loved and waited for Adam.
