Meet Reboot, a German Shepherd Dog and half Norwegian Elkhound, both proud in spirit and mind-bogglingly intelligent according to her human, Jess.
She loved perching on the family’s deck and looking over the railing so much that she made her own lookout.
Reboot broke a rail on the deck so she could stick her head out and always see who was coming up the driveway around the corner. But her makeshift lookout had to go when the family decided to redo their deck. The carpenter they hired told them old railings had to go. Jess described, “He said he wanted to put new railings up, and we said, ‘oh no! Reboot needs her lookout!’ He said he’d take care of it.'”
Jess thought the carpenter would have forgotten, but a week later he said he needed Reboot for measurements. “Reboot was a little skeptical to stand still for a height and head tape measure, but she got treats out of it so it couldn’t have been too bad.”
When it was ready, Reboot had her very own custom-built lookout. With Reboot’s lookout being larger than 4 inches, the carpenter also had the forethought to provide them an insert to fill the hole. (That way the deck rail would meet the US building code requirements, should they want to sell their home in the future.)
Reboot did not figure out the new lookout right away and “kept going over to the railing a few inches to the left and was quite confused!” But she got the hang of it and soon was happily resumed her watchdog duties.
This is Reboot as a puppy!
When Reboot grew up and wasn’t showing off her good manners as a certified Canine Good Citizen or volunteering as a reading dog at a local school, she could be found crawling through the pipe under the driveway.
When she got bigger it got a little harder to squeeze through.
Sadly, a few years after Reboot’s special lookout was made, Reboot died unexpectedly at age 11 from sudden heart failure. That very night, Jess found her cat out on the deck. She was perched on the railing looking out, just like Reboot used to.
It was something their cat had never done before. “We think she was either saying goodbye/paying respects, looking for her, or knowing that the watch/guard torch was passed to her,” said Jess.
“Animals just know,” wrote Jess. “It’s so sad. We are all so sad.” For that night at least, their cat stood vigil for Reboot and took over the role of house protector.
Reboot was a such beautiful dog!
Photos of Reboot published on Reshareworthy.com with permission from Jess.
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