Portrait of a Lady

This is my dog Izzy. Born in Austria (hence the hat), my wife and I adopted her as a puppy and eventually brought her back to the states when we left Europe. She's a Groenendahl - a common breed in Europe - and she has more personality than most people I know. Smart, obedient, affectionate, and great around others, including children and other pets. Even cats - she loves cats.

In Germany I never got to know many of my neighbors, mostly because the community was so cloistered and our ability to speak German was always very rudimentary, but once we brought Izzy home suddenly everyone wanted to get to know us. The neighborhood kids would actually knock on our door just to ask if Izzy could come out and play. They taught her to respond to commands in German. Although it's been years, on a whim I recently decided to give her commands in German (no hand signals) and I was amazed to discover she still remembers them - at least the few I can still remember myself.