Presently he is a member of the NESSA drill team, and will be
happy to show off for you at this year's upcoming
HOMECOMING!
January 2002 Update
Adam has received an OFA
Prelim Good.
JUly 2002 Update
Adam Gettysburg 2002
Note: While we have returned from our
trip, the following story is in the
present tense...and was written the evening of our most "excellent
adventure."
Wherever we go, people ask what kind of dog is that? A wolf? A
shepherd? A malamute? A police dog? A seeing eye dog? (He's with you
because you need him, dear, right? He's your seeing eye dog.)
Today however, the curiosity worked to our benefit. Jim has taken upon
himself the Herculean task of taking pictures of every monument and
battlefield marker on the field. He thought he would be able to do the
three days in three days, but we've spent Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday on Day 2 and still have not gone past Devil's Den...in other
words, for those not educated in Gettysburg minutia we are probably
not even half done-and this with spending probably a total of 15 hours
over the past 3 days (between trips to York taking Artus to the vet to
do his "thing"...) trying to cover Day 2...
Today we got a late start (due to the 4
hour round trip to York)-but Jim thought we would at least be able to
cover the Devil's Den area and the Loop (Wheatfield) and return home
around 7...but first he wanted to take pictures of a couple of
monuments that were way off the beaten path, just before the Big Round
Top area. Adam loves to hike-loves to go in front and lead the way,
carefully sniffing the ground and occasionally the leaves of bushes on
either side... He will look back periodically to make sure that I'm
doing ok and today would stop and wait for Jim to catch up in the rear
before forging on. (Poor Jim didn't get to rest because as soon as he
would catch up, Adam would start up the path again). He got us to the
two monuments-we took our pictures. Adam even got into the act and
found a marker on his own, sniffing it out.
I didn't want to go back the way we came
because it had rained and I was afraid the ground wouldn't be firm to
go down hill at a relatively steep grade. Adam (not on his leash now) went over to the path which
continued on, nodding his head and pointing at it. I said to Jim,
let's follow Adam. And off he went to the continuation of the trail
(too narrow even for horses), again proudly leading the way, waiting
for us to catch up and then forging on. Jim however was sure that he
was leading us away from where we needed to be to again reach the road
and thought that we would be coming out of the heavily wooded area
(with huge boulders, wild vines and thorns) too far away from his
truck. So he took matters into his own hands and took the lead from
Adam. Adam reluctantly left the path although he did try to head back
a couple of times, but would not leave me. Over huge dead tree trunks,
across the creek (several times), we wandered as Jim tried to head
toward a clearing, always heading towards the left...(Adam was trying
to go to the right)...Gigantic boulders, huge drop offs-we had to
detour several times.
At last we reached the edge of the
woods. We were in a field and in the distance we could see a farm
building. There had to be a road and since Jim knows Gettysburg like
the palm of his hand, we were sure we would be coming out close to the
Wheatfield Road and would be able to trace our steps back to the
truck. We followed the long driveway to the road, which wasn't marked
and ended up on Ridge Road...Then Knights...Jim wanted to go on Round
Top Lane but I talked him out of it (good thing too as it just looped
back eventually to Ridge). He refused to ask anyone for directions and
insisted that the next intersection we came to would be Wheatfield
Road...but it wasn't.
We were in suburbia not the battlefield.
And a windy suburbia at that. Two people with a huge dog (who walked
very closely at my side). It was after 5--we had been lost for 2
hours. The sky overhead was threatening rain and we had no umbrella
and two expensive cameras. Jim was starting to become very tired. But
he still refused to ask directions of the numerous drivers passing us.
Then-a car stopped in the middle of the road and a woman asked us what
kind of dog Adam was. I told her a Shiloh Shepherd and she wanted to
know more-she thought he was a magnificent dog. We mentioned that we
were lost and asked how far it was to Wheatfield Road-it was a mile
away and from there several miles to our truck. She asked if Adam
would be ok in her car-I said yes, he jumped in and immediately
settled down and we told her about Shiloh Shepherds for the next 10
minutes as she drove us to our truck. As soon as she stopped the car,
he jumped over the back seat and walked out with me...Saved by Adam!
Adam July 2003 -- Antietam National Park
The intelligence, the nobility of these dogs-what a job Tina did in
developing them!
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