Duisburg, Germany
A German Shepherd Dam is being whelped.
Help is called in.
It is a difficult birth. One pup is lost for good.
There were five pups born to this litter. The surviving four are doing well.
FIVE WEEKS LATER
A man walks into a pet store in search of a new companion. He approaches the register with an unsteady gait, aided by a cane. The attendant, a cheerful but inattentive young girl looks up from her phone in surprise at his arrival. The man asks to see if they have any dogs; she asks if he is looking for a particular breed as she walks him to the kennels.
"A German Shepherd, if you have any, please".
"You're in luck, sir. we just got a new litter in a few days ago" she says as she stops to show him to a kennel populated by the new mother and her four pups. Three puppies bark at the stranger, falling over each other in their haste to greet him. He looks over them expertly, and turns to the couple selling the puppies. "Are these all of them?"
"There is one more," The clerk says in thick German-laced English. She directs the buyer to a puppy sitting calmly by its mother, staring at him.
"Yes. I will take him." He puts a hand out and the puppy cautiously comes to him. After careful inspection of his hand, it gives him a lick.
"Hello, Tobias. I am your new master."