After saying I loved German Shepherds, I raised AKC registered Chihuahuas after I was married and sold the litters with papers and showed the mother bitch when she was young in AKC sanctioned shows. Chihuahuas were my late, former husband's choice and a change for me, in size, anyway. They were lovable and smart, too; in fact, I've never ran across any animal that wasn't.
But, I have a Boxer story for you!
When I was young and living at home with my parents, I got a "caller" one night at our front door. I heard a noise like "knocking," only it wasn't knocking. I opened the door and there stood the biggest, most handsome boxer I'd ever seen! He just stared into my eyes like, "Well ... can I come in?"
Being an animal lover, of course I let him in.
This went on every week for a long, long time. I'd never seen him before that first night at our front door ... didn't know where he came from or why he had chosen our house ... but he and I would sit on the living-room floor for about an hour and *WATCH* TV! He would stare straight at the screen, allowing me to place my arm around his body and hold him. He was a "gentle giant."
When the hour or so was up, he would get up, go to the front door, and want out. Off he would go into the night.
After I had married and moved away from that neighborhood for some time, something took me to the end of the street on one of my visits back to my parents' home. I can't remember why I walked down by that end house on our side of the road; but somehow, for some reason, I was talking to the owner of that home ... maybe she was in her yard as I passed ... I can't remember now, nor can I remember what caused us to speak to one another.
I guess boxers were mentioned or she may have had one with her, and I related my story. Her eyes flew wide; and she exclaimed, "So that's where he went!" He had been their Grand Champion boxer!
She said he would just disappear for an hour or so in the evenings, and they never knew where he had gone. She took me into her home and showed me his trophies and ribbons and a lot of pictures of him in shows and with the family. He had been special in their lives ... he had been, and always will be, special in mine.