My wonderful German Shepherd, Ripley, turned one today! Last year at this time, my husband and I had our first day back at work following our Kauai honeymoon. After the craziness of wedding planning, we decided that we were ready to welcome home a GSD puppy from a breeder or rescue a GSD/GSD mix from a Michigan shelter. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find a GSD mix to rescue during the timeframe we were looking (one GSD mix was adopted before our appointment to view him). At that time, we decided to look for a breeder. We went to visit Ripley when he was just 4-weeks-old before we placed the deposit. Look how tiny he was!

When Ripley easily fell asleep on Bret’s lap, we were sold! Four weeks later, Ripley came home with us on Labor Day weekend. We spent five days with our little munchkin, helping him adjust to his new home and the crate. He was an adorable little guy, as you can see below (don’t mind the patchy grass – we had a new construction home and our grass was slowly growing in).

After that first weekend, Ripley grew so quickly. We introduced him to his cousin, Bella the Border Collie, and his aunt and uncle who live on a farm in Mid-Michigan. He loved running around with Bella!

By the beginning of October at 12 weeks, Ripley was really starting to look older. He also began what would be a lifelong fascination with his ball.

Once Ripley received all of his vaccinations, we took him to the local cider mill as well as a pumpkin patch in Wisconsin while on vacation. In Michigan, cider mills are a rite of passage in the fall. Ripley went to a few of them!

The fall meant a time for exploring the beauty of Michigan and the stunning fall foliage, particularly in our own “neighborhood” as you see below.

As winter came, we had less photo opportunities. This winter was fairly warm, which meant a lot of gray skies and muddy lawns. When it did snow, we made sure to play outside with Ripley and document his fun!

In May, we went to Carolina Beach, North Carolina, for vacation and brought the two puppies. Ripley was unsure of the ocean initially, but appeared to warm up to it!

And now, we arrive at the last week before turning one. He loves running around my parents’ property, and he had a ton of time to do so at our family’s 4th of July party.

Happy Birthday, Ripley!

Would you love to have beautiful images of your puppy’s first year? If so, book a session today! This package allows four separate times in your puppy’s first year for me to document their changing colors, size and developing personality quirks that you will miss when they are full grown!