POWER PUPPY

Her dog may be smaller than average, but Shelby Mayo, 20, knows he’s not short on love!

- HOLLY SAWYER

Logging onto Instagram, I posted a picture of an adorable black and brown German Shepherd puppy.

Can’t wait to take him home, I wrote as the caption.

‘He’s not even here yet, and he already has his own Instagram page!’ my dad Alan, 48, laughed when he saw what I was up to.

At 17, I was still in high school and living at home with Dad, my mum Christina, 48, and my sister Darcy, 20, in Phoenix, Arizona.

I’d grown up with dogs running around, but now, after all of them had passed on, the house was quiet.

‘We need a big protective dog around,’ Dad suggested. Researching online, I found pictures of German Shepherds and fell in love right away.

Dad was smitten, too.

In October 2017, we found a breeder, and a few months later, we were introduced to Ranger.

Going to visit him, he was so adorable, bounding up to me and Dad for cuddles.

‘He’s perfect,’ I smiled. Still too young to be away from his mum, we had to wait a few weeks to bring him home.

So I took some snaps of him on my phone, and while we waited for his arrival, I set up his Instagram account.

A few weeks later, a nervous Ranger stepped out of his crate and into our living room.