Here in Australia, our family have owned a Flat Coated and several Golden Retrievers over the past 26 years and still have a lovely 5 year old male Golden Retriever named Rolly. We had lost our eldest Retriever Sam to old age and after the grieving process, and that we had always been a two dog family for many years, it was time to move on with a new puppy for us and a friend for Rolly.

We were very much "one eyed" Retriever lovers, except there had always been only one other breed we had ever admired which was the German Shepherd. Over the past six or seven years, my wife who is a lover of all movies and television shows involving dogs had taken a rather intense liking to the Austrian Police series Inspector Rex (Kommisser Rex) which aided to cement her increasing fondness for the German Shepherd dog. She had all the Inspector Rex DVD's we have watched several times over, along with training video's produced by the trainers of Inspector Rex. As far as dogs on television are concerned, Inspector Rex was her very favourite. 

As the time had come to consider a new puppy, we were seriously thinking of a German Shepherd male when we were introduced by a friend to a friend of a friend that in conversation we found out, he owned a kennel specialising in show quality German Shepherds and that his prize stud dog imported from Germany had just fathered a top quality litter. My wife asked instinctively, "are there any males available" which he answered no, they were all females and paused for a second, then said, "the only male of the litter was a long coat which doesn't comply with the breed standards and cannot be shown in competition" said in a way the breeder sounded disappointed. My wife asked more about the long coat, was there something wrong with him. The breeder replied, "oh no, he is a perfect animal except that his long coat is not accepted in the show ring and can be used for stud purposes or a pet".  

Our interests extended only to a quality bred healthy male to be part of the family and with that in mind our arms needed no twisting to have a look at this little fellow. Arriving at the Kennel and being led into the puppy enclosure, we were greeted by the puppies mother, grand mother and four little pups, one more fluffy than the others which we thought was him. The next minute, this ultra fluffy huge in comparison to the size of the other four with massive front paws came out to greet us where the breeder announced "that's him". He was 5 weeks old and absolutely adorable, his long fluffy coat regardless of the breed standards was beautiful, soft and silky, immediately we paid a deposit and called him ours, we just had to have him. 

We couldn't take him home until he was 8 weeks old, and on leaving the Kennel I asked my wife, "what are we going to call him" where she replied immediately "REX", after Inspector Rex her favourite canine movie star, and Rex it was.  

The three week wait seemed like three months until we could take him home. We visited him in the interim to get to know him and played with him for an hour or so each week until the day we could pick him up and take him home. My wife who picked him up at 8 weeks, told me that when she entered the puppy enclosure at the Kennel, he ran straight to her and laid at her feet, she said that she believed he knew he was our dog and was ready to go to his new home and meet the family. Darkana Diablo Red is his registered name listed as a red and black German Shepherd, named and known by us as REX. 

A few months passed when my wife was searching for information on the internet for a return date of her favourite canine television program Inspector Rex and came across the original Inspector Rex's pedigree that had been posted. Reading that Inspector Rex's father's name was Yago vom Wildsteiger Land something rang a bell. She then had a look at our Rex's pedigree papers to find his father who was imported from Germany to Australia was a Wildsteiger Land dog also. Gee, how uncanny is that she thought until searching deeper on our Rex's fathers side sent her running down the stairs yelling "he (our Rex) is related to Inspector Rex" her German Shepherd icon movie star, I can't believe it she cried!!!. It turns out that Inspector Rex's father Yago vom Wildsteiger Land is the line breeding of our Rex's grandfather and Yago is our Rex's great, great, great grandfather. Considering the large amount of dogs produced by Wildsteiger land in Germany the likelihood of our mere puppy having any direct relationship to Inspector Rex we thought was minimal, but in light of Inspector Rex's influence upon our decision to buy a German Shepherd and to find our boy is actually related to Inspector Rex who we named him after, was a most delightful story for us that was meant to be.