Thank you, everybody, for your helpful responses!

The dog would be indoors 75% of the time. My husband has a cat - do you think that if I got a GSD puppy and raised it with the cat, it would do OK?

I've thought that getting one from rescue would be a good idea, since I'm not particularly into puppies. I like dogs a lot but puppies are a lot of work.

Any suggestions on reinforcing a dog run to prevent digging? Maybe pounding posts into the ground close enough together that the dog couldn't dig out? Not that he/she would be out that much anyway.

When I was a kid, a stray German Shepherd adopted my little sister. She was a preschooler at the time. I don't know why, but he became very attached to her. Once he saved her life by pushing her out of the road just before a car would have hit her. He was the best dog I ever met.

Unfortunately, my parents weren't into dogs and never built him a fence or brought him in at night. He guarded our house, and wouldn't let anybody into our yard after dark - including my dad and me! I don't know if he didn't have a sense of smell or what, but he just didn't recognize us at night. Because of that, my parents had him put to sleep.