A few weeks ago, we made the choice to re-home our white german Shepherd, Chula. We first got Chula back in 2016 right after getting married. We lived in Baltimore Maryland, in a rough neighborhood, and surrounded by criminal activity. My oldest brother and his wife had two purebred White, German Shepherds who had puppies. They sold all but the runt of the litter, and offered her to us.
We picked her up in August of 2016 when she was 3 months old. I remember her being so skittish and scared that when my brother tried to get her out of the small pet carrier he'd brought her in, she refused to come out and dug her heels in. He finally had to kind of dump her out, and she quickly ran away with her tail between her legs, hid underneath a vehicle in my Grandma's driveway, and it took about four people to get her out finally.
We drove home that evening and began the process of warming her up to us.
We named her Chula (spanish word for "pretty") because of her lovely white coat. We often called her "chu-chu" though.
We had this photo taken at a dog clinic in Baltimore when she was 8 months old.
We went on outings, hikes, walks, bike rides...road trips! You name it. She learned how to stay home (in the basement) while we were at work. From the very beginning, Dan wanted her indoors, but I refused. All of the long white hairs on our furniture and clothes would have driven me crazy. So Dan gave up trying to convince me, and Chula stayed in our basement. She liked it down there. We had a couch just for her, and a play section of the basement. We would watch movies down there together as a family.
At about 8 months old, Chula jumped out of the truck when it was moving and injured her leg pretty badly. The vet told us that he could either perform a surgery and put screws in her leg and she'd be able to walk again, (several thousand dollars), or he could just wrap it tightly, pray that it healed correctly, and she'd never be able to jump or put much weight on it again (a few hundred).
We opted for the cheaper option, she was in a purple cast for about a month.
She healed perfectly and as you can see in the subsequent photos, she never struggled with jumping. This photo of Dan and Chula by the bridge in Baltimore is right after she had her cast removed.
This is Chula on her couch.
Hiking at Patapsco State Park.
We moved to NY in summer of 2017 when Chula was 1 year old. She became a "garage-kept" dog. But she loved running around outside, playing fetch, and the more open area.
Obviously, you know what happened next. I got pregnant in that fall. I took Chu on walks, but not nearly as many. The winters in NY were nothing like in MD. For 3 months in the winter, it's basically too cold to spend more than a few minutes outside...and definitely not with a baby. So after having Gwen, my focus was taking care of her...then I got pregnant with Lucie right after...
When Gwen and Lucie were 2 and 1, I took Chula on lots of runs and walks, but now with Eliza too, it's become too much to push a stroller, have two children walking (or crying because of this or that), AND have Chula on the leash.
-Gwen and Lucie were scared of Chula (not because she had ever bitten, or been aggressive) because she was big. So everytime we let Chula run free, the screaming of the girls ensued....
-We take a few short (or even one long) trips per year. The cost of boarding a dog at the vet is over $20/night. The last vacation we took, we paid more to board Chula than we paid for our entire trip for our family (hotels/food/gas/activities combined). And having a big dog, we haven't found a single person who feels comfortable feeding and taking care of her while we are away. All of the people we know are only comfortable with little dogs.
-Our neighbor got a new dog in the last year: an untrained pitbull. They would let it run free and it was coming over...I would worry about Chula being attacked if left outside...
All of these are reasons why we started thinking more seriously about finding her a new home.
But who wants a 6 year old, un-spayed, outdoor/garage kept dog that isn't housebroken?
When we took our quick trip down to PA a few weeks ago, we brought Chu with us because we couldn't find anyone to watch her...and I couldn't justify paying to have her boarded at the vet for more than the cost of our entire trip.
When we told my parents that we were looking for a home for Chula, my parents asked if we were serious. If so, they said they would keep her. I think she proved her worth to them when she was out with my dad and Dan in the fencerow and went right after a groundhog and killed it in the matter of seconds.
That impressed my parents.
:-)
SO....we said our Goodbye's to Chu for the time being. My parents are home all the time, she loves the freedom of running around the large property, and she gets to chase groundhogs!
We are happy that we will still get to see her when we go to visit.
Before we drove back to NY, Chula performed all of her tricks one last time (which I trained her to do).
In many ways, I miss her. Everything is very quiet around here. But I know we made the right choice for Chula. She needed more time and freedom than we were able to give her during this stage of life.
We regarded the life of our beast (Proverbs 12:10), and though part of me wanted to keep her, Dan and I knew that for right now, our children were given to us by God to raise for Him. Chula wasn't enjoying her life being cooped up in the garage or even being confined to the fenced-in area Dan built for her.
Perhaps one day, we will have another dog. But for now, our children and the ministry we've been sent to do is most important.
Chula is happy, free, and is enjoying more space and less confinement than she's experienced in years. So I am happy for her too.
Sad changes, but necessary ones are a part of growing, changing, and new stages of life.
I'm so thankful that my parents were glad to have her and we will be excited to see how she does there on the farm.
