Shultzie

I have always loved animals. I can't imagine not having a pet to share life with. I had many different pets as a child that were special to me but the one animal that was my strongest companion came to me shortly after I got married.

Shultzie was supposedly a pure bred German Shepherd; but I suspect that she was actually half coyote. A local police officer was going to raise and train her as a police dog but when she was still very small at 3 months old, he gave her to us for a pet.

My mother called her Odie because her behavior was similar to the dog from Garfield's comic strip. She was very hyper, always moving. She could eat and eat but was always thin.

I trained her in basic obedience but she never did settle into a comfortable walking pace, eager to see what was coming; she’d pull on the leash. She was my only child. I took her for lots of walks and played with her often. She loved to run and jump in the water sprinkler and swim in the pool. She would even sit on my lap while I was watching TV. Most people don’t consider German Shepherds to be lap dogs but she didn’t know that.

I taught her how to wear a seat belt in the car and she knew "Dairy Queen" meant she'd get some ice cream. At the drive-up window she could bark, "Please" which was a different kind of bark that she only said when asking for a treat.

Because my husband worked 3rd shift when we first got married, I often felt less lonely because Shultzie would sleep on the bed with me. I found out that she also slept on the bed during the day with my husband. This worked wonderfully until he switched to 1st shift. For the next 10 years, while sleeping, I fought to keep from being pushed out of my own bed by the dog.

She knew no strangers. But most of all, she loved to run! Unfortunately, she also loved playing with children. We lived next door to the local elementary school. When the weather was nice, we tried to leave her outside instead of cooped in the house. However, she would hear the children playing at recess and the escape acts began.

First, she jumped the fence. Then, she went under the fence. Next – after adding an electric fence to the chain link, she learned how to launch herself off the dog house and over the fence. My husband received at least two calls from the school because she was loose on the playground. The funniest one was when he arrived at the school to pick her up and found her in the music room.

Finally, we relented and put her on a rope inside the fence. She chewed the rope so I bought a coated wire. She learned how to pull herself out of her collar by backing out. Then, she actually managed to unhook the clasp on the choke chain. I only bought the choke chain after finding out that a harness wouldn’t work either.

In keeping track of how many times this dog escaped from our yard, don’t forget to count the time when she was helping me shovel snow. I got distracted and ending up tracking her all over the neighborhood for about a mile. It reminded me of the “Family Circus” comic strip where the children track all over the house and yard with the visible footprints overlapping as the children go around and around.

Then, there are the times when she was running in/out of the house while we unloaded groceries. She would stay right with me as long as I was paying attention to her. But, the moment she realized that I wasn’t checking on her, she was gone.

You could see the resemblance to a coyote, when she ran. Her long tail flew behind and she could sprint with indescribable grace and speed. Her coat was a golden brown with black markings. Her face was pointy with ears that stood up. At her heaviest, she weight about 35 pounds.

Once I found her a half mile away at the football stadium being fed hot dogs by students who thought she was a starving stray. She’d only been gone a few moments when I started after her that time.

My husband loved to wake me up on the weekends by sending Shultzie to “find” me. She would launch herself on top of me and lick my face all over, especially if I was too asleep to realize it was coming and unable to hide. If I hide under the covers she would dig in to find me.

When I was first playing with photography and lighting for a cheap studio, she was the best model I could ask for. She let me move props and would occasionally pose just right for the camera. I definitely got practice at being quick or missing the shot.

After 8 years with my dog as my only child, we opened our home to foster children. Shultzie accepted the intrusion wonderfully. She treated all the children with great respect and loved the never-ending opportunity to play. She was gentle when they were rough and made the perfect pillow for their pain and sorrows.

As she aged, she continued to have a youthful attitude and playful spirit. This meant that I was a little surprised when the time came to say good-bye. She was 13 years old when I had to make the decision to stop her suffering from a neurological disease. It was the hardest thing that I had ever had to do. A couple weeks before she passed away, I was walking down the isle of a Tuesday Morning store; something caught my eye from the top shelf. It look exactly like Shultzie peeking down at me. I bought the stuffed animal and have kept it with the photo collage. It now wears her leash with our phone number boldly printed.

I have a new puppy now, 3 years later. But, there are days that I still miss the way that she would always greet me at the front door. I made a photo collage to help me remember her. One of my sadest moments was when I realized that there was not even one photo of me with my dog. This is one of the problems with being the family's photographer.

For those who don’t have pets, it is hard to understand how much joy and stress relief that my dog gave me. Thank you Shultzie.

Story ID:	3716
Written by:	Kristy Duggan (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	In Memory
Location:	Wichita United States
Year:	1999
Person:	my dog, German Shepherd