Goodbye Schatze Bear

I know I speak for not only myself, but for Ryan too, when I say there are no words to describe the pain in our hearts. Today we said good bye to Schatze, our 8.5 year old white German Shepherd. We have known this was coming since about May of this year when a genetic test came back positive for degenerative myelopathy. Essentially the myelin in the spinal cord slowly degenerates leading to paralysis in the hind legs, followed by the front limbs and then respiratory failure. This is a horrible, horrible disease. I will not go into details of what went into taking care of her failing body, but the silver lining is it is a painless disease. The degeneration had been gradual, but steady, up until a few days ago when she declined rapidly. We knew it was time because the sudden decline would cause suffering for her and that is unacceptable.

We adopted Schatze from the Washington German Shepherd Rescue in February of 2009, she was just a little over 1 year old. Her owner was an elderly woman who became terminally ill before she was surrendered to the rescue. We knew she had a slight pancreatic insufficiency and she had to have enzymes with her food. At a private off leash area in Bothell, we brought our pup Scout to meet Schatze. Her foster parents let her out of the back and Schatze barely bid us ado with a quick sniff in typical GSD fashion. I remember a maintenance guy entered to fix up a patch of fence. Schatze promptly charged him but stopped about 10 feet away. Is it horrible to admit I fell in love with her at that moment? A little naughty, but had restraint. Flash forward through the paperwork, contract, adoption fee and a couple more phone calls with the foster mom and there was Schatze in our entryway. A big 70lb, female shepherd pushed as far back to the wall away from us as she could. Bulging eyes and a slow, incessant whine. Good thing I had chicken. I threw her a piece. She went for it, nervous but not enough to ignore roasted chicken. Next piece out of my hand. Then she followed me upstairs and saw Scout. Oh happy times! She remembered him from the park and then started the nonstop playing.

About a month after we adopted Schatze a couple of things happened. First, I found out I was pregnant with our first baby, Sean. When I was sick and nauseous, Ryan became her primary caregiver with the two walks a day and feeding. She quickly overcame her immense fear of men...well at least of Ryan. Their bond formed quickly, but deeply. Second, she had separation anxiety...badly. We did everything to help her when we left the house, but suspected it would just subside when she understood she was ours, forever. And it did after two years.


Schatze was a second mama to our boys. She loved them and would round them up when I called "get the baby!" Head down, Schatze would trot off to get the youngest first, licking his face and getting him to turn around and run back to me.

Schatze was a constant presence in Sean & Taylor's lives. Her last days were spent with all of us around her, lots of roasted chicken, petting and ear rubs. A wonderful vet came out to us so she could stay comfortable at home in her final moments. Now as I type this, it is so quiet. That constant low whine I described before, well it never really stopped. It became white noise to us. Tonight it is so very quiet. I can just hear an occasional whine from Scout, who seldom whined before. All of our hearts are broken, but there is peace in knowing she didn't suffer.





You are so very missed, Schatze Bear.