CHIP, PICH, BOY, CHIPPER, CHIPPY, our dog, our guardian, our friend, our shadow, may you rest in peace boy…

Chip was a unique dog. His first year of life was a difficult one that left a mark on his personality. Gary was cautioned by friends not to take him that he was a mess, but there was some kind of connection there that bonded them. I think at the time they really needed each other.  He was a  nervous dog with a major separation anxiety problem but the more Gary loved and took care of him the more normal he became.

I met Chip about 3 or 4 years before Gary and I started dating. At a party one summer in Jackson Hole. I remember him pacing between rooms checking on Gary. I tried to pet him but he wouldn’t have it. Only Gary could touch him. I remember thinking “that dog is crazy”. Then a few years later I got to know Gary and his dog Chip. Chip got used to me right away and with a few years of maturity he accepted me as part of his “pack”.

Chip never got over his separation anxiety. He followed Gary everywhere right on his heals all the time. On our wedding day as we were taking our vows Chip made his statement by breaking free of the leash he was on and running down the aisle so he could stand by Gary. I will never forget that. So endearing and such a tribute to his loyalty to Gary.

My parents have been Saints for watching over him while we have gone on various trips. Dealing with his sensitive stomach and such. Over time they were the only ones that could take him as he got used to their house and the routine of staying with them.

When we brought Ellie home Chip showed mild interest in her sniffing and checking out the wiggly bundle. Both Adah and Chip accepted her right away too. Never acting out as she crawled on them, poked at them, pulled their hair. Most old dogs that have had the history of Chip’s first year don’t tolerate children but he never made me nervous around her. If he didn’t like it he would move to the next room or look to me or Gary to help him out. Even on the last good day he had he tolerated Ellie yelling in his face and chasing him around the room. He didn’t feel good and any other old sick dog would have snarled at the innocent playfulness of a child, but he just got up and looked at me for help. He loved us and we loved him.

I haven’t known Gary with out Chip. He has been with us through it all. There is definitely a missing piece now and an emptiness to our wee house. I’m glad I took the time Thanksgiving morning to brush him out before Gary took him to the vet. It was my way of thanking him for watching over Gary when I wasn’t there and keeping him company, thanking him for being such a good dog for Ellie to experience as her first relationship with a dog, and thanking him for loving me too and letting me into his insecure little world.

Many friends and family have responded to the news of Chip passing through phone calls and comments on facebook and skibumpoet. Thank you for all the love and support. I wanted to share some of the comments…

This week she figured it out a little better.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Papa and Hanna should be proud maybe they could start a family blues band one day.

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Yep, that’s our Adah. We found her because she was lost and now, well looks like old habits are hard to break. Ellie and I were out on our daily morning walk with the dogs and our neighbor. I got distracted for a bit and she was gone. She has done this before but has never left us over night. The kicker is I had the intuition to put her on the leash and the walk started out that way but when we met up with the other dogs she was so excited and started to whine and look at me with those pleading eyes to let her loose so she could run and play with them.

Gary has spent two days wandering all over TL and Heber. He is exhausted both emotionally and physically.  We’ve been calling animal control in both Summit and Wasatch County. We have put up fliers like you see above all over TL and have sent out emails to our neighbors. We have done everything we could possibly do. It’s up to fate now. We will keep looking and doing our part. I’m not saying we give up yet. In fact I haven’t allowed myself to shed a tear yet because she still has time to appear out of nowhere like she is notorious for.

So the point of this post is to ask everyone who keeps tabs on us to put good thoughts out there into the cosmic soup for our Adah that she will come back to us unscathed.

I smashed my toe today. I was carrying a chair down the hallway so I could use it for a step stool to reach the deep dark places of the closet where I tend to stuff things away. (out of sight out of mind) and as I approached the narrow space the chair legs bumped the couch and knocked it out of my hands and the end of the chair leg fell right smack on my middle toe. I tried to walk it off, and eventually sat down on the floor holding my toes and rocking for a bit then I tried to tuffen up but it wouldn’t stop throbbing so I broke down into tears. I consider myself to have a high pain tolerance but this HURT. I think I cried for a half an hour Whaaaa. Ellie was sleeping through the whole thing and Gary was out for a bike ride. I wasn’t going to call him but it started to swell and the hurt wasn’t going away. So needless to say his ride was cut short and he came home to my rescue. He was good to me got me some ibuprofen and took Ellie to go run some errands ie dinner and treats to cheer up with. Things have calmed down now and I can walk on it and such I think I just smashed it pretty good. Man those little toes are sensitive…

On the lighter side here are some picture of a little hike we took in the Uintas last weekend…

Toe Update

looks worse than it feels…

We attempted to get a photo of the two together but they were so busy smelling and such it was impossible. He is quiet a bit bigger than Adah. Makes me happy we were blessed with a relatively petite lady rather than a big old buffoon.

Is that you Magnus?

Our beautiful Adah

The next day I was set to go home, but this dog was still around camp. She was emaciated and filthy dirty, but she was so beautiful with that white coat it was hard not to be fascinated with her. As I got my things together she proceeded to harass the students and followed some of them up the hillside. Finally it was time to catch my ride home and I had to make the decision to take her or leave her. She had captured my heart so one of the professors helped me fashion a leash and I hiked up the hill to bring her home with me. It was a bit of a spectacle she had never been on a leash before you see so she didn’t know what to make of it and it scared her a bit so the whole way down the somewhat steep hillside she walked between my legs. Then we had the chore of getting her in the cab of an old Chevy pickup truck. Professor Pete helped me out and held her on his lap for the ride into Delta. She was shaking and shivering the whole way. Gary was meeting me in Delta to take me home. His first introduction to her she was freed from the truck and immediately peed and laid down at his feet. Gary was hesitant for only a few seconds until something in her eyes captured his heart as well and then he was convinced she was coming with us.

And the rest is history. Adah is now a part of our pack. She was immediately accepted by Chip. The first year we had her she challenged us by chewing up a few things such as my journals and photo albums, a pair of feather pillows, and our landlords bird feeder. She still challenges us with her feral ways. She is constantly on the prowl and has to be watched for those sneaky-break-aways where she decides to roam the neighborhood. She definitely raises Gary’s blood pressure at times. She has provided us with some good stories and adventures like that one time she was dunked in the Green River by a Moose. My favorite as of late is seeing her take on the role of Momma number two with Ellie. She let us know one day when I was vacuuming that Ellie was awake and crying. It may just be coincidence but my parents said the very hour that Ellie was born Adah jumped up and started to bark and carry on and Chip joined in. I like to think that they knew what was going on and they were celebrating her arrival and welcoming her into the pack.

Chip was discovered in Gunnison, Colorado. Apparently he was locked in a barn for two weeks, while the old ranch hand was on a drinking binge. Chip was one of two puppies that survived out of a pack of five. A friend of Gary’s picked him up from a vet he knew in town. He was about to be euthanize because he was in such a dreadful state they thought nobody would adopt him. Cree didn’t want to see that happen so he scooped him up and brought him to Utah. Cree couldn’t keep Chip so Gary decided to take him on.

He said that Chip was a mess his hair was falling out because of mange and he was the saddest dog he had ever met, he could see that Chip was in a terrible state. Chip spent the first four days in Gary’s basement too miserable to make an effort to live. Gary was concerned at the time not knowing if he would act out and bite him or just end up dying on him. Finally on a sunny spring day Gary scooped him up and took him out into the back yard and brushed him out. That’s all it took, from that day on Chip and Gary have been inseparable.

He was an extremely skittish dog for a while, if there was company at Gary’s he would hide out in his room and come out to check on him every few minutes. He would run from peoples attempts to try to pet him. Friends warned Gary that Chip was going to be a difficult dog, but as Chip has aged he has become a beautiful and loyal alpha. He definitely has his quarks such as extreme separation anxiety, a sensitive digestive system, and a funny fear of vacuums. After nine years he has had to adjust to many things along the way such as me becoming apart of his and Gary’s little world, a few moves, and our latest addition to the pack Ellie. Considering what he had to endure in the first years of his life I’d say he is just shy of a miracle. Well done Chip.