Cele's Chubutt

06 Jan 2009 — 06 Nov 2023 (14yrs 10mo) Mother: Sassy Father: Tails Litter Size: 1 Other-litter Siblings: Dusti, Patches Best friend's mom said Sassy was pregnant. Her sister, Sassy's owner, didn't agree. Then one day in January a puppy cried out from under her bed, proving best friend's mom right. Sassy had given birth to one single puppy. His little cries sounded like "chuuuu~," so my best friend said that was his name. I'd failed in adopting Patches about a year before. I wanted this puppy who looked much the same. I was in my last year of middle school and mom finally said yes. So after Chu was weaned, we went to pick him up from my best friend's aunt's house. That day, he peed on my friend while she was holding him. He never lived that down. When it was time, we got him neutered. I trained him myself, with verbal commands and hand signals. I'm not the most talkative at times, so being able to direct Chu with gestures was always helpful and appreciated. He was intelligent and took to his training very quickly. We lived on the canal, so we also made sure he knew how to swim and get back to the dock, and knew how to get out of the water himself. He was an opportunist. A canal meant the yard wasn't enclosed on all sides. He would jump in, swim to the neighbour's boat ramp, and run back to our front door to tell on himself with a big grin on his face and tongue lolling out, fur soaked through, and ask to do it again. It was funny to him — an exercise lap to be completed as quickly as he could. He liked one of the other dogs we had, a Chihuahua named Taz. He would play with Taz and get along well. Chu kind of ignored the other Chihuahua, Hielo, unless Taz was a bridge who brought Hielo into the same play session. If Taz was there, all three dogs got along just fine. Chu enjoyed going on car rides and boat rides. We'd take him to local parks to swim, and he'd watch dolphins from the boat deck. One time he got so excited about a dolphin that he had to be held back from jumping off the boat. He was going to go say hi. My sister would bike with him to the park every morning for a long time. I liked to cuddle my puppy and make him deal with me sticking my face in his side. He loved when I got my hands in his fur and rubbed and (gently) shook him, and he loved butt smacks a lot. He was weird, and kind of like a cat at times. Chu would rather sit on the back of the sofa as opposed to laying on the seat of the sofa itself. He did this for years. There was about a year in college where Chu lived away with these two sisters and a newborn child. He did well there, and came back with a new trick. He could pick a hand if you hid a treat or wanted to give him a choice. I could always just kind of talk to Chu normally and he would seem to get it, but it was nice letting him have choices too. The rest of college was a little awkward because we really didn't have the space for a dog but I made sure I took care of him, shared my space with him, and took him on lots of walks. Eventually we moved somewhere with a fenced in yard, and he could take himself outside again. We still went on a lot of rides and took him many places, and he learned our joke of "cleanup on aisle one" meant we just dropped food and it meant it was okay for a puppy to clean up. He got old at this house. We did a celebration of life on 04 Nov 2023, taking him to several of the parks he'd been to as a puppy. He walked himself at the first park, enjoying the familiar smells of the river and watching people on their jet skis and kayaks, and watching teenage boys play volleyball in the sand. At the second park he was pretty done, he wanted to look but he didn't want to walk. I carried him so he could still have the experience. I took him to the vet on 06 Nov 2023 and I had to say goodbye that morning. He was old and his body knew it. I miss you, buddy. You'll always be my Chuzzlebutt. Thank you for almost 15 years. 💙