Goodbye, Lovely
Celhaus Love Every Living Thing
3/22/16 – 7/1/26

See Lovely’s page

Lovely was my LONG dog:  long nose, long ears, long legs and L-O-N-G tail.  She was also a human magnet.  From the time she was born, everyone – even people who didn’t like dogs found her irresistible and HAD to pet her.  It helped that she had an unusually soft and shiny coat for a German Shepherd; people couldn’t resist touching her. Her sparkling eyes and outgoing behavior also helped a lot. 

A friend who was the music teacher at Holy Name School (preschool – 5^th grade) used a poster of Lovely to help the kids focus as they practiced for concerts.

What Lovely was noted for was her sense of humor.  She got that from her great-great-great grandmother, Glory.  Everyone who knew Glory would stop to watch her at obedience trials.  She would soon get bored sitting at ringside (in the chair beside me) waiting for her time to go in the ring.  So she would start scanning the crowd.  When she found a fool, she would reel them in with an imperious “come hither” glare in as if they were on a leash.  Then she’d turn on the charm and get them to make a fuss over her until we were called to get ready to compete. 

I always thought that Lovely did that unobtrusively, the way people just had to pet her.  What she did that had all of us laughing was to suddenly “forget” a command that she had known all her life.  Sometimes it was “sit;” sometimes it was “stay,” but the most hilarious times came at agility class when she would screech to a halt rather than do a tunnel or other obstacle.  She would claim, “I’ve NEVER seen that in my life!”  It was quite embarrassing.

Lovely is the mother of the RR, TT, WW, XX, YY and AAA litters.  She was a fantastic producer.  She has puppies all over the country doing everything from Schutzhund (IPO) to service dog work, lots of Search & Rescue dogs and competition dogs, and therapy dogs, and a few quite active pets.  She was a really good mother when the pups were small but got bored as they became more independent.  She wanted to get back to doing SOMETHING, so she began to tease her pups when they got about 5 weeks or so old. All would be peaceful until suddenly she’d get a certain devilish look in her eyes.  Her pups would see that look and yell, “Scatter! Mom’s coming!”  She would chase one down, plop a foot on it, hold it down and lick it or roll it around. (You’ll see in some of these photos that her side was shaved for a c-section.)

And did she ever love to tease ME!  Like Spirit, she was a two-ball dog.  I don’t know how many hundreds of times that she faked dropping ball #1 so that I threw #2 – only to have her race off with it in her mouth and have a great time trying to pick up BOTH balls – or catch the second ball while holding the first.

She was a huge favorite of professional photographers.  The Sheridan Press photographer took some great ones of her when we did a presentation for NAMI about how animals improve our mental health.  I gave the talk in mid-December, so Lovely wore a Christmas package costume which was quite the hit with the kids.

Lovely ended up with 213 therapy dog visits under her belt – nursing homes, VA hospital, AND doing Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary School.  A friend asked me, “Can you imagine the joyous reunion in Heaven when all of the nursing home residents who have passed recognized & reconnected with Lovely?”  I hadn’t thought of that before, but now I can.  She visited some residents for years and years.  Tell them hello from me, too, Lovely!

For Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary School, we set up in the teacher’s workroom.  You get to it by going through the school office.  Every Monday morning the office staff would greet us.  They loved to pet my dogs, but Lovely would pay them no attention until she made sure there were no kids in our place.  Only then would she greet the adults.  She actually did more visits than that, because I didn’t begin seriously tracking them until AKC began giving awards for therapy dogs.  She LOVED the kids!  The last two pictures are of a note one of the kids sent after he heard that Lovely had died.

When we began going to the schools and needed more than 18 trading cards to cover the entire year (the kids get a trading card every time they read to or write a letter to one of my therapy dogs), I had a professional dog photographer take some great ones.

Lovely LOVED nosework.  I think that’s the one thing that she never teased about.  She could hardly wait to search.  Nosework is a competition sport which is a spinoff from narcotics dog training. They search for certain scents – essential oils – instead of drugs. 

In March, Lovely became very wobbly in the rear.  In early April, I took her to Billings for a cat scan, which showed bulging discs in her neck and lumbar region (where her tail joins the spine).  This is seen in large, active dogs when they age.  The tendons wrapped around the spinal cord gradually stretch so that they don’t hold the discs in place.  It wasn’t supposed to be painful.  Acupuncture helped at first, but after a while her neck became really sore, I think from trying to control her rear. She began moving away from my hand when I petted her on her neck or over her wither.  She no longer wanted to be brushed.  Last week I noticed her crouching as she walked and just hung out around the house.  Last weekend she told me that it was just getting to be too much.

She got to go do nosework one last time on Sunday, at our favorite training place, and was in heaven – but it was hard watching her limp as she tried to bounce happily. Earlier this summer I quit having her wear the nosework harness when it seemed painful to put it on; and the last few weeks I quit throwing the ball for her as a reward for completing a search.  She was happy to play tug – and keep away.  We do 5 hides per search, and the dogs get treats for each find, and then the ball after the last find.

Denise, my training partner, confirmed that by watching her she could tell that Lovely was much more painful than just a couple of weeks ago when we trained.  I made the decision that it was time for me to do the last loving thing I could for her, to release her from her pain.

I called the vet on Monday morning and made the appointment to put her down on Wednesday afternoon.  I was home all day on Tuesday, so we made it a special day to celebrate our love  – long, leisurely morning ball session (she just lay and chewed on her ball rather than ask me to throw it) and then her favorite marrow bones.  And, of course, lots of time hanging out together and remembering all the good times we’ve shared.

Lovely was out with me when the vet and vet tech arrived.  She made a big show of barking at them with the ball in her mouth, then dropping the ball to bark, then greeting them enthusiastically at the gate.  She then had to socialize with the and show off her ball – it’s mine, you can’t have it – before she would settle in the blanket. She had us laughing.  Eventually we were able to administer the sedative and put her down. 

I talked to her until she was gone. Hearing is the last thing lost, so she left this world once again hearing what a fantastic dog she was and how much I loved her. She went with love, still holding her ball. Very peaceful. She drifted off still with her ball in her mouth.  She was cremated with it.  I’m sure she’s now teasing my whole tribe – and trying to steal a second ball.

Comments from People Who Knew Lovely & Spirit
(See Spirit’s Goodbye page)

K1 (has a Lovely son):  I will so miss the updates on the babies, such outstanding girls.  They made such a difference in the world! So do you ❤️ 

K2 (has gone on many therapy dog visits with me, just to observe):  Brings so many tears… What a gift to have watched them work and change so many lives.  You made that possible, my friend.

K3 (has a Lovely son):  Oh Cel, I’m so sorry to hear that. Praying for all of you. Love and hugs. Please thank Lovely for making such beautiful babies and being such a good Mom. We are so honored to have a piece of her legacy.
Our mutual friend always swore they were born with those balls in their mouths, so how perfect they leave this life with the balls they so loved.  Love you, Grandma  

M (training friend):  My heart just broke in a million pieces for you. Give Spirit and Lovely a big hug and we know God will care for them. So very sad. I’m so very sorry, Cel. So many memories with both of them. Will be praying all day.   

T (has a Lovely daughter):  Your dogs are so incredibly intelligent. It’s amazing. 

G:  Ohhhh, Cel, I’m heart broken. I prayed for them and you.  If it’s any consolation Titus (Hesed son, SAR dog) was working today on a case and doing you all proud. 

D1:  I love those two.  I’m crying with you.

D2 (has a Lovely daughter):  I swear my girl is Lovely’s clone. She does the exact same thing when people come over. And when I’m having ball sessions with her, after about 8 or 9 throws, she just stands about 20 feet from me and holds it and won’t give it back. At first, I thought to myself, she can’t be tired already but then I read that Lovely does the same thing so now I ignore her and start doing something else in the yard and in a few minutes she drops the ball at my feet. I swear every day she does something that makes me laugh at her.  When I read Lovely’s profile and her antics, I told myself I have to have a dog like that. As I’ve said to you before, she’s exactly what I ordered and that’s why she’s perfect! 

S1 (has a Lovely daughter):  Take some tiny bit of comfort that a Lovely daughter is living her best life here with me 

S2 (has a Lovely daughter):  Oh Cel, I am so very sorry.  I’ll be there with you in my thoughts holding you, Spirit, and Lovely especially close to my heart.  Thank Lovely for our beautiful girl.  I’ll be hugging her at 4pm in her honor, being very grateful.  Be strong – sending much love! ❤️ 

S3 (has a Mercy son; Mercy is closely related to Lovely):  Thank you for letting me know. You are all in my heart and prayers. I’m also going to sit down in the 4 o’clock hour to have some quiet time to be there in spirit and for prayer. Lots of love and blessings to Spirit and Lovely as they make this transition.  So much love to you. Thank you for everything you do for all of these dogs and for the people who love them. 

M (has a Lovely daughter):  Oh, Cel, I am so sad to hear about Lovely & Spirit. K told me. My heart is broken for you…such beautiful girls…we never get over the loss. My girl & I are sending big hugs to you & for her Mom & Spirit. ♥️ 

J (had a Lovely brother):  I totally get how you miss them so much. We still tear up and miss ours daily.  I don’t know how you have managed all thru the years with all the heartache and decision making for their health end of life care. You truly are a blessing to the breed with a heart of gold to devote your whole life to them.  

P (has a Spirit daughter):  The Peace of the Lord be upon you.  What special dogs those ladies were.  As mom to my girl, Spirit will always be remembered around here. 

C (has a half-sister to Lovely):  I was sitting down, relating your ordeal with Lovely and Spirit to Hildy, and she came over and pressed her chin into my thigh. I think she understood and was conveying that. In other words, she sends her condolences.