Bella & Chief

Many of you may have noticed on the “Our Story” page, the picture of Brian & I and our 2 pets… Bella, our 14 year old Teacup Chihuahua and Chief, our 2 1/2 year old Blue Leopard Louisiana Catahoula.

Sadly, they both have passed away.

Bella had some serious health issues and tho I held on longer than I should have, I finally made peace to have her put down in December 2023 after Christmas. She had been my baby since she was 3 months old and it was hard to say goodbye. She weathered a lot of storms with me… too many to mention here. She watched my girls grow up and leave home… seen me get married…. welcomed a grandbaby with us… and so so much in between. She had the nickname “Bratticus”… she was the baby and she knew it. She is buried out behind our house on the farm.

Chief is a little different story.

This one is hard to write.

Brian has raised catahoulas most of his adult life. I had never been around one until we got married, but it didn’t take me long to quickly fall in love with their loyalty and protectiveness. When we were building our house, Brian mentioned several times that he wanted a dog at the farm. At the time we just had Bella. He began to look for a catahoula pup and it didn’t take long to find some, and only about an hour and a half away from us. We were sent pics of the cutest little girl pup, not quiet weaning age yet. She was adorable. Then we were sent pics of an older pup the breeder had from a previous litter. Someone had bought him, then returned him a couple of weeks later…. we are not sure why. He was 4 months old and he was the most handsome boy I had ever seen. He needed a home.

An hour later, we were on the road to go get him.

Chief was so shy when we first got him. He was skittish and did NOT like loud noises. But he came around before long and became the most loving companion we’d ever had. Chief was probably a little more “mommas boy” than he was dads. He was very protective of me when people he didn’t know were around. He went everywhere with us. We didn’t have him very long when we made one of many 11 hour trips to Wisconsin to see our daughter. He was a champ… he loved to travel, which was just one of the many ways we felt he was meant for us to have.

Living out in the country, Brian had taught Chief to keep things ran out of the yard. Anything from armadillos to snakes to coyotes to stray dogs. And he did. He was very territorial.

Which leads me to why he is not here today.

On a sun-shiny day in February of this year, we woke up and let Chief out to potty like we done every morning. He always stayed pretty close to house and would come back to the door in about 15-20 minutes. I was up getting ready for work, Brian was off that day. About 30 minutes had passed and I asked Brian if he had checked on Chief. He hollered for him a few times, but he didn’t come back. We started to worry. I had to leave to go to work, Brian jumped in his truck and told me “He is out in the woods or just down the gravel road, I’ll go get him.” An hour or so later, I checked in but he had not been found. I made a post on Facebook, in case someone seen him. Our farm is 1/2 mile from the highway and he had never ventured far, so I kept telling myself he was around the house somewhere and probably knew he was in trouble for not coming back in a timely manner so he was letting some time pass hoping mom and dad wouldn’t be too mad.

I had a meeting at work and missed a call from Brian. When I got back to my office and set down, Brian walked in…

And I knew.

I’ll never forget the look on his face. He quietly said “He’s gone”. We hugged and cried and I said “I got to go see him”. Brian drove me home while I sobbed and sobbed.

We figured out that when we had let Chief out that morning, there were 2 dogs in the yard that belong to someone who lives up on the highway. Chief, doing what we had taught him to do, chased them out of the yard. Only he didn’t stop once outside the yard. He chased them back to the highway, where he must have gotten turned around and couldn’t figure out how to get back home. He was hit by a truck as he ran across the highway. Brian got a phone call from the man who was kind enough to stop, take off Chiefs tag, that had our phone numbers on it, and explain what happened. Brian had just drove thru there, he wasn’t even 1/4 mile away from where he got hit when it happened. We wonder now if he had seen Brians truck go by and followed him into the highway.

The details don’t matter now tho. We were devastated. Almost 5 months later, we are still devastated.

We buried him beside Bella behind the house.

Click link to watch Chief’s memorial reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3lr5eEs0FQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Losing both of our beloved pets within 2 months of each other was nothing short of a tragedy. One that we re-live about every day.

It was so unfair. We had so much left to do with him. He was the best dog. And we loved him so much.

But life goes on… and while we still mourn, we try to keep him alive in our hearts by thinking about him, talking about him, and honoring his memory in our lives.

So, that’s the story for the best good boy in the whole wide world.

Blue has some big shoes to fill.