We said goodbye to Uli September 22, 2021 after being lucky enough to have her in our lives for 10 and a half perfect years. She was our perfect middle child, who was, at times, not so perfect! We love how quirky she was and how she took protecting her family very seriously. A trainer for Uli early on in her life said to us that we had to get used to the fact that Uli was JUST our dog…meaning she was never going to run in Wash Park off leash and catch a frisbee, greet just anyone at the door with a big smile and wag and be just generally gregarious to all. She saved those things for the chosen few she loved and it made her love very special and precious. She had some trauma from her early months in a overcrowded shelter after being relinquished by a breeder for reasons we don’t know. We adopted her as a 20 pound three month old and she got big (100 lbs!) as an adult, so she was quite formidable! She had opinions about who she liked and didn’t, was leash aggressive for a lot of her life and was sure we were about to get robbed at any moment which meant a lot of patrolling the yard and guarding the door. All the same, she was so kind and sweet and loving and perfect in equal measure. She went bananas with joy when family she loved came to visit. She loved all children and was very patient with tiny, quick moving people. She adored her siblings (our human kids) and, as most GSDs do, was focused to no end on mom and dad (how we were, where we were going, what we were doing, could she come too?). The morning we said goodbye, she hadn’t walked all morning, but did get up to come bark at Dr. JoAnna coming up the walk. Our proud protector to the end. We didn’t deserve her pure love, endless patience and perfect loyalty and devotion. Having her gone is extremely disorienting as she was as constant as the sun rising and setting for us…her beautiful s’more colored coat, her cheery face when we came home, her big sighs and she fell onto her bed, her too long nails clicking on the wood floor, her big beautiful bark…everything about her, we miss it all desperately. Thank you so much to the Caring Pathways team, especially Dr. JoAnna, for making Uli’s goodbye as bearable as possible and a final, beautiful, gift to her. Uli, we love you endlessly. We are so grateful for your pure love and devotion. We are so sorry we didn’t know you were in pain, we would have done anything to make you feel better. We will see you again soon in that river sweet girl. XO, Mom, Dad, Ingrid and August.
