The Only Dog I Ever Named, Chelsea-mtnmeadowmomma 's Writing CONTEST

My most memorable dog, Chelsea

Chelsea was one of two German Shepherd dogs we adopted in 2006 after a series of robbery attacks which graduated steadily from burglary to a nightmarish armed robbery experience in February of that year.
We knew we had to put in place security measures as soon as was possible, with one of such necessitating the adoption of the dogs and the other one being the electrification of our fence. Once night falls, we would put on the security lights in our compound which was also connected to the fence (I’m not the Engineer in the family please, that would be @adeflexi so forgive me for not being thorough with the explanation) and once this happens, any contact with the fence will result in electrocution, with severity depending on the length of time of contact.

(A picture of the front view of our house, with my Dad’s resting place on the far left ❤️)

Right by that fence is a stream which when full (usually during rainy season) would also carry some of the current and ‘shock’ anyone that tries to access the compound by swimming in it. I know, it all seems extreme but anyone who has ever gone through such a harrowing experience will only think it wise.
In fact, I was so affected that I still have Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from that day which manifests as some form of parasomnia as I find it difficult falling asleep once I’m awake between the hours of 12 midnight to 3am.

(The fence and the stream, which is currently dry as it’s not yet rainy season)

But I digress, forgive me.

Chelsea was three months old and Captain James was 6 months when we got them. They came from two different backgrounds as Chelsea was the offspring of a German Shepherd dad and local breed mum who was brought in to mate and taken back to the streets after having her litter while Captain was from a reputable dog breeder’s kennel.
She (Chelsea) was a scrawny little thing with a fur of uneven coloring, mostly brown with black patches, always hungry while Captain was a stout, well fed, and dangerous looking dog with brown fur. They were polar opposites of what their appearance connoted as Chelsea was the aggressive one, picking fights, bullying Cap and jumping on guests to the point of ripping their clothing, while Captain was of a gentle mien and rarely barked. In fact, the day he barked, over 3 months after he was first brought, it was a day of jubilation in the house as we were beginning to think he was mute.

What makes Chelsea to be memorable for me was that she still remains the craziest dog we have ever had and also the most fiercely loyal.
She would always find a way to leave the compound through a tiny hole in the fence or the other and wander in the streets for long periods of time and somehow return when she was on heat so she’d mate with Captain and produce pup litter, which was on the average about 7. There was even one time she had about 10!
Needless to say we were always excited at such events but we quickly realized that there was something really unusual about her ‘mothering’ and the puppies she birthed.

The first time she had her litter, they were 9. Chelsea ATE three of them shortly after their birth! (I promise you, I can’t make this up and I would have taken pictures but I had neither phone nor camera then, sadly). We wouldn’t have known this if not that we had counted before and returned later. Imagine our shock when we came back to the kennel and saw 6 puppies where there were 9 just a few minutes ago! 😱. We almost doubted our arithmetic 😂

Another really sad thing about the puppies was that no complete set ever managed to survive to ‘adulthood’. Only one or two will eventually make it to 4 months and older as most of them will mysteriously die from one thing or the other. Most times we’d just wake up to see another dead pup just lying in the compound, and we’d hypothesize the cause of death to be from snake bites but we were never 100% sure.
The frequent deaths were really strange as we never defaulted in the vaccinations and vet appointments for the whole dog clan from Captain to the puppies and the vets also had no tangible explanation for their continued demise. It was frustrating and heartbreaking to say the least.

As for Chelsea, she never changed her ways, but at least she wasn’t able to eat as many of her puppies as she may have wanted because we midwives (😂) became more vigilant and quickly took them away from her after birth and sometimes we had to nurse them with milk from the house as Chelsea wasn’t great at mothering skills, in fact she had none.
She’d growl at her puppies and fed them sparingly. It was a really weird thing to witness.

She remained her cantankerous self until July 2010 when my father passed away due to a bullet piercing his heart from a shootout involving robbers and police on the highway. As we humans were plunged into what seemed like an abyss of sorrow, Chelsea was visibly more subdued during that period too. We had A LOT of visitors going in and out of the house and she didn’t bark as much as she normally would and was not eating as much as she used to either.
She eventually died the same week of Daddy’s passing under circumstances we still don’t really understand up till now.

She was electrocuted.
The dogs knew about the electric fence as they had learnt from having minor ‘shocks’ on contact and always avoided the fence and stream at night for the 4 years they had been with us.
So you can imagine our bewilderment when we discovered Chelsea in the stream one morning, dead from apparent electrocution.
One of my more superstitious aunts arrived at the conclusion that ‘she must have really wanted to escort her owner to the afterlife’ and for a moment I was inclined to agree with her...until my logical side gave me a dirty look and I dropped the thought.

Whether it was an accident or my aunt was right, one thing remains...I would never forget Chelsea, not just because I named her after my favorite football club, or because she was a murderous mother but because those flaws made her seem human somewhat.
She wasn’t interested in being man’s best friend, she wouldn’t play fetch or wag her tail at you, waiting for a treat but she’ll growl at outsiders whom she perceived as a threat to you and follow you around at a distance as if she’s your bodyguard.
And even though she had no mothering instincts, we can almost forgive her because even she never felt the love of one and had no one to teach her. She survived the first 3 months of her life by fighting off her ‘siblings’ and father for food..and so ‘life’ only equaled ‘fight’ for her. And that was what she did until she surrendered to the electricity that she knew was in the water, and escorted her owner to the afterlife.

(I couldn’t get a picture of Chelsea, please meet the current Loves of my life, Gerard and Sienna❤️)