Name: Neva (11 y/o) & Chunk (7 y/o)
Family: William, Jessica & Issac (human little brother - 11 months)
How long have Neva and Chunk been in the family? Neva has been in the family 8 years and Chunk for 5.5 years.
Professions: Both Jessica and William are Engineers
Location: Manassas, VA.
Nicknames:
Neva: Neva Boo, Boo, Sweet Neva Cakes
Chunk: Chunkalicious, Chunky Butt, Big Sexy
5 of the best words/phrases that best describe Neva & Chunk?
Neva:
- Devoted
- Stoic
- Playful
- Polite
- Ladylike
Chunk:
- Charming
- Social Butterfly
- Snuggle Buddy
- Softie
- Love Bug
What makes Neva & Chunk unique? Neva is solid white with a beautiful physique, reminiscent of the pit bulls of the past. She is very loyal to us and has taught us so much about caring for a dog. Chunk has beautiful, unique markings and a personality that makes him stand out in the crowd. Everyone we meet wants to pet him and he is happy to oblige.
Neva in the Wild!
Chunk and his favorite pastime!
Rescue Stories: Neva was our first adoption and our first dog as a family. We adopted her at 3 years of age from Homeless Animal Rescue Team (HART). We had been looking for dogs and decided a pit bull would be the right fit for us, i.e. active, short hair, healthy breed. We looked for about 2 or 3 months before we met Neva at a HART adoption event. She was calm and quiet at the adoption event and that really appealed to us. We filled out the adoption application and she came home to us the next week. When we met Neva it felt like it was meant to be. We needed her as much as she needed us. She was my new office mate since I was working from home. She came from the Montgomery County Maryland animal shelter and was with her foster for 2 weeks. To this day, if we see her foster Dad she can spot him from 20 yards away and gets so excited to see him.
We foster dogs and had been fostering for a couple of years before we met Chunk. The coordinator of the rescue showed us a video of another dog she was interested in and Chunk was the dog they used to dog test the other dog. We weren't that interested in the other dog, but immediately asked who Chunk was. As it turns out, this was his second stint at the shelter since his owner was in jail for a second time. This time he wasn't going to be able to get him out and the shelter really wanted Chunk to get out of the shelter. About a week later, we went and visited the big guy and boy was he full of life. He was the friendliest dog with a lot of personality, but wow was he excited. Since there was no available visitation room, we only got to interact with Chunk by walking him around the hallways of the shelter. When we put him back in the kennel, he sat down and leaned against the kennel door begging for us to pet him some more. When we stopped petting, he sat there and hung his head low, and that was it. We said we would take him and foster him for the rescue.
We took him in as a foster and Jessica fell in love with him immediately. I really liked him, but he was a super excited boy and was very excited with other dogs. We had been wanting to adopt another pit bull and we had Neva as well. I was worried we wouldn't be able to continue to foster since he was so excited with dogs. We took him to the adoption events, but Jessica didn't want to hold him because she wanted to keep him. One day we got an email that someone was interested in adopting him and had adopted a pit bull from the rescue before. Jessica immediately teared up at the thought of him leaving, so at that moment we decided to adopt him and signed the adoption paperwork the next week. He is our foster failure and has been a wonderful addition to our family. Chunk has been with us for almost 6 years. He has helped us foster 20+ dogs ranging from pit bulls to dobermans to chihuahuas, all after adopting him. He has been a great and welcoming dog to foster with.
What is your favorite pastime as a family? We really love to just hang out with our dogs anytime. We love to take them hiking. Neva loves to hang out anywhere with us especially in the back yard sunbathing. Chunk is an excellent frisbee dog and will catch the frisbee until he can't run any more. Unfortunately, he tore one of his ACL's in late 2014, then tore the other ACL in January of 2016, so we haven't been able to do frisbee for a couple of years now. His ACL's were surgically repaired so he is a bionic dog now!
What is life like since you rescued Neva & Chunk? We can't imagine our lives without them. They have been such great companions to us on the good days and the bad. No matter what kind of day you have, they meet us at the door with tails wagging and always put a smile on our faces. They have helped us to foster so many dogs, something we wouldn't have even thought about doing until we adopted them.
Neva was very calm at home for about the first month and then she really came out of her shell. We thought we had a therapy dog, but boy were we wrong. As it turns out, her calmness was really fear and she is fearful of new people. While she is fearful of people, she loves dogs and animals and is very gentle. She loved going to the dog park to run and play with big and little dogs. She even went to dog daycare and everyone loved her because she was so polite and sweet. With Neva's fear of people and new places, we had to really work with her to help her overcome these challenges. This resulted in us doing a lot of research into training and working with her. She still needs time to get to know people but once you are in her circle of trust, she remembers you forever and gets very excited to see you. Our work has paid off to the point where she could participate in the photo shoot for this project. She was quite calm and relaxed.
Neva also exhibited separation anxiety once she bonded with us. This also led to reading and research in how to deal with this issue. Her separation anxiety improved once we started fostering other dogs. That led us to keep our eye out for a male dog to be her permanent playmate..which was Chunk! Neva has opened our eyes to dogs and dog training, we wouldn't have been able to help so many fosters without learning from and working with her. She is a loved member of the pack and is very gentle with our 11 month old son Isaac. Our involvement with dog rescue and dog training all started with Neva and for that we are thankful.
Now Chunk is always eager to go on any adventure with us. He loves to go for a car ride. We joke that he is our frat boy! He loves to hang out when we have friends over and will even steal their beers. Chunk is our social butterfly who we love to take on social outings. He has even attended baseball games with us.
Photographers Note: When William and I first started communicating about volunteering, he sent in a questionnaire for just Chunk. When I read through the story, I asked about their other pup. He wasn't sure how she would be, so we decided to play it by ear. When I arrived, both pups were in their crates and we needed to do a settle down period for Mister Personality, Chunk. So William brought him out on leash and I ignored him until the excitement of a new person in the house to love on dissipated. I spent the time just chatting with William and Jessica about all the wonderful work they do with fostering and rescue. Then William brought out Neva, she was a little shy and nervous at first, but seemed to start to relax pretty quickly. I didn't push it with her, I let her make the decisions on when she wanted to come up to me. While I was sitting on the ground, she did come and say hello to me once or twice. Of course this just made my heart melt, because the feeling you get when a shy dog decides to trust you, is just amazing. I was truly honored she warmed up to me that quickly. I so appreciate people who take the time to do what is needed to make their dogs happy and to help them through challenges, because not everyone would.
While taking their individual photos, I learned about " Zen Neva", where she likes to crawl under the low branches of the trees and through the long ornamental grass and get a bit of a massage usually accompanied by a very "zen" look on her face. (the reason for the photo of her in all the grass) For Chunk, William thought it would be ok to dust off his frisbee for a few throws to show his stuff. You could just see the glee on his face when that was brought out.
Such a beautiful family and a wonderful pleasure to chat with them and spend some time in their space!