We said good-bye to our sweet Australian shepherd, Miss Ellie (aka Wiggle-Butt), on Monday, May 13th. She was suffering from Lymphoma and her quality of life quickly declined. We used Houston Mobile Vet so Ellie could remain in the comfort of home. Dr. Angela Donaruma and her assistant were great and I highly recommend them. Ellie went very peacefully with us there beside her. She had a good, long life of 15 or 16 years. We aren't sure exactly how old she was as we adopted her in 2001 from a shelter.
I'll never forget the day we went to pick up Ellie. We had been searching for a playmate for Einstein, our oldest dog, who at the time was four years old. Einstein went with us to get her and bring her home. Ellie had been at the shelter for around six months. As soon as we got her in the truck, we noticed she stunk pretty bad and she was covered in ticks. So the first thing she got when we got home was a bath to remove the ticks and get rid of the stink! The first thing Ellie wanted to do was roll in the grass! There was no grass outside (just dirt) at the shelter and she thoroughly enjoyed rolling in the grass at her new home as often as possible.
Her favorite thing was going to our ranch with Einstein (and then the other dogs too). As soon as we would arrive, she and Einstein would bark at us to go for a walk on our trail around the perimeter of the property. They had acres and acres to run but wanted to go for our walk! Ellie always had to be the leader, usually way ahead of us, stopping occasionally to let us catch up. She had the best time there, running as fast and as far as she could. She was really fast too! She could run circles around Einstein and then stop on a dime. They would chase each other through the creek that runs through our property and go swimming in the pond or find some old deer or cow bone to drag home.
Ellie loved people so much, every time someone in the vicinity was coming out of their house or car, she would want to go over and see them. She thought everyone was here to see her and give her pets. One time on a trip to the ranch with my husband, he stopped at the feed store to get some feed and hay for the horses. He left the window in the truck rolled down when he went inside the store. Ellie jumped out of the window and went in the feed store just talking up a storm to everyone. After that, she always had to go in the feed store and say hello to everyone. She was the sweetest dog. So full of love for everyone. She loved the country life and she loved the city life too, with all it's activity, people and her walks in the neighborhood. She loved our other dogs and was happy to give her position of alpha female to Cali once she joined the family. She was always sweet with the cats too. Ellie was a good singer. A fast licker. She loved to give kisses.
She was so incredibly resilient. She went through a lot health-wise. She had arthroscopic surgery on her elbows, two surgeries to remove mast cell tumors, a splenectomy and tumor removal and then had immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. All within about a four year span. It's no wonder she got highly stressed out going to any kind of vet clinic. Thank God for the recent advent of mobile vets. I'm comforted knowing that now she has crossed over the rainbow bridge, she is whole again, without the pain and suffering, running and playing with the rest of our pets who have crossed over.
We couldn't have asked for a better dog. Such a sweet angel. We will miss her a lot!
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