Well its nearly Christmas again, but this message is one of a heavy heart and celebration of the love our family shared with Ella.
One of the hardest things we have to do in lives as being mums and dads to our wonderful pets is make that terrible decision of when it is time for them to leave us. Ella left us on Monday to start her journey to the bridge it has been so still in this house. No grandkids around as much as they use to be. How john has coped as he retired this year I can only imagine.
Glenys and team we thank you with our whole hearts for allowing us to adopt Ella she was our treasure. She leaves us with emptiness but with the greatest gift of love. She loved us unconditionally as most dogs do. Ella had many health issues in her life and we know she is now resting. Sleep well beautiful girlie, till we meet again xxx
Our Wonderful Gift Ella
by bessiebunches » Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:42 am
I am sitting here at 5.00am and very much looking forward to Christmas.
Our Gift this Christmas time is having Ella in our family. I would like to share with you all at this time of caring and sharing our story of Ella as we know it.
As most of you know we lost our sweet Girl Bessie on 10th Aug 2006. After having 2 dogs for the best part of 14 years the loss of Bessie was very hard to bear. I started to come onto these great sites and made many friends. Glenys being one of my closest. Glenys knew our situation but felt that one day a special little girl would come to the rescue that was meant to be with John and I.
Well she was right. In May this year Glenys told us she have a little Black girl named Beth coming from Ireland, the history Glenys had was she was found abandond with her puppies, I think it was 8, we were told she was good in the home and OK with children. At this stage we had not seen her, instantly we said we wanted to meet her. We had to wait a few weeks for her to be transported to the rescue. On the 31st of May she was here and we couldn't wait to go along and see her.
When Glenys brought her out to us we could see she was in very poor condition, she was thin and underweight, her spine was very evident and her coat was thin and brown, ( she is a black girlie) her boobies were hanging due the puppies feeding from her , basically she was very undernurished, but the most upseting thing to see was the mark around her neck, she has a scar that goes all around here neck (it looks like she had had her head taken off and then re-attached) the scar in a full inch wide in places, I can only guess that she had been tied up and the fur had worn away as it does not look like a cut, thank goodness. she was very friendly and came to us, and wanted to play. We could not wait to get our hands on her and bring her home. On her first full day with us we took her to our regular vet and gave her a much needed bath. Her fur came out in handfulls and it was even more evident you could see her skin very easily through her thin fur.
As our last lab was Bess, we found it very difficult to call her Beth it sounded strange so we re-named her Ella, we gave her this name after Bessies mum who was bought by good friends of ours from a person in Cornwall, He had trained her as a working dog and had treated her very cruelly, when my friened first saw her she could not tell she was a lab, any way, back to Ella.
John had been off work as he was waiting for an operation which was wonderful timing for us, as it gave Ella lots of Love and attention and helped her settle at this time.
She has some behavioural problems which we are still working through, she is terrified of people who smoke, or wear a HI-Vis Jacket, she is also afraid of Parcels, post, anyone who knocks at the door, doorbells on the tv, She runs to me for support when she is afraid, and she is very aggressive to smaller dogs. We can not allow her off the lead yet as she constanlty hunts for food and when her nose is down she will not retrive. All these things we will work through.
Now the Big plus's
She is now in much better condition, her fur is thick and shinny, her spine is not pertruding as before, her boobies as now receeded, and she looks the picture of health, Our vet is delighted with her as are we. She is wonderful with the children, she adores them and follows them everywhere, she loves to lie with John by the fire, she always beats him to the bean bag!!
she give us lots of love and attention, and her tail never, I mean Never stops wagging. She follows us all over the house she just loves to be near us. I forgot to mention she love to rip up her toys! Bless herWe feel she is a gift to us, we love her desperatley and can't wait to give her a wonderful Christmas as we do not know if she has had one before, and we want to give a a very special time, always.
Thank You, Glenys for helping us find Ella, for bringing her over here and for letting us give her a new home. We are very blessed
Our first photo of Ella
Week One
Ella after a few months with us
