MEET ELLIE!

The Ellie being thanked in the story is real, the inspiration for all the behaviours and mannerisms I’ve described. We pretty much opened our whole selves to her influence, and although that approach created a few constraints, she infused our lives with complete joy. In this blog, I hope to convey a sense of why she was so important to us; why we loved her so much.

She joined us at the grand old age of seven weeks in January 2007. Below is the first photo we took of her when she arrived. We subtitled it ‘I’m not sure yet if I’m staying, so don’t get your hopes up!’ It was an early sign of one of her characteristics; she could be pretty aloof, almost cat-like, and very independent. If you ever put your face near hers in the expectation of a kiss, she would simply turn her head away and look in the other direction until you moved. Happily, she remained, and we were blessed from the start.

Of course, as a Golden Retriever, her main hobby was eating. She revelled in the fact that either because she looked so cute or had strong telepathic powers, people were desperate to feed her! Example! We had a favourite, dog-friendly hotel in the Peak District. Over the years, we became regulars, and Ellie was welcomed as warmly as us. She was allowed to accompany us to breakfast, and when our plates were served, she was usually offered a sausage. One morning, the landlady came out and, ignoring us and speaking directly to Ellie, said: ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t got any spare sausages today but would you like some rump steak leftover from last night?’ We quickly realised that she would be one of the survivors when the apocalypse happened. She had the knack of finding food in the most incongruous of places. Two preferred snacks were rabbit pellets, which she regarded as an hors d’oeuvre akin to peanuts and seaweed, which she found in plentiful quantities when the tide was out on the beach at Seaburn; her favourite place in the world.

When she was about 18 months old, we visited the breeder to collect some equipment. They had kept one of her litter sisters, who was not best pleased to see her sibling and made it obvious she shouldn’t stay too long. What was immediately apparent to us when seeing them together was that we clearly had been somewhat overindulgent with Ellie’s food and had allowed her to get too heavy. Not dramatically so, but she weighed in at around 37 kilos when about 32 would have been preferable. The breeder advised us to cut down her feed by about a third, replacing the quantity with something like broccoli. We started the regime the next day, and within a couple of months, she had achieved her target weight. As broccoli has many health benefits, it remained part of her diet. My ‘back of an envelope’ calculation suggests that over the remainder of her life, she consumed well over a metric tonne (1000kgs).

Some owners worry about throwing stones for their dogs to chase in case they get swallowed. We never had those concerns with Ellie. On that beach, she was fascinated by the properties of skimmed stones. Chasing after them until the moment they disappeared under the surface. Sometimes, we would try and play a game of boules, using another stone as the ‘Cochon’. As one of us took aim, she would stick her nose into the hand holding the stone we intended to throw and gently remove it. When walking on the beach, I would pick up one from the stand and rub it vigorously between two hands to impart as much of my scent as possible. She knew what was coming next, so she stood patiently, waiting for me to offer it to her. When eventually I did, she carefully took it and gently cradled it in her mouth. Sometimes, walking relatively long distances with a focused, “eyes front” expression on her face; a look of ‘don’t disturb me, I’m busy!’

In the early days, she was very happy sleeping in her crate overnight and would often take herself in there during the day for a nap. I’m not sure when or why we decided that she could sleep upstairs with us. Maybe it was the gradual accumulation of all our overnight stays away from home, but whatever the reason, she relocated. I said ‘upstairs with us,’ but that isn’t strictly true. She indeed appeared on the first floor but not in our bedroom. She decided she preferred the third bedroom and made it her own. It wasn’t long before we routinely referred to it as ‘Ellie’s room’, and she was perfectly at home either on the single bed or on the fluffy rug alongside it. She liked a lie-in too! We would often have been downstairs for a while before she joined us.

She was a brilliant traveller, never car-sick or out of sorts on a long journey, so of course, we took her nearly everywhere with us. Not only the Peak District, but also our regular trips to the North-East and eight times down to the South of France. As long as we took her routine with us, she was happy. More to the point, so were we! To be continued.

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