November 1st isn’t her real birthday but it is close enought to the day that I (and Louis) gave her a home on Irving Avenue in Ottawa fourteen years ago. Robin W. was instrumental in her name change from her Humane Society name of ‘Sparkle". She was anywhere from 10 months to a year old when she ended up at the Humane Society with an unknown prior history. I chose her and she chose me.
In those days, one could go to the Humane Society and observe and mingle with the dogs and cats in their cages and pens but this has changed since then. I liked ‘Ella’ because even in those surroundings she was not a big barker (and she appeared to like me). Even though she appeared to take the Humane Society surroundings in stride, I realized at day one how traumatized she was and I can remember thinking … oh, oh, this might be a big mistake for the first couple of days after I brought her home. This thought was especially true after she ate a couch we had … I can remember thinking, how can a dog eat a f…. couch!
Since Irving Street, Ella has lived on Spadina St. twice, Fairmont, Maclaren, Huron, Hinton in Ottawa (and I may be leaving out a move!)When I went to Mexico for six months in 1998, Dave looked after her and she loved him and his ice cream diet. Her really special friends have been Mimi (who brought her tangerines), Deb (who we did major walks with Mishka), and Lane (who looked after her on more than one occassion but especially the time that she got skunked on Huron and had to stay out in the garage for a couple of days).
Aside from the skunk incidents, Ella has had a few major adventures. One time when I was out with Betty and Mel having a picnic at Brown’s Lake a thunderclap sent Ella off. We tried to find her to no avail. I spent much of the night composing a missing dog notice and Deb, Mishka and myself were looking for her in the Gatineaus at the crack of dawn the next day. We asked and checked everywhere as well as put up notices. I had given up hope by the time I returned home but sure enough there was a message on the answering machine from someone who had received the dog missing note saying that Ella was at their house waiting outside. She had crossed back country from Brown’s Lake to the Ring Road (quite a journey, if one knows the area). If we had taken my car, Ella might have recognized us by sound as we had driven by that house earlier in the day in Deb’s car. That day I went from mourning to exaltation.
Ella’s other big adventure was at Deb’s expense. I was living in an apartment building at the time and dogs had to be out when the fire equipment was being tested so Ella went to Deb’s for the day. Ella has always been twitchy around noise, except for the last year when her hearing has gone, but other than obvious sounds like fireworks or gunfire, her response was difficult to predict. Well, Deb is walking Ella off leash with her dog Mishka under the bridge at The Mill in Ottawa and Ella bolted This is in Ottawa January -25 weather and I had only moved to the new address. Poor Deb searches and searches for Ella to no avail and finally calls me at work.
I can remember driving home from work thinking it was an incredibly bitterly cold day for Ella to get lost in and that I would have something warm to eat, put on extra clothes before going out to look for her. I am finishing up lunch, Deb and Mishka have arrived to do the search and we are all set to go out to look for Ella and there she is at the door. How she found her way home will always amaze me … she crossed the Ottawa River parkway, managed to get through Mechanicsville, then find her way to the right address on Spadina, all in f…. freezing weather where one would expect she would not be able to make her way by scent. I was impressed. She was frozen and stressed by that adventure and slept for a couple of days afterwards.
So, needless to say, Ella has been an incredible dog/pet/companion. Just this weekend she went to Vancouver Island with us - her first ferry ride (followed by three more). Tonight there are lots of fireworks going off for Halloween and it helps that her hearing has gone otherwise she would be having anxiety attacks and that is another Ella story.
How does one pay tribute to a dog that has far exceeded their expectations for a ‘pet’? Ella has been a companion to many - Louis C., Mimi C., Deb H., Robert K., David H., Lane B., Peter Z., Richard B. and no doubt others, but these are the people who have given her love and been the recipients of the kind of love only a dog can give, a much more perfect love than humans can give each other much of the time. All of these named people commented to me at one time or another about learning about life through Ella - the gifts that dogs offer human are so special: like, never hold a grudge, just take me outside where the action is, look at that, isn’t it fantastic!
