Ellie's Day in the Sun

I've been thinking a lot lately about my folks and their new lab, Sneakers. They speak of her with all the giddiness of being in a new relationship- a dog relationship. Dad lets her ride in the front of the truck and lean up against him as he drives. Mom describes how she sneaks up from the foot of the bed and schooches in between them only to paw and lick them awake in the morning. Dad praises her mellowness, her intelligence and just what a good dog she is. It brings me back to when I fell in love with Ellie.

Although Ellie was sickly and nervous up our first meeting, I immediately knew she was to be mine. She rode in the front seat of my Civic and ran and hiked with me. I held her in my arms on the futon while I watched a movie. She was my girl- I talked about her all the time. That was over ten years ago and lots of life has come between us. Ellie is about 12 now and her anxiety has heightened and her medical ailments are more present. She recently developed the most hideous looking growth on her neck- something resembling an oozing witch's wart. Her beauty has faded and age has set in.

Not so on our walk the other day. It was a chilly yet sunny day and we set out in the afternoon for a hike from the house. I let Ellie off the leash becasue she simply can't keep up with my brisk pace. With Sadie asleep in the jogger I watched Ellie pick it up, trotting from smell to smell and eventually running- RUNNING- to catch up with me when I got too far ahead. Tail raised high, ears flapping in the breeze, I thought about that first day I knew I had to keep her when we let her run along the creek in New Mexico. She can't hear a thing anymore, so when she ran to me and I praised her, she looked at me with little recognition of the praise. But she was happy in her own silent world. She rolled in the icy grasses in the bog, smelled the dead and decaying autumn leaves and even snagged a little garbage treat to eat- a classic Ellie move.

To top it all off, at the end of our walk, we came across four teenage girls walking on the paved trail near home. " Can we pet your dog?" Sure, if you want to, I thought. Ellie raised her head to meet their touch. They called her beautiful and told me how lucky I was to have her. I told them of her story, her rough start and her age and they lavished attention upon her.

She trotted home alongside the jogger off leash and proud. The old girl still knows how to have a good time. It was her day in the sun.