Ellie's Love Story

Ellie's Rainy Day Fund paid for Ellie's surgery and hospitalization after she swallowed a sock.

My heart was breaking when I thought we were going to have to put her down. I didn’t know how I was going to tell my girls. You saved the day by paying for Ellie’s hospitalization and then her surgery when hospitalization wasn’t enough. Ellie’s Rainy Day Fund was such a blessing to us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

ELLIE'S FAMILY

A Letter from Ellie's Family

Ellie is a Four Paws for Ability “Fabulous Flunkie.” That means she was in training to help a child with a disability but she “flunked out” because she was afraid of loud noises. So she wasn’t a good match for that program but she was a great match for our family. One of the best days in our lives was when Ellie joined our family!

She is the sweetest dog. She is so loving with my twelve and fifteen-year-old girls. She gets along so well with Dessie, our other lab. Bedtime is my special time with Ellie. Every night when I go to bed, she hops up next to me and sleeps with her chin resting on my side.

There’s just one “little” challenge with our girl -- she loves to eat socks. Actually, I have never seen a sock in her mouth. However, just four month after we adopted her, she became listless, was vomiting and wouldn’t eat. We took her to the emergency department where they discovered a complete gastrointestinal obstruction. We took out Care Credit to pay for the emergency surgery because otherwise she would have died. Then three months later, it happened again. She went into the hospital to see if they could help her pass the socks but it didn’t work. So again we were faced with a life or death choice, but this time with a bill we couldn’t find a way to pay! She was only a year old and was so bonded with my girls—with ALL of us.

Please don’t think we were merely lax with our clothing. After Ellie’s first surgery, we began storing our laundry in the garage. Socks are NEVER lying around in our house. We think this latest crisis was caused when she snuck into the garage for five minutes--and apparently snagged some socks. So now the laundry is elevated on a table in the garage. The girls go to the garage to get their socks when it’s time to get dressed. When they bring home friends, every one gets a warning about not taking off their socks.

It’s been almost two months since the last surgery and Ellie is doing great. Our family is back to normal. My heart was breaking when I thought we were going to have to put her down. I didn’t know how I was going to tell my girls. You saved the day by paying for Ellie’s hospitalization and then her surgery when hospitalization wasn’t enough. Ellie’s Rainy Day Fund was such a blessing to us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

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Beth, Mekenna, Lauren, and Dessie

Ellie's Photos

Click on any image to view Ellie's slideshow.