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.