Ella Anderson

GOODBYE TO A LOVELY LADY (2007 – 10. 10. 2018)

Judy says “Our lovely, gentle Ella had a rough start to life, and didn’t ever really get over it.

She was always eager to please, and if either of our other dogs were told off for any reason, she thought she was the one in the wrong, and gave us a “please don’t tell me off” look.

Even so, she was extremely affectionate to literally everyone she met – a walk along the beach nearby took ages, as she had to plant herself in front of every group of people in sight for a bit of fuss – which she invariably got, as she was difficult to ignore!

Ella’s last few months were not happy ones for her, as, in June, she developed peripheral neuropathy in her legs, and walking became difficult. She had her first session of hydrotherapy just the day before she died – of course this was lovely for her, being a real water dog!

However, she was also not eating well. While concentrating on her mobility, we pushed her loss of appetite to the side. Unfortunately this was because she was suffering from a large tumour on her spleen.

Our vet told us that survival with this type of cancer is very low, surgical treatment could have made her bleed internally, and she would only have a couple of months at best, which wouldn’t have been enjoyable due to her poor walking. So, we made the very difficult decision to let her go while she was under anaesthetic for her x-ray.

We had been concerned that Ella would be devastated when we lost Abi, which we expected to happen first, as Abi is almost 15 now. The two were inseparable, and Ella didn’t even like to go on walks without Abi. So, we will not have that problem.

Abi is in the midst of doggy dementia, and I don’t think she’s really noticed that Ella has gone – as long as I’m in sight, she is as happy as Larry. Her other sister Kush, our little staffie, occasionally looks for Ella I think, but just seems happy that she has more bed space! We’ll never forget our beautiful Ella, and I’m so glad we were able to make her too – short life happy. Rest in Peace”.

Thank you so much to Judy for loving Ella so much and for doing her very best for her.

ELLA (WAS GOLDIE) HISTORY

In 2010, Ella (once Goldie) was 3 years old. She was very shy and quite nervous and seemed to have possibly been beaten – she walked around with a teddy in her mouth. She was dumped on a lady when she was doing a street collection for an animal rescue. She said she is very sweet natured but very sad.

She was fully vaccinated and spayed in Ireland. Her fosterers there told us she was brilliant with other dogs and children but she was very nervous with men.

She was fostered by Belinda and Terry in Somerset where their other IRR girls helped to bring Ella out of herself.

FIRST REPORT FROM BELINDA

She has been with us for 24 hours now and is beginning to settle down very well. She was very nervous when she first arrived but relaxed in the kitchen with the other dogs almost immediately. Lynne, who met her from the transport and brought her down to us, told us she was very frightened of men so Terry stayed in the background when she first arrived.

After Lynne had gone, Goldie came up to Terry and wanted to be stroked. Since then she has followed us both around, asking to be stroked. She seems to gain her confidence but then a sudden noise or movement causes her to throw herself flat on the floor. She obviously expects to be hit. She does accept treats, has eaten her meals and has had a couple of wees outside.

She goes into the garden with the other dogs and trots round quite happily, tail wagging. She investigated the chickens and one of them flapped their wings at her but she didn’t seem to mind. While she was in the garden, a noisy lorry went past and she didn’t notice it. She is slightly overweight and bigger than Connie.

She could do with a good bath but not at the moment as her spay wound looks quite fresh and she needs to settle a lot more first. She is lying at my side at the moment, very relaxed, with the other dogs, who seem to give her confidence. We left her with the others for a short while this morning and she was very good, no fuss. She met the cat this morning, sniffed her and then walked on past.

I think she is still very tired and confused with all the travel and different people she has met over the past couple of days so I am hoping that she will come out of herself more over the next few days. It is difficult to get pics of her in the garden as when she sees me she comes over!

She, ideally, needs a home with other confident dogs and preferably with a lady owner.

UPDATE ON GOLDIE

Belinda says “Goldie has now come out of herself even more. She is friendly, wags her tail and is no longer stuck to my side – she happily wanders off into the garden by herself or with the other dogs. She appears to have a lovely temperament and loves to be stroked. She has just come into the room now and is standing looking at me wagging her tail. We have left her, with the other dogs, for short periods, and she has been no trouble at all. We haven’t taken her for a proper walk as yet.

She accepts treats and eats her food with no fuss at all. I am pretty sure she is house trained as we have had no accidents. She was obviously spayed in the last couple of weeks but I am pretty sure she has had puppies as her undercarriage is still pretty big. She is really lovely, quite big and I would say a little overweight! She has met our cat several times with absolutely no reaction and the same can be said of her with our chickens!” Goldie has struck very lucky as she is going to live with a previous adopter who we know to be excellent with nervous girls as her Abi was an ex breeding bitch from Wales. Needless to say, it was love at first sight and Goldie, now to be called Ella, went off happily with Judy, Abi and George to Wiltshire.

GOLDIE (now ELLA) IN HER NEW HOME

Judy says “Well we got home safely (no getting lost – must be a record!) and all of the dogs slept for most of the journey. Ella was happy to go into the house and the garden on her own and then, while I had something to eat, she had another snooze. I took them all for a short walk to post a letter and she wasn’t too good on the lead, tried to get in front and didn’t like the few cars we saw -she dropped to the floor like a stone – luckily there aren’t too many round here. I’m sure she’ll learn to walk nicely, as Abi and George are very well behaved .

She met Phil the cat and they both looked at each other and carried on what they were doing – all good there then! She is now lying asleep at my feet while I write this, so seems to feel fairly relaxed. I hope she is going to be a water dog like the others, it’s always good for a cool off in this weather”

FIRST UPDATE

Ella is settling in well. She still expects to be ill-treated and looks very grateful when she isn’t. She wags her tail to get me to stroke her and has just started continuing to wag it when I do, rather than steel herself for the expected smack. We’ve been for several walks, and I’ve taken a few pictures, but I have to say that it’s hard to get them all in shot at the same time! Ella is on an extendable lead so they can trot off together. This is a nice one of her and Abi………………..

MINI UPDATE ON ELLA

Judy says “Ella is now getting quite playful, and running after her ball, picking it up and bringing it back – very exciting for me, as Abi still hasn’t a clue that she’s a Retriever, and should actually retrieve!”

GOOD & BAD NEWS 4.8.2010

Judy says “Ella is getting on really well. Her fear of men is getting a little better and she lets ones who she has met before give her a little biscuit – a real leap forward! She is now off her training lead and enjoying fast runs around the fields and mostly she comes back straight away! (which is more than Abi did at this stage!!). She still loves the river, and if it’s too shallow to swim, she just lies down in it. It’s so lovely to see both dogs having a whale of a time after the problems they had before.

I’m afraid I have some bad news too. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that George had a swollen tummy, so I took him to the Vets to check him out. It seemed to be a tumour on his spleen and on Monday he had an op to see if it could be removed but they found it had spread to his liver. I had asked them to not let him wake up from the anaesthetic if that was the case so he died peacefully, unaware of what was happening. In the last few days he had been bleeding internally, so was getting anaemic, and as a result was tired. George being George, he still wanted to go for walks and, when I took the others again after we had all gone for a short walk, he was barking when we got back, obviously annoyed that we had left him!

I’m so pleased that Ella arrived when she did, it was perfect timing, although I didn’t know how perfect until now, and she and Abi get on really well, they’re a good team. So, I will see you at the Reunion in September with the terrible twins.”

MINI UPDATE 19/11/2010

Judy says “Ella is now settled in nicely but, unfortunately, she is so comfortable here that she’s going through a chewing phase (numerous shoes, a couple of collars and leads, furniture, carpets, plastic mixing jugs… the list goes on! Abi is showing herself to be a really well behaved dog in comparison.

On the positive side, Ella now walks well on her lead, has stopped chasing swans and is getting better all the time with the scared-of-men-when-she’s-on-the-lead problem! This week, she went to agility with Abi and she managed to go through a short tunnel with no real problem, among other things… so it’s all looking bright for the future.”

ELLA AND SAM

Judy said. “My daughter and her 2 year old son were staying recently and it seems that Ella has had experience of little children – she was so tolerant of Sam, and didn’t mind him using her as a pillow! Abi, on the other hand left the room when he walked in! “

UPDATE – OCTOBER 2011

Ella has to make friends with everyone she meets (especially men!) – probably to ensure that they’re not enemies! She’s very keen if they feed her – I’m sure she’d go off with anyone for a biscuit! She’s also grown a lot more fur – but her tail will never compete with Abi’s beautiful tail which I never allow to be trimmed – I’d worry it wouldn’t grow back!

Well, I managed to get some photos of Abi and Ella although I couldn’t get them to sit and pose nicely! At one stage Abi put her paw out to say please as she got tired of waiting! Anyway, maybe one day I’ll get some really good ones…..

Ella has overcome her nervousness so much and Judy has done such a wonderful job of rehabilitating her that IRR were delighted to award Ella:

THE MOST IMPROVED IRR BITCH 2011

and she is wearing her rosette with pride in the above picture.

Well done Ella and Judy!