Old and tired

Eleanor is old and tired. This morning it was the most obvious it has been in a long time. We've known that she is suffering from arthritis and getting around is not easy for her so we have been giving her pain medicine to help manage whatever pain she may be feeling. But when I came downstairs this morning and saw her laying at the foot of the stairs, I asked Lance why she was there - she's never there. She's usually out on the back porch having some breakfast after having gone outside for first potty. He said she didn't want to go out, so he gave her the pills hoping they'd kick in quickly and she'd be ready to head outside. I sat on the floor with her, petting her and cooing to her, sympathizing with her sore legs. She knew what I was saying, she was happy to have the sympathy.

We got Eleanor as a puppy, 8 weeks old. I'll never forget going to pick her out. We were first time dog owners and didn't know what to do. All we knew was we wanted a dog. So we found an online site that asked a gazillion questions about our personalities, our activity level, our likes and dislikes when it comes to dogs and the website came back with our perfect match: English Mastiff. Neither of us had any experience with mastiffs, I had always had dogs as a kid but they were always pound dogs who had a minimum of 4 breeds all mixed up in there. So, we started looking through the newspaper and found an ad for puppies. The father was an English Mastiff and the mother was a Rottweiler. We thought how perfect! We'd get a mastiff with a little bit of Rott in it for good measure. We didn't know anything about Rotts, other than they are very pretty and usually quite smart.

Going to "browse" the puppies was so much fun. There were I think 10 in the litter; 5 little Mastiff puppies and 5 little Rottweiler puppies. Because of the way the bloodlines and the breeds work, the little pups came out either one or the other. There was no mutt-look to any of them, they were very distinctly one breed or the other. But they were all full of puppy excitement and joy. Lance and I found one we couldn't live without and put a deposit down on her. A week later, she was old enough to be picked up and brought home.

Our friend, Larry came over to meet her and he was the one to actually name her. We knew we didn't want to name her Fido or Spot but couldn't really come up with anything. Larry had a dog as a kid named Eleanor, and she was apparently the best dog ever. So, we named our dog Eleanor :) Eleanor quickly became our first child. We took her to work to show her off, we enrolled her in school, we took her for walks. She was a very spoiled and loved dog, she still is. She is also quite possibly, the smartest dog I've ever known. She learned all her words, and learned them quickly. You can sit and have a conversation with her and see in her eyes, she understands. She understands everything you are saying.

I know the decision is looming, today was just a reminder that she won't be with us forever. I know that when she is just too tired and too old, she will let us know. She's not there yet, but I know that day isn't too far off and that's just sad. I've always maintained that Eleanor is Lance's dog, but she is my dog too. She's a good girl and has been a great dog for us for many years. She may not be snuggly with kids or even approachable by strangers, but she is Eleanor and she is our dog.

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