Yawning dog

Here's one of my favorite photos. I caught my Labrador Retriever Eleanor in the act of yawning.

A strange twist of fate - dog custody battle

Our journey with Eleanor the black Labrador Retriever took a strange twist when her original owners returned from overseas and wanted her back very much, blaming their pet sitter for letting her escape while they were gone, and blaming the Humane Society for mishandling it when they first reported the dog missing. The Humane Society called us 8 days after the adoption and asked if we would return the dog.

We were the legal owners, but we thought that returning Eleanor was the right thing for the dog and for us. Now she is home with the family that had her since she was a puppy.

We’re going to take more time to get over losing Winston. Then we’ll look for a Great Dane -- one whose ownership is not in question. I hope to introduce our new Dane pup online later this year. Meanwhile, I’ll keep writing about the search for the New Dog.

The video above was made the day before we returned Eleanor, fondly known as Ella.

We feel grateful that a twist of fate brought Eleanor into our home to light up our lives for 10 unforgettable days.

Labrador dog plays fetch

Here's a video of our Labrador Retriever Eleanor playing fetch.

Dog bonding

Here's a photo of my new black Lab Eleanor kissing me shortly after we brought her home from the humane society. There have been many dog kisses since then!

We adopted a new dog!

Eleanor on her first day with us

Big news: We adopted a new dog! She’s a black Labrador Retriever and we named her Eleanor, or Ella for short.

She’s a friendly, intelligent, calm dog whose expression glows with a steady stream of love. She was a stray picked up by the Humane Society. She’s a wise old lady at age 9, based on the Humane Society estimate of her age. Her muzzle is starting to go grey, but she still seems full of life compared to what I’m used to with Winston. The vet thought she might be 6 years old and a purebred Lab. She weighs 77 pounds, exactly 2/3 of Winston’s peak weight of 115. She’s 23 inches tall at the shoulder, which is 6 inches shorter than Winston was.

Eleanor already knows all the basic commands, and is very obedient -- except about leaving the cat alone. The biggest challenge will be teaching her to get along with the kitty, but we’ve done it before. Eleanor goes nuts when she sees the cat, but Sapphire stays calm and actually seems glad to have a dog around again, as long as we enforce the rules against cat-chasing.

Above is a photo of Eleanor on her first day with us, which was Wednesday, April 2. Since then I’ve been so busy getting her settled (and working on taxes) that it’s my first chance to post the good news.

P.S. Perhaps I spoke too soon about the “very obedient” part. While I was typing this, she went into the bathroom and pulled the trash out of our waste basket!

Waiting list for a dog

We’re on the waiting list for a dog! She’s a friendly, intelligent, calm black Labrador Retriever whose expression glows with a steady stream of love. She’s a wise old lady at age 9. Her muzzle is starting to go grey, but she still seems full of life compared to what I’m used to with Winston.

She was a stray picked up by the humane society, and if nobody claims her in four days, we’re at the top of the waiting list to adopt her.

Dillon and I went to our pre-adoption interview, and the counselor quickly matched us up with the Lab. We were drawn to the loving look on her face as she wagged her tail and gently kissed us through the fence. We were especially impressed at how she watched each person who walked by, paying special attention to the staff people. She had obviously identified the staff, even though she had been there less than a day. She was far and away the best dog there for us.

People kept telling me that when I found the right dog, I would “know.” I doubted this, since I’ve been looking at hundreds of dogs in local shelters lately, and never felt that kind of connection. But today I did.

Well, we had imagined getting a male dog, and also a younger one. However, I did ask Winston’s spirit to help us find the right dog. I should have known that he would choose a black female. That was definitely his favorite “type” throughout his whole life.

I think that an older dog will be easier for me to handle with my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

I feel a sense of peace about choosing this loving Lab.

We do know that it still may not work out. Later in the day I applied at a Labrador Retriever rescue group, too.