Missing Ellie

I've been putting off this post because it's just too awful to write about... After five years of various health issues, we lost Ellie on Tuesday, Nov. 20th. She was exactly seven and a half years old.

It's hard to put into words how hard it was to let her go. We had to make the same decision with Heidi just 18 months ago, but somehow, knowing that she'd had 16 years made it a bit easier to take. She was also a bit senile when she died and it was painfully obvious that the time had come. Ellie, after having fended off four major bouts of Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia, finally went into renal failure. The vet says the process had been going on for some time, but the end came more quickly than we were prepared for.

I think the saddest part for me was actually watching Rob grieve for the dog that was really his first pet. He had animals growing up, but none for very long, and none that he became very attached to. Ellie bonded to Rob the instant we picked her out of the litter, and he was the one to provide her extensive daily care. I knew that she was too sick for a different outcome when Rob was the one to finally say it was time to call the vet. He loved her too much to see her suffer another day and convinced me to let her go. The last two hours before going to the vet were possibly the longest of both of our lives.

Thankfully, pre-schoolers don't have the attention span to fully "get" something like this. We were totally convinced that Sam was going to be really upset and were trying to figure out what to do. As it turned out, we didn't tell him until after he came home from school on Wednesday afternoon. We sat him down and asked him if he knew what it meant when someone goes to heaven. He had a very brief conversation in which he asked if she was gone forever. When we said that she was and both of us started to cry, he asked, "Can we have pizza for dinner, please?"

A little comic relief didn't hurt!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend otherwise. We were down at David and Noel's for dinner and spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and getting chores done. We saw "Home Alone" again for the first time in a long time and totally cracked up! Very mature, I know.

The highlight of the weekend was probably our Lowe's find yesterday. They had a $119 pre-lit Christmas tree on sale for $59.99. There was a sign on it that said for "one day only," the tree was just $29. We had a quick conversation and decided that rather than decorate a tiny tabletop tree for Sam's room, that we'd actually put this six and a half footer in his room! We went to KMart across the street and picked up some glittery Martha Stewart shatterproof baubles, some red and silver jingle bells and the requisite tractor ornaments. We still need garland and a tree topper, but we had a blast decorating Sam's very own tree today. He wants to sleep with the tree lit up, but we've convinced him otherwise. I can't wait to sneak in there on Christmas Eve and leave a gift or two for him to discover when he first wakes up on Christmas morning!