In spite of all of our best wishes, Ella’s story did not have the happy ending we all were hoping for. Ella’s veterinarians rushed her into surgery late yesterday, once our fundraiser looked as if it was going to raise enough to fund her surgery.
Imagine that you are a French Bulldog puppy. One day, you are taken away from your brothers and sisters, and from your mother, and you go to live with a new family. If you had been a lucky French Bulldog, you would now have a safe, loving home for life, with people who care for you, feed you and protect you.
You, however, are not one of the lucky ones. You are, instead, Ella – a small, cream French Bulldog who ended up with an owner who found you annoying instead of charming, a burden instead of a blessing. A few times, your owner offered to give you away to people, only to change her mind. She apparently thought that maybe she could breed you, someday, and maybe ‘get some of her money back’. Eventually, your owner contacted rescue, telling them that she was moving, and that you, Ella, were in the way, so could they please take you? She was in quite a rush to get rid of you, Ella, and then at the very last minute, she changed her mind. We’re so sorry that we couldn’t get to you then, to help you, because things got much worse for you after that.
The ‘faithful dog story’ is a (lucrative) Hollywood staple. This winter in theatres we’ll be able to watch “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story”, starring Richard Gere, and based on the apocryphical Japanese tale of the Akita who returns every day to the train station where he waits for his deceased master.
In a real life story that even Hollywood couldn’t rival, a dog named Ella held a solitary vigil at the crash site where she last saw her human family. As the article puts it, “For thirteen days, Ella waited”.