Sir Elton Dog

I've been thinking a lot lately about our dog, Sir Elton. It's been over a year now since we gave him away, and most of the misery of owning him has faded in my mind, only the nice parts are left. I miss him sometimes (I will never own another dog, especially not another 75lb dog). He was really a good dog, all in all. We got him from a greyhound rescue organization, and he had come all the way from Mobile Alabama. He was a very handsome boy, his colouring was dark brindle, and he was huge...well, not huge so much as very tall and pointy.

Elton was one of the dumbest dogs I had ever met, and working in Vet clinics for 10 years, I have met a lot of dumb dogs. In spite of that, he was one of the gentlest, kindest animals I've ever dealt with. All he ever wanted was to make us happy, and to love us. He would climb up on the couch when we were watching TV, and try to cuddle with us on our laps, and every night it was a fight to convince him that he had to sleep on the floor and not in bed with us. He loved to go out into our yard and run as fast as he could in circles around our house.

He was a huge pain in the ass. He had severe separation anxiety, and every day we would come home from work to new surprises. He tore the fabric off the front of my couch, he ate my dresser, he tore up every bedsheet we owned, and he ate garbage. Oh, did he ever eat garbage. No matter how inventive we were at hiding it from him, he could get too it. I remember the day we actually decided to put all the garbage outside...we were walking up the front steps and I was saying how nice it would be to come home and not find garbage shredded and strewn all over the house. We walked in, and looked around...and there was rice from one end of the house to the other. We had gone grocery shopping the night before, and bought a 5lb bag of rice, and left it on the counter. I turned around, and left the house, I knew that I would end up killing the dog if I stayed in the house. Ian was smart enough to have the dog outside and the rice cleaned up when I got back from my walk.

Elton was an escape artist, and from time to time he would get out of the yard, usually after he slipped his collar (easy to do when your head is half the size of your neck). He would dance down the street, shooting from tree to tree, keeping just ahead of me, and driving me to distraction. One time, after I finally caught him, I was trying to lead him home without a leash or collar. A gentleman in his car kindly stopped for us, and Elton decided that he would not move from in front of the car. He howled and cried, and finally I had to pick him up and carry him home...he howled the whole way.

One time Ian and I were out for a walk with him, and a Rottweiler got away from it's owner, and came straight for our sweet gentle boy. I was 4 months pregnant, and all I could think about was protecting Elton from this nasty dog. I remember pounding on the dog, and kicking it, as Elton cried and tried to hide behind me. It was absolutely awful, and the other dog tore a chunk out of Elton. I was absolutely devastated, and Elton was traumatized. We ended up spending 3 hours in the emergency clinic while he was being stitched up.

Shortly after the incident with the Rottweiler, we decided that we needed to give Elton away. He needed a tonne of attention and special care, and with a baby on the way, we knew that it wouldn't be fair to him. We just couldn't give him the care he needed. So, one day we packed him up into the car and drove down to Calgary to give him to a family who loved Greyhounds, had a beautiful big house, and 3 other dogs. It was so hard to drive away from him, I cried almost the whole way back to Edmonton.

I hope that he is happy and well, he deserves to have a family who lavish attention and love on him.