Ellie was my first Great Dane and I have to confess
that she did not come from Daneline but that was not her fault; I was living
in St Albans at the time.
My current Danes, Megan and China, and my support or Daneline are largely in
memory of Ellie. It was 1984 when the National Great Dane Rescue told
me that they had a fawn bitch for adoption. Ellie was about five years
old and looked more like a greyhound. She had scars on her knees,
hips, shoulders and everywhere where she had laid on a concrete floor.
Over the next six months Ellie and I
developed an understanding; her food is served in a bowl, her bed is
downstairs and she must not nag if I come home late. With gentle care
and a lot of patience she grew stronger and started to put on condition but
is was about a year before she was anywhere near her proper weight. and
build
Ellie loved going to the pub but she had no
understanding of opening hours. The local shop was on the same road as
the pub and it took a lot of persuasion to get her past her favourite spot.
She would begin to walk across me, urging me to cross the road towards the
pub. On one trip to the shop she lay down in front of the pub and
stubbornly refused to move. I eventually persuaded her to return home
and had to walk across the field to get to the shop. Three miles
instead of a few hundred yards!
When Ellie eventually passed away I absolutely
devastated but I knew that I had given her three good years. She gave
me so very much more.
