Her Smelliness

Last week had an auto theme, so why not an animal theme for this week? Our family loves our animals and we consider them members of our family. Currently we have two Labrador Retrievers and two cats, and each of them have quite the personality.

Today I’ll talk about my dog, Ellie Mae (aka the Smellie Mae with the stinky feet). She is a black lab that we found in a lab rescue program in Knoxville in April 2001. The kids and I drove over to look at three dogs that day… an older male chocolate lab, a one year old male chocolate lab, and her Smelliness. On the drive over, I already had an idea Ellie Mae would be the ideal candidate. The old dog was too old and already overweight with some health issues. The young dog was just too much puppy, and I was over puppies, having raised our other lab. So, on the two-hour drive I kept thinking, “Please don’t let her respond to ‘Ellie Mae.’ Please don’t let her respond to ‘Ellie Mae.’”Well, she did, but that was really the only negative to this dog. She and our other dog had no problems. She is the alpha, no problem. She was young and energetic, friendly with me and the kids, so we brought her home. She did respond to the name, so although I did not like it we did not try to change her name.

We believe Ellie Mae spent her first year on the streets of Knoxville, which is probably why she hates to go outside when it is raining or snowing, although she LOVES to go swimming. It is also why she is a four-legged garbage disposal, eating anything and everything, and subsequently getting sick.

When we picked her up, the rescue program’s vet had said she was 3 or 4 years old. I believe the vet was mistaken, maybe because she was a street dog and suffered from malnutrition she appeared older than she was. When we first brought Ellie Mae home, her behavior and energy echoed our chocolate lab, who was one at the time.

The first six months we had her she did not utter a single sound—no barks, no whines, no whimpers, nothing. Then after six months she started barking and eight years later she simply won’t shut up! She is especially passionate about the postal truck and diligent about chasing him away every day. She does such a good job that he doesn’t even show up on Sundays! Our front door has three vertical windows, so she will check the outside world several times a day. Sometimes a leaf falls or a squirrel wanders across the yard and she is very good at guarding us from those dangers. Clark refers to Ellie as our 60-pound yappy dog.

Dogs are pack animals and need to know where they are in the pack hierarchy. We say that Clark is top dog and I’m second dog, so Ellie thinks she’s third dog. My son has always taken offense to this, asserting that *HE* is third dog, not Ellie. I tell him he and his sister are just pups, so Ellie thinks she’s their boss.

As I mentioned above, we also have cats. When we got Ellie, we only had the tortie, who was always hiding out in our other house, so we didn’t have many confrontations. Then the black cat arrived in 2004 and he makes his presence known at all times. It is amusing so often I’ll all be sitting in the den, watching TV, a sleeping Ellie Mae nearby. Suddenly a low growl starts emanating from Ellie Mae and I’ll look around. Sure enough, there is a cat in the room. Both of our cats have very loud purrs, so my theory is that Ellie thinks the cats are growling at her. Poor dog. She simply does not understand why the cats (called “KATT”s) are allowed to growl at her, but she gets in trouble for growling at them.

Ellie has an interesting vocabulary. For example there are some four-letter words, bad words that she does not like to hear. Cats as I mentioned are KATTs. We also kennel our dogs when we leave and during the night, which she does not like. So when we say “kennel” her spelling is “KENL.” Vet is “VETT.”

Ellie also has a couple of nicknames like “Her Smelliness” or “Ellie Mae of the Stinky Feet and the Smellie Ears” or simply “Smellie Mae.” Our thought is that her personal odor issues hearken back to her puppyhood being spent on the streets with garbage. The first couple of years she was with us, she would get terrible ear infections, hence the smelly ears, but those seem to have disappeared. She does still have some flactuation issues. We joke when Ellie Mae is very happy she relaxes and farts. So the phrase “Ellie Mae’s really happy” is actually code for “INCOMING!”

When we brought Ellie home, I did not expect her to become my dog. We wanted another dog so Lucky would not be alone, but she is my shadow. Wherever I go in the house, she is usually in the same room. Before we moved and I went back to school, I spent lots of time with Ellie. We did agility together and after the move we would go walking at the nearby Lake Radnor. Almost every time we went to the lake, we would see deer. Ellie Mae seemed to be awed by these creatures, like she could not quite figure out what they were. So, they became the “Big Dogs” and whenever I got ready to go to the lake, I ask her if she wants to go see the “Big Dogs” and she gets very excited.

It’s hard to believe Ellie has been a part of our family for 8 years now. Her black fur is spackled with lots of gray, especially her muzzle, eyes and paws. She has slowed down her fetching a little and some afternoons she doesn’t hear the postal truck. Being a realist, I know Ellie Mae is entering old age, but really hope we have many more years of Ellie Mae sleeping on the couch next to me, twitching as she pursues squirrels in her dreams, and announcing her happiness with stinkiness.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N