Happy Birthday Eli!

Yesterday was Eli's first birthday. We spent the day celebrating and making plaster paw prints. Eli gobbled up his first DQ softserve and doesn't understand why his birthday can't be everyday. Jasper and Dixie want to know when their birthdays are so they can have ice cream more often.

I promised I would tell the story behind Eli's name so here it is.... Ellen Toll Katz was one of my dearest friends and Newfie mentor. Last spring she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she passed away from complications arising from surgery to remove it on the day before Eli's litter was born. We weren't looking for a puppy. We already had two newfs and Jasper. My life was complicated enough... thank you very much... But, Kerri and I had a running gag with Ellen that when the time came for us to get a newfie boy to show, we would have Ellen do all the work finding him, picking him out and would just tell us when to pick him up. As it would happen, Cathy Derench, Ellen's best friend and cohort in Newf Rescue, not to mention probably the breeder I respect most in this world, had a litter of 9 puppies (7 males, 2 females) due the day Ellen died and were born the day between her death and her funeral. Ellen's daughter, Tracy mentioned she thought we should have one of these puppies. Her mom would have wanted it that way. How could we resist using that logic.... As for the name.... obviously Eli loosely correlates to Ellen and his AKC registered name is MtnView's Life Goes On.

So this is a bittersweet milestone for me.

I know in my heart that Ellen sent Eli our way somehow knowing that he would be a comfort when we lost Lucy so suddenly. We were lucky that he came to us in time to learn some important lessons from Lucy before she died -- even now there are some quirky things he still does that he learned from her. Eli's arrival in here in Maine will always be tied to those losses, but that certainly doesn't diminish the joy he brings every day.

I know the other eight puppies in his litter are all wonderful, but I know for sure that we got the best one.

Happy Birthday my smart, handsome boy!

Thank you Ellen.