The pet I’ll never forget: Ella the puppy threw up on me, snubbed me and after 10 years decided to love me

Mum, Dad, my brother Michael: everyone in the family got more affection from our ridgeback-staffie cross. And guess whose bed she used to poo on…

I think the tone was set when Ella threw up over me on the way back from the Dogs Trust. She was three months old, rolling around on the back seat between me and my twin brother, Michael (we’d just turned seven), and wasn’t enjoying her first trip in a car. She could have been sick anywhere – over the seat, over the floor – but for some reason she decided to climb on to me first.

It was the start of a beautiful but strangely one-sided friendship. Ella, a ridgeback-staffie cross, was the perfect dog: playful, energetic, naughty and tolerant. She would let us poke and prod her without complaint, turn her ears inside-out or dress her up in T-shirts or the thick woollen poncho my Greek Cypriot grandma knitted her for the British winter. And she was endlessly loving, at least to the other members of the family. Me? Too often it was as if I didn’t exist. If Michael and I were sitting on the sofa, she’d bound up to him. If I came home after a day out with my dad, he was the one she’d jump at. If I tried to take her for a walk by myself, she’d drag her feet and insist that I fetch my brother.

To add insult to injury, about once a year she would do a poo in the house. Not just anywhere, though: she’d climb the stairs to my room and leave it in a neat pile on top of my bed.

I can’t pretend I wasn’t offended by Ella’s attitude – I loved her just as much as anyone. But it took me a while to realise that in her eyes we were both bitches fighting for our place in the pack. I read that dogs are 98.8% wolf, even yappy little chihuahuas. Ella was a definite she-wolf and my mother (she who opened the tin of dog food every night) was the undisputed alpha female. Ella could handle that fact, but she didn’t want to be the omega female. That was me.

Working out the reasons for Ella’s lack of sisterhood, understanding that her indifference was atavistic and not just casual, didn’t make me any less jealous of my brother, who always took great pleasure in the fact that Ella seemed to prefer him. But I resigned myself to the situation. And then one day (happy ending, anyone?) everything changed. I must have been 16 or 17, we’d been away for a fortnight in France, and when we got back it was me she ran up to first, whining and twisting with pleasure at seeing me again. After that it was like all those years of competition had never happened. We were best friends for ever, or at least for the couple of years she had left. Ella finally loved me.

Family Leaves Their Dog At A Parking Lot, He Spends Weeks Waiting For Them

A heartbreaking story comes from Southern California, where a tiny gray-and-white dog was spotted lying in a school parking lot next to the school’s shrubs.

She was waiting for her family who abandoned her to come back, refusing to leave that very spot, and hiding from anyone who wanted to help her.

Weeks went by, but no one claimed this dog, nor did anyone come back for her. She was all alone in this world, still not realizing that her previous owners are no longer her family…

Little Doggo Girl Was Inclined To Wait For Her Hoomans To Come Back

Despite the fact that no one came back for her for fifteen days, this little dog girl refused to budge from the parking lot shrubs. She was inclined to wait for as much as she needed to for her family to come back.

Many people tried to help her, sharing her photos online in hopes of finding her family, but no one ever claimed her. And, even when someone would try to approach her directly, she’d always hide, until one day, a woman named Suzette Hall came by.

Suzette Made Sure The Dog Got A Fresh Start

Source: @logans_legacy29 

Suzette is the founder of the Logan’s Legacy animal rescue in Irvine, California. When she came across the dog’s story, she had no doubts about helping her. Suzette drove herself to the school and searched for this doggo.

“For 15 days, there she was in the morning, afternoon, and then the night. Neighbors tried to help her, but she was too scared. I know she believed if she stayed there, they would come back for her. Loyal little girl,” she wrote.

As she was extremely fearful and shy, Suzette decided to set a humane trap with a hot dog in it. Even though this pup wasn’t exactly starved as she was fed by kibble, Suzette chose the right food to lure her in!

When she finally got her, the doggo girl was frightened and panicky, but she eventually calmed down and fell asleep in Suzette’s car. She decided to name the dog “Scarlet”.