I suppose everyone thinks their dog is the best dog in the world, which is rather unfortunate, as we actually have the best dog in the world. Three years ago today, we added this wonderful girl to our family. At eight years old, the gray has spread further around her mouth and to her eyebrows as well, but Ellie is the same lovable goofball she was the day we met.

What a blessing to come home each day, met by Ellie dancing in joy!

The dog park section of Irving Park is surrounded by old oaks and maples so a couple of weeks ago I took Ellie up for a photo shoot in the fallen leaves. One of us was a little bored by the lack of running and/or hedgehogs.

I do my best to educate the pets on affairs both present and past. After one of our study lessons covered Cleisthenes, a father of Athenian democracy, the little ones were inspired to found the Irvington Democractic Society. They meet weekly to air grievances and propose resolutions.

Here, Emma takes the podium in support of one of her proposals, “All pets should only eat the food given to them and not push others out of the way and steal their food.” Emma and Scout voted in favor, Sam and Ellie against. Oh no! What do we do in the event of a tie?

This is the reason democracies always fail.

I needed new hiking shoes and when I saw that The North Face had a model named Hedgehogs, I took this as a sign from God. The problem with signs, though, is how to interpret them. Was this a sign that they would bring me as much happiness as Ellie’s hedgehogs bring her? Or a sign that she would chew my Hedgehogs as merciless as she chews hers?

Ever the optimist I gambled on the former and so far, so good. I’m still breaking them in, REI didn’t have them in my normal size of 9.5 but half a size larger seems to be working OK. I wore them outside for the first time today on our evening walk, I’ll probably give them more of a workout in the Gorge this weekend to see how they do on hills. Plus I need to ease my body back into hiking if I’m going to take a big hiking trip late this month as I usually do.

You can even see the stains below her fangs from the blood of her victims! Fortunately for our household, her favorite prey is hedgehogs. Not just hedgehogs, but baby hedgehogs.

Sentient or not, Ellie’s stomach got upset after the 4th of July weekend and Monday morning and evening we had the pleasure of cleaning up after she pooped in the house. Sometimes she gets diarrhea like this when she eats something she’s not supposed to, but to the best of our knowledge she’s had no misadventures lately. My wife moved her right away onto a bland diet of rice and chicken and she regained control of her bowels.

It’s possible it’s stress related from all of the fireworks activity. When it got loud on the evening of the 4th I closed all the windows despite the heat to help deaden the sound and ease the nerves of the cats who were hiding under beds and couches. Ellie didn’t show much outward sign of distress, and although she would look up at me when a boom was especially loud or close, she always settled back down when I told her it was OK.

If she thought it was doggie Armageddon, she didn’t seem too concerned that she wasn’t being raptured, so long as we were together. That is unconditional love.

I’ve made a couple of modifications to our morning ritual of treats for the pets. We had started giving Ellie Checkups once a day, a white dog-shaped treat that is supposed to be good for her teeth. When we discovered this is by far her favorite treat of all, instead of giving Ellie a charcoal dog biscuit in the morning she now gets her white bone.

And oh how she loves them! When I open the door to the closet where we keep them, she runs into my office and quickly lies down on her dog bed, so intently focused that she doesn’t move apart from her big black tail which wags furiously.

My wife takes her about once a week to doggie day care so she can spend the day socializing with other dogs. She normally enjoys this and doesn’t need any encouragement to go out the door, but one day my wife was running ahead of schedule and was ready to leave while I was still feeding Scout her treats, and thus before Ellie had gotten her highly anticipated white bone. When my wife called her, Ellie got up and started for the door but then returned to me and half-sat and half-stood, torn between obeying my wife’s call and waiting for her treat, as if she were being controlled by two minds.

I think her stomach has become self-aware.

The other morning I woke up at 4 a.m. and felt my wife cuddled up against my back. I rolled over to put my arm around her and discovered Ellie there instead. I later discovered my wife had just gotten up and Ellie immediately jumped onto the bed and took her spot.

Perhaps my wife had better watch her back lest Ellie “accidentally” push her down the stairs.

This picture of Ellie was taken on a foggy winter’s day in the off-leash section of Irving Park. When we first got her I had doubts we’d ever be able to let her off-leash like this as she was a bit of a wild woman when given her freedom. Now though she does really well and we enjoy our playtime in the park. She still prefers playing with me to dogs, but at times she joins them in their fun.

Yesterday I took her on an extra walk in the afternoon and she romped around with the two dogs who were there, both energetic little puppies. She kept up with the little ones just fine, then came home and zonked out on the floor of my office.

Ellie and I are making our return, mine to blogging, hers to hedgehogging.

Ellie came up limp while playing hedgehog late one night a couple of weeks ago and when she still wouldn’t put weight on the leg in the morning, she was off to the vet.

When we arrived she gingerly put weight on it and even walked on all four legs (albeit with an obvious limp) back to the examining room. Fortunately the tech saw her limping because when the doctor came in Ellie was hopping around and showing no signs of distress. Even a thorough exam showed nothing, not during the range-of-motion exercises nor even when she had Ellie put her full weight on the supposedly sore leg.

The vet recognized that with the adrenaline kicking in Ellie was probably ignoring all signs of pain and that I wasn’t faking injuries to my dog just for the attention. She suggested Ellie probably had a soft tissue injury and ordered two weeks of bed rest and a follow-up visit for X-rays if that didn’t cure her. That meant the return of the exercise pen for when we weren’t home, oh how I hate the gaze of the sad puppy dog eyes when I close that gate!

Fortunately two weeks of bed rest did the trick and Ellie made her triumphant return to everyday life. Unfortunately for me, between the pain pills and the rest she was pretty much ready for the return from day one of her incarceration and I was mercilessly pelted with hedgehogs throughout the two weeks.

Since she couldn’t play and her older hedgehogs are now squeakless, I gave her a new one so she could at least make her music. If you walked by our house and heard the sad sounds of the bed rest blues being squeaked out from the depths, now you know why.

To get the full effect, make a loud sigh when you view this picture, to let the world know how put upon you truly are as you oh-so-patiently wait for the next round of hedgehogging

Happy Birthday Ellie!

We adopted our sweet girl two years ago and, since we don’t know her real birthday, we celebrate it today as well. She was five when we adopted her and so now turns seven.

This picture is from June when she was still recuperating from her surgery, this is the look I get in between sleeping and snuggling and hedgehogging. Speaking of which, someone has been patiently waiting all night for me to finish my chores, so I’d better go.

Ellie got a new baby hedgehog for Christmas. Does she like it? Well, when I stepped out of the shower yesterday morning, Ellie and new baby hedgehog were staring back at me. She’s been carrying it all over the house, which she usually does for a few days until it is properly broken in.

More playing with Instagram, this one is of Ellie resting in my office on the dog bed my wife made for her.

My favorite iPhone picture so far

Football on Thanksgiving is a fine tradition, but hedgehogging on Thanksgiving is even finer. Especially on a beautiful fall day amongst the fallen leaves. I hadn’t planned on taking pictures but I was struck by the beauty of the moment and took the iPhone out for a few quick pictures. Ellie doesn’t like for hedgehogging to be interrupted so I didn’t have much time before the chop chops demanded a return to play.

The two pictures below are pretty similar to what I would have taken if I had my big camera with me, but the top one is a change of pace for me. I held the phone out high and snapped a picture and got my favorite iPhone picture so far, and one of my favorites of Ellie to boot. I love her unwavering focus on the hedgehog in the picture, that’s not posed, that’s just how seriously my girl takes her hedgehogging.

I do wish the iPhone camera app had more controls, especially on exposure and contrast, so I’m going to hunt around the app store to see what else is available. Still, when there’s as much light available as there was here, this little phone takes a surprisingly nice picture.

I care not for pictures. Hedgehog please! Chop chop!

When the big black spot on Ellie's tongue becomes visible, I call a timeout and we take a rest

It's the dread pirate Ellie! Hide your women and children! And hedgehogs! And for the love of God, your food!

Aarrr! You’ll be surrendering all your hedgehogs if you be wanting to live, says I.

I’ve tried for two years to capture this silly little grin of hers on film but never managed ’til now.

A forlorn Ellie learns she's been put on the injured reserve list

A month or two ago Ellie’s famous chop chop turned into cough cough so she was off to the vet. She had picked up kennel cough so we picked up cough medicine. And what medicine! She hardly coughed after taking it, dogs must get some magical stuff that isn’t approved for us humans. She wasn’t allowed to socialize with dogs for a while so her walks were sadly solitary. But if you thought a cough was going to slow down her hedgehogging, you don’t know our Ellie.

Hedgehogging did get shelved temporarily a few weeks later when we were playing and she split a nail up close to the quick. After taking it easy she was back at it and we spent a beautiful Thanksgiving hedgehogging on the leaf-covered lawn. She came up limp during the next day’s game, I felt her paw and it seemed fine but I called the game as a precaution.

But as soon as we got inside the floor was covered with bloody paw prints so I applied pressure while my wife called the vet. Thankfully the pressure stopped the bleeding and they were able to see us right away. One of the punctures was large enough to require stitches so Ellie came home with a big bandage on her front paw. She had a follow-up visit this morning and got the bandage off but stays in stitches for a week yet.

Hedgehogging has once again been sidelined, not that she has gotten the message. Dear Ellie, how many legs would have to be hobbled before you stopped pelting me with hedgehogs? She does the Black Knight proud.

I've had worse! Come on, hedgehog me!

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to dogs who can hedgehog again.”
Luke 2:13-14, more or less

Where were you this morning? Did you see the heavens open? Did you hear the angels rejoice?

I know one dog who did.

Ellie had her final visit to the surgeon today and Dr. Munjar said the x-rays showed a nice boring joint, meaning she had healed nicely and we can start easing her back into her normal routine. Ellie and I celebrated with a few hedeghog throws in the backyard before I had to head in to work.

If you’re in the Portland area and need surgery for your pet, I highly recommend Dr. Munjar and the Veterinary Surgical Center of Portland. Dr. Munjar has a great (doggy) bedside manner and explained everything very clearly and did great work. He provided detailed instructions for her post-op recovery and everything proceeded just like he said. From the moment we met him we felt we had made the right decision. The staff is friendly and knowledgable and took good care of us.

If I ever need surgery I can only hope to be in such good hands!

Ellie did really well during her recovery, but she did develop a coping mechanism — if I gave her a command she didn’t want to follow, she’d turn her head slightly to the side. As if to say, “I’m not being willfully disobedient, it’s just that I can’t hear you, what with my head turned like this and all.” It was such a subtle gesture I didn’t catch on at first, but after a while it became unmistakable.

I suppose I should be insulted at my dog’s estimate of my intelligence, but it was so cute it just made me laugh. She’d always obey if my tone indicated she needed to, so I let it slide.

For some reason, baby hedgehog isn't as pleased as the rest of us to see Ellie off of bed rest

Oh Ellie!

I don’t know much about hedgehogs but they must not be too bright. Ellie loves to lie on her back like a fallen log and sneak up on them and they fall for it every single time. Ellie has a strict catch-and-release policy so you’d think by now they’d have figured out her strategy.

Oh baby hedgehog, how I've longed for this moment!

One nice thing about how well Ellie is healing is that she can now join me in the backyard like before, minus the running and jumping. That even means the return of baby hedgehog to outside time, as long as she doesn’t get too rambunctious. She had tossed it to me here, wanting to play like in days of old, but we’re not ready for that yet.

We’ve adapted baby hedgehog play since she first got her surgery, matching it to her allowed activity level. We started off with a game where she didn’t need to move anything but her head, to now where she can be more mobile but doesn’t need to run and jump.

Ellie went to the surgeon on Thursday for her follow-up x-rays and he was delighted with the progress she’s made in the six weeks since her leg surgery. Everything is healing the way he hoped and she goes back for her final x-rays in another six weeks.

So while she still isn’t allowed to run and play the way she’d like, we’re headed in the right direction and today was the first day I didn’t keep her penned up when I left for work. She is allowed to use the stairs now and so has free reign of the house, finally able to rise up from the basement and join me on the main floor. And the bedroom on the top floor at night, this morning I literally woke up covered by all the pets but Emma!

Her walks have also resumed, slowly increasing in 5 minute intervals as she builds back her stamina and muscle mass. We don’t get too far, she’s eager to get reacquainted with old friends and say hello to you little bush, and you little tree, and you blade of grass, and you little leaf, and …

I’ve been working a lot of long hours for work, including many nights and weekends, so I haven’t been able to play with her and the cats as much as I’d like. Or as often as Ellie would like, given by the number of times I get pelted by hedgehogs as I work. Thankfully things should be slowing down in the next couple of days.

Welcome back, Ellie! All the pets are zonked out around me in my office at the moment, some sleeping more quietly than others. Even the hedgehogs are enjoying a moment of peace.