All Things Ellie

Today is Tuesday, so this post should be about Ellie.  But it isn't.

That's because today is Sparrow's birthday, and Ellie would want me to talk about Sparrow.

Sparrow Jean

Sparrow was our first female beagle.  We have had five beagles now.  The first, Grunt, was a gift to our youngest daughter in 2001. He was her best friend until he died in an accident at three years old.

 In 2004, we purchased two beagles, a tri-color and a chocolate, as brothers. They were taken out of our backyard during the next hunting season.

Baby Sparrow

After those losses, we weren't ready for another dog for a while.  Then, for my birthday in 2006, Glen surprised me with Sparrow.  She was eight weeks old and weighed only three and a half pounds.

Sparrow was a sweet, loving dog.  Whenever we returned to the house, she had a distinctive greeting for us.  It was a combination of a howl, a bark and a whine, and it was very loud.  She would make this sound until everyone who was returning would stop and pet her.  You couldn't just speak to her, you had to actually touch her.  

Unlike our first beagle, Grunt, Sparrow was not a very athletic dog.  Probably because of her heart issues, she preferred to sit and watch the world go by outside through her window than to actually be outside.  An example of this happened one day when we went to run errands.  While we were out, our neighbor called and asked if Sparrow was supposed to be outside.  We didn't even know how she got outside.  We told Ralph that no she wasn't and he said, "Oh, she's okay.  She's just sitting on the front porch looking at everything."  Graciously, he took her to his house until we returned home.  No other beagle we have owned would skip the opportunity to explore the neighborhood!

One thing she did not like was to ride in the car.  If the window was down and she could stick her head out, she was good.  But if not, you had to be prepared to listen to a howling beagle until the car stopped. On one trip to the beach, we tried to let her hang her head out of the window, but wind from our 65 mph was drying her eyes out.  We had to endure the howling for the entire hour.   

Sparrow and Emmie

Like Ellie, Sparrow loved to be cuddled. She would jump up in your lap, and if that wasn't possible, she would just scoot up as close to you as she could.

We had Sparrow for 13 years until she died of congestive heart failure, precipitated by her mitral valve prolapse.  When we knew Sparrow was close to the end, we had a wonderful hospice vet (who knew these kind, tender people existed?) who came to our house and made Sparrow's passing the gentlest thing possible.  

It was due to our love for Sparrow and our profound loss of her that we began looking for another beagle and found Ellie.  Interestingly, Ellie was born eight weeks after Sparrow died.  We have always believed that, in some way we can't understand, Sparrow and the Lord send Ellie to us.  We love Ellie doubly because half is for Sparrow.

I firmly believe one of the sweetest scenes we will see in heaven will be all our beagles running up to us.  And one will be especially loud until we pet her.

Katie Sparrow Jean Louise Davis