My mom called me yesterday morning with news that she had put Elmo down. Elmo had had some worrying lumps, which turned out to be pretty malignant cancer. Mom had thought about trying to put it off until after the holidays so everyone could spend some more time with her, but the vet told her she would be gone in a matter of days.
Elmo was such a sweet girl. She got passed around the family a bit, having been taken in by Andra before she lived with my parents a while. She lived with Erin for a while, along with her (Elmo’s) best friend, Erin’s dog, Dolce. Tristen decided she wanted to have a bigger dog around the house, so she asked my parents if we could steal her. So steal her we did, and she lived with us for a couple years. We nicknamed her Momo. (Or Smellmo, because that dog had some nasty gas. There was one time we were driving from Rougemont to Wilmington, a two-and-a-half hour drive, and she was literally pooting in our car every five minutes She really earned the Smllemo name that day!)
She was always good with kids, as you’ll see in the pictures, but after the boys came along, we wanted to have less to worry with around the house and didn’t have a lot of time to devote to her, so she went back to Rougemont to live with my parents. She did love it out there, with all the room to run around that she could want. She got out of our backyard a few times and would roam the neighborhood. She never caused any trouble; she just liked to roam.
The poor thing was terrified of storms. She’d shiver like crazy anytime there was thunder. We thought about getting her a special jacket to help her with that, but instead we’d just hug her really tight ourselves.
Milly missed having Elmo (and Duke, who went to stay with Erin) around the house. I’m not looking forward to breaking the news to her.
Erin wrote a good history of this sweet and wonderful dog on Facebook, so I’ll share that here.
Like all of our pets, Elmo wasn’t just “Rhonda’s dog,” she was truly a part of our family. At one point, I had her at my home with Faith & Steve, and Haley & Nathan. At another point, Zach Dotsey had her, too, until this summer, with the twins, Mom and Dad took her back to the Rouge. Oh, and, in fact, it was Andra who found Elmo and ultimately gave her a fantastic life in the Dotsey clan. Andra named her “Elle” after Reese Witherspoon in the iconic “Legally Blonde” but Jerry Dotsey wasn’t having that so that’s where she got her final name, Elmo. That’s just how our family is with pets!
Elmo didn’t really like dogs that she didn’t know, but she was fiercely loyal to the other canines that she loved. And she was a horrible guard dog because she absolutely loved every human being ever. She snored like a freight train and she grunted constantly and she was amazing with children and she was never quiet. But she had nothing if she didn’t have personality.
[button href=”https://photos.app.goo.gl/LVxYM7Ee9mBu7dNS8″ title=”Elmo” target=”blank” shape=”square” size=”large” block=”true” ] Elmo’s Photo Gallery [/button]