In the spring of 2019, Emily came across a Facebook post from a friend at church about a puppy in need of a home. Someone had adopted a pure-bred border collie from a show dog breeder, unaware of the amount of attention and effort required to care for such a dog, and long story short, the puppy was surrendered for re-homing.

Prior to that point, we had been renting, and I was firm on our not having a dog until we purchased a home. That happened in January of 2019, so when Emily showed me the Facebook post a couple months after moving in, she was rather shocked when I didn’t protest at all. Our boys at the time were still elementary age, and I figured having a dog would help them to learn responsibility, as well as give them a playmate.

The puppy arrived with the name of “Bandit,” but we all agreed that it just didn’t fit him. I noticed that his black and white fur made him look like he was wearing a black suit, as well as creating a unique black pattern around his eyes that resembled sunglasses. I said, “It’s either going to be Jake or Elwood,” the names of the original Blue Brothers characters created by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. We tried calling him with “Jake,” which he ignored entirely. Then I said, “Hey Elwood!” He snapped to attention with tail wagging, so he was Elwood forever after.

It sounds cliched, but Elwood truly was the perfect dog for us. He was incredibly smart, being fully housebroken within a month, and loved learning new tricks. He also was fiercely protective of his family, both at home and while traveling. They say that pets are members of the family, and this was never more true than with Elwood within our family.

As a traveler, Elwood was super laidback, riding happily in the car from place to place. He very rarely caused a ruckus unless he felt a threat, and even then, he was simply doing his job and protecting his family. For the trips where he couldn’t join us, he loved going to spend some time with Emily’s parents and their golden retriever, Jasper, who was his best four-legged friend.

Shortly before Christmas this year, we celebrated Elwood’s 7th birthday. His last vet appointment around that time went well, and he seemed to be in fine health, if not ever-so-slightly slower. Then one night in January, I heard him get sick in the middle of the night. Thinking he just got into something outside, I didn’t worry too much about it, but when I poured food in his bowl in the morning, I knew something was off, because he didn’t come running like he always did.

I went into our bedroom, where he was laying on the floor. We enticed him to get up and walk to his food bowl, but I noticed he seemed very weak and struggled to walk. He ignored his food entirely, but drank a large amount of water, so we called the vet and made the earliest appointment we could. They ran some bloodwork and were concerned over a significantly high white blood cell count, which usually indicated an infection of some sort.

They gave Elwood some medication, including antibiotics, and told us to let them know if he didn’t improve. An hour later, when Elwood attempted to stand up, his legs gave out completely, so we called the vet back. He told us to go straight to the emergency vet and that he would call ahead to clear the way for Elwood to be seen as soon as possible.

Sadly, an ultrasound showed a large mass (previously undetected) on Elwood’s spleen that had ruptured, filling his bloodstream with poison and sending him into sepsis. The doctor started discussing “quality of life,” indicating that the damage done to his body was significant enough that, even if they went all out with surgery and treatment, he would only have weeks left.

The thought of Elwood spending his remaining days in pain and discomfort from major surgery was more than we were willing to put him through. He also was in bad enough shape at that point that even trying to take him home and just make him comfortable until he passed was too much of a risk. The vet gave him some fluids and did their best to make him comfortable enough for us to gather as a family and love on him one last time before saying goodbye.

To say that we miss him is a severe understatement. We were not prepared to let him go, and it has been a bit of an adjustment around the house. You never realize how much a pet really is a part of the family until they are no longer with you, and in this case, Elwood took a piece of all of our hearts with him.

Now, Elwood’s ashes rest on a shelf in our living room next to his bed (we just haven’t had the heart to take it down yet), along with a paw print impression, but we believe that he is currently running freely up and down some golden streets and playing tug-o-war with some angels. We also are fairly sure that he’s still keeping an eye on (and playing with) his family – our back door’s lock mysteriously keeps coming unlocked despite no one going outside!

Will we ever have another dog? The best we can say is that the decision won’t be up to us. Elwood showed up in our lives pretty much without any warning or planning, and as much as he needed a family at that time, our family needed him. If the right dog comes along again sometime in the future, then we’ll go from there.

In the mean time, we are thankful for the time we got to share with Elwood and the amazing impact he had in our family. Below is a reel we prepared the night we said goodbye. As the song said, “Heaven’s lucky to have you, and so was I…”

Rest easy, Elwood. It goes without saying….you were a good boy.