Ella arrived at Newark Airport from Bellingham, Washington, in the middle of the night, January 2007. We were there waiting to welcome her, comfort her, and clean her off after a cross-country flight that changed her and our lives forever.
She was a part of our family before we even became a family. Ella joined us before we married, before our son grew up, before our daughter was born, before we added four more dogs.
She was a little chocolate brown labradoodle, who proved her strength and fierceness early on when she brought a dead baby bunny back into our house.
She was, as my wife called her, my “constant companion.” Long before the pandemic and even after it, she quietly sat in my office, hearing every conversation, watching every live shot, knowing all the news before it was reported. She didn’t care what the stories were; she just was happy being with me.
When she did leave my office, she loved walks and car rides. She always knew which button to push to lower the window so she could stick her head out and feel the wind in her face.
Over the years, the rides and walks became more infrequent. She lost her vision and hearing. She developed doggy dementia, which led to seizures and breathing issues. She was in diapers. Her dark chocolate brown coat turned gray. But as much as her life changed, she was most happy in our arms or in our bed, laying with us, licking our faces.
Yet Ella’s good days dwindled, and as tough as it was – and we agonized over it -- it became time to let her go. We did that Thursday, an all-time sad day.
For the third time in just over 18 months, we lost one of our beloved furry friends, our other children. We lost Benny in January 2025, Bailey this March, and now Ella. It’s too much. We now are down to two dogs, Apple and Brady. Our house feels empty and our hearts feel broke. Ella’s pain has been transferred to us.
Ella lived almost 20 years – she would have been 20 in November - and was a part of our graduations, celebrations, happy and sad moments. We know what we had and what she meant. But for all the time we had together -- and it was more than most get -- it still wasn’t enough.
We always will remember and love our little Ellies.
显示更多
MrBeast reveals Big Chocolate using 1.5M+ kids in illegal child labor on cacao farms 🍫
“There’s 1.5 to 1.8 million kids working in illegal child labor on cacao farms in West Africa, where majority of the world’s cacao comes from. I had no idea how bad it was until I started a chocolate company. It’s been normalized for decades in the chocolate industry. Big Chocolate pays farmers so little that they just can’t afford to not use children.”
“When I asked distributors if I could pay a premium and not have little kids work on my farms, it literally didn’t exist. No one really seemed to even think it needed to exist.”
“So we went to five villages that the average child labor there was like 45%. Seven months later we were able to get a 90% reduction and get it to where there are only around 50 still in child labor with our first check-in.”
“There literally wasn’t a school because kids just worked on the farm. So we built a school so they could go to school. The goal isn’t just to get the kids out of child labor. It’s also to get them an education so they’re not only working on a cacao farm and doomed to work on it their whole life, because they don’t know anything else.”
显示更多