Elle's Tragedy
English

Elle's Tragedy

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My husband and I own a cat and a dog. Both are over ten years old, and since our daughter moved out, they've become like our babies. We love having pets. We've been having black labs since our daughter was six years old. Our first lab, Lala grew up with our daughter. Our current dog, Coco is our second lab. Since my husband loves female black labs, both Lala and Coco are female labs. Our cat Jiji joined our family six months before Lala passed away. Jiji is a year older than Coco, but they've never gotten along with each other.

Coco is my husband and my exercise companion, and every morning he bikes 10 kilometers with her. He made friends with other dog owners, including Elle's owner. Elle is a well-trained male German Shepherd, about three or four years younger than Coco. Elle's owner was a very kind and friendly person, and whenever I walked with Coco instead of my husband in the morning, he always greeted both Coco and me. Coco adored him.

A couple of months ago, Elle's owner felt from a ladder and fractured his skull. It caused intracranial hemorrhage. Although he survived, we were told he would never be able to talk or move again. Poor Elle was abandoned after that. Elle technically belongs to the owner’s company as a guard dog, and the company staff are supposed to take care of him. However, they sometimes neglect him.

They sometimes forget to feed him, take a walk with him, or even give him basic care. My husband and I feel deeply sorry for both Elle and his owner. As a result, my husband started biking with Elle after biking with Coco. He feeds Elle too. While we love to bring Elle into our house, I don't think Jiji can handle it. He'd be chickened out, and it'd cause lots of stress on him. I really don’t want to put him through that, so unfortunately, we can’t take Elle in.

Elle stopped by our house with my husband to greet me while biking with him. He is very calm, and I love him.

We heard that the owner has a son, so we think he should be in charge of taking care of his father's dog. However, the company staff told us that he's been always so busy that he has no time to take care of Elle. I know we have no responsibility to take care of Elle, but we can't abandon him as dog owners. I believe that if something happens to both my husband and me and we couldn't take care of our Coco and Jiji, our daughter definitely would take responsibility for them. We really don't understand why this son can't do the same thing.

My husband and I have discussed about Elle and we'll keep an eye on him. I've been praying for Elle that his owner will return to him.

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