While we loved each sit which preceded our seventh and most recent, our time in The Woodlands, a ritzy community north of Houston, promised to stand out from the moment we booked it. Why? Because of Ellie the Beagle! For those who don't know the story of how our adventure came to be, now would be the time to visit the 'Adventure Backstory' tab under the banner heading (link here for cell phone users). In short, that chronology describes how we adopted, fell in love with, and -- under unbelievably tragic circumstances -- lost our beloved Beagle, Roody (photo below). He was our furry son and the sweetest dog on Earth, and his sudden death in July of 2021 left us reeling into October. It was at that low point when we cooked up the idea of traveling the country and loving on other pets as we had on him. We hoped we'd have the chance to take care of a Beagle during our journey, so our anticipation built as we approached the Woodlands on March 22, the morning after our super fun night in Pattison (last post).
True to Beagle form, Ellie started howling as soon as we rang the doorbell. Fur momma Amy received us a moment later, and the protective hound proved perfectly friendly once we were inside. We knew she was a senior dog from the photos Amy posted on the Trusted Housesitters website, but we weren't prepared for how little she was, a frame very similar to Roody! Super curious and friendly, everything about her immediately reminded us of our furry son. Needless to say, we immediately began doting on her.
Cute as Ellie was, she was only half of our Woodlands responsibility. Feline brother Henry stayed hidden while Amy toured us around the house, and we only caught brief glimpses of him through our fist day in the house.
Henry slowly warmed up to us, and by Day 3 he was was rubbing up against Sonia while she worked and pestering me while I fumbled about in the kitchen. Neither of us could resist this furry face!
Henry was entirely self-sufficient save for feeding, but Ellie required two 30-minute walks a day. Our most recent sits didn't allow for a lot of dog walking, so it was a nice change to have Ellie run us around the neighborhood. Well, run might be an exaggeration; she slowly sniffed her way since Beagles have to investigate EVERYTHING. Roody operated the exact same way, so it was familiar territory. Ellie also followed us around the house like Roody did and put herself to bed at 10pm like he did. She also hung out in the kitchen when we were cooking, making herself available to clean up any morsel of food that happened to drop on the floor. However, it was meal times when we saw the most similarities. Like Roody, Ellie popped up to remind us when meal time was approaching. When we walked toward the food bin, she started doing a beagle dance and twirl, followed by some emphatic foot stomping as her meal was being prepared. All of this anticipation preceded a 30 second session of absolute meal inhalation. We laughed as hard as we used to laugh when Roody went through the same daily food routine. With every minute we spent with Ellie, it was like we were reliving our time with Roody.
Ellie's dinner spins turned into a gif
Ellie, the star of the sit!
This sit was short (5D/4N) and included only one weekend day, so we didn't have much time to explore the surrounding area. We spent most of our time kicking around the neighborhood and were thoroughly impressed with The Woodlands. With huge homes, several artificial lakes, and loads of open space, it's clear why it's the most exclusive, expensive, and charming of the Houston suburbs. That it was 75 degrees and sunny each day helped as well. We endured some serious winter weather across the Mountain West, particularly in Colorado, so it was really sweet to be out in shorts and t-shirts for the first time since we departed California in January.
Ellie standing by the gate, excited for her walk
Ellie watching the world go by from the front porch
In the wake of Roody's passing, one of Sonia's friends commissioned a small painting of him. The artist used the first photo in the this post as inspiration, and the resulting portrait has accompanied us on our journey. While Ellie and Roody will never meet in real-life, at the end of our sit we decided to introduced them to the best of our ability.
Whew - we needed some tissues for this one. As we packed up our stuff and headed toward the door, Ellie stood by the window watching us leave. Just as she welcomed us, she let out a big ol' Beagle "aroooo" to say goodbye. We knew time with any Beagle would be special, but Ellie sniffed and danced her way into our hearts like we never could have imagined. It's the first time that we started thinking that maybe someday we might be able to love another dog as much as we did Roody. Maybe...
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