THE ELLA FILES
Who’s Ella? Well, she’s the dog Mark Lantz adopted back in the spring of 2014. She was a rescue, about three years old at the time, who’d been rehabbed by a nice foster family up here in the Detroit area.
Mixed breed, she’s foremost a Plott hound. That’s a kind of scent hound (Wikipedia tells us) bred by the Plott family in what is now Germany way back in the 1700s for the purpose of hunting wild boar (mmmm, pork).
The Plott family moved to the Carolinas and continued breeding their dogs, which are medium sized at best, but strong and fast. The Plott hound is the state dog of North Carolina. Which, all things coming full circle, is where Ella was rescued from, having apparently been treated miserably by some ignorant piece of trash, who obviously beat her regularly (she’s shy around anything that looks like a stick) and underfed her to the point of nearly killing her.
She can be a very sweet dog, but Ella certainly has her quirks.
She loves the sound of her own bark (which is pretty booming, given her size). She will lay in the sun well past the point where you’d think she’d stroke out. She’s the most transparent yet successful finagler of cookies ever put on this earth. And when you’re not slipping her cookies, she’s not above giving you her “you’re dead to me” look.
A few years ago, Tom Parr put together these videos of Ella being Ella. Just for the fun of it. Which we’re big on here.
So have a watch.
But remember: No humans were hurt in the making of these movies.
Offering a behind-the-scenes peek at Ella’s world, The Ella Files is a cinéma vérité exploration of the challenges, successes, joys and frustrations faced by a working ad agency professional. Accessorized with a single GoPro camera and followed by a minimal video and sound crew, Ella goes through the paces of her work life, while offering glimpses of the real dog underneath all the responsibilities.
Episode 1: The Ambush
Episode 2: The Frenemy
Episode 3: The Reward
Episode 4: The Bone
Episode 5: The Beggar
Episode 6: The Sunny Day