Neil Patrick Harris mourns ‘massive loss’ of family dog Ella after freak accident

Neil Patrick Harris mourns the ‘huge loss’ of a beloved furry family member.

The 51-year-old Emmy Award winner announced the death of his family’s 4-year-old golden retriever, Eleanor “Ella” Menopee, in his final interview. Wondercade newsletter after ‘the most bizarre accidents’ happened while the dog was with the sitter.

He explained that her boyfriend found her “in the front yard, lying in the grass” after “a tree branch somehow got caught in her collar. When she tried to get it off, she rolled on the ground and the branch got wrapped around her neck.”

“Ella is, was, our golden retriever,” Harris wrote. “Her full name was Eleanor Menopee Burtka-Harris, her first name in honor of David’s maternal grandmother (Eleanor Zajas) and her middle name was chosen by my quick-witted father, who thought it would be funny to combine it with her nickname (say Ella Menopee out loud, it’s brilliant).”

He remembered getting Ella as a puppy in 2020, a christmas present from himself and his husband David Burtka to their twins Gideon and Harper, now 13.

He explained that her boyfriend found her “in the front yard, lying in the grass” after “a tree branch somehow got caught in her collar, and when she tried to get it off, she rolled on the ground and the branch wrapped itself around her neck.”

“It was a morning I’ll never forget – we were practically living in a Norman Rockwell painting,” Harris added. “I’ve rarely been happier.”

Harris wrote of Ella: ‘She was barely four years old. She was full of life. We’ve seen dogs die before, but they were old and blind and incontinent, so for them it was only a matter of time. Sad, yes, but inevitable.

“But Ella was so young. She lived to play. … She never stopped laughing. And now she’s gone. Just like that,” he continued.

“It was the most bizarre accident. Self-strangulation? By a fallen tree branch?? I’ve never heard of anything like it in my life.

“Ella walked freely and confidently around the property every day — as do all our dogs. They are farm dogs,” Harris wrote. “So how did it happen? Why did it happen? If I had been home, could I have prevented it? Pointless questions, I suppose.

“It just…happens. Sometimes things just happen. And I think the job now is to process it as authentically and effectively as possible. And then, somehow, move on. There’s no other option, really — to try to make sense of it somehow, well, that doesn’t make sense. It’s pointless,” he added.

Harris continued, “The best thing I can do is just feel, ideally without judgment, and then let those feelings pass. And try to model grief in an effective way for my family.”

The former How I Met Your Mother contestant said Burtka, 49, whom he married in 2014, is “understandably very upset,” adding, “Of our four wonderful dogs, Ella was his ‘favorite.'”

“He was the one who took her every morning, not me,” Harris added. “I don’t really know what to say to him, I just try to give him space to grieve and breathe, to hold him when he cries.

“Ella was so young. She lived to play. … She never stopped laughing. And now she’s gone. Just like that,” he continued.

Harris recalled getting Ella as a puppy in 2020, a Christmas gift from himself and his husband David Burtka to their twins Gideon and Harper, now 13

Earlier in April, he celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first date with Burtka

“And then there are our children. I have absolutely no idea what to say to the children, or how they’re going to react.”

Harris continued, “We’re picking them up from camp on Tuesday, which is the day before you read this, but as I type this they still don’t know anything. Harper and Gideon loved Ella very much.”

The family also shares a terrier mix Gidget, a Chihuahua-French bulldog mix Spike, and a French bulldog Chunk.

Harris celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first date with Burtka in April.