Ah Elsa, I really thought she would outlive the others. I had visions of her as a grumpy old lady walking the streets of Sicily with me in the early morning. I would dream of putting her in one of those doggy backpacks and a helmet while Rodrigo drove us around Europe on his motorbike.
She was so healthy and fit. I was not ready for this. Although, I’ve been preparing myself for the day when each of them would die one by one, but I never thought Elsa would go so soon. The Fantastic Four is one less.
We were not planning to keep Elsa. However, When Belafonte died, we decided to keep her. I just looked back at the first post about Elsa. I can’t help but laugh at how she was compared to how she grew up. Elsa was always the healer. Whenever anyone had an injury or feeling sad, Elsa was right there giving licks to ease the pain.
Impish Elsa
She was also very intelligent which meant she became bored easily. As many know, a bored dog gets into trouble. In the house she was fine always sleeping. Outside her high prey drive would cause me grief. Marvin would always follow her and that’s how she became “The Brain”. Marvin being “Pinky”. On walks with the 4, Rodrigo and I had to be on the lookout for any small animal; cats, small dogs, and of course city rats. We had to be ready to distract Elsa or she will try to escape and chase after the small animal. This would of course get Marvin excited. Suddenly, they all are barking and jumping causing a scene. Even when we were not with the dogs Rodrigo and I would still spot small animals and comment on how Elsa would love that one. Elsa was a true Giant Schnauzer. The Schnauzer was bred for pest removal, cow herding, and guarding. She wasn’t much of a guard dog. However, she did try to herd cows when we were in the country. Unfortunately when she saw a cow or herds of cows or even horses, she would herd them far away from us. Well, maybe it was more like she chased them for a half mile or so. There were so many times when I thought she was lost forever because it would take her some time to return. She never never came when I called her. She locked in on her objective and didn’t stop.
She also LOVED to swim and fetch sticks and tennis balls. She could play fetch all day long. Elsa and Flora didn’t get along often but when they were fetching they were the perfect team. They were true sisters. They had an inseparable bond, but they also had their intense differences. Flora typically instigated the disagreements. Oftentimes it was because Elsa was lagging behind and Flora would push Elsa along to keep up with the group. Typically Elsa would walk away when things got tense, but there was one day when Elsa had enough. I noticed things were tense and I jumped in at the wrong moment. I put my leg in between them and Elsa bit me. Years later I still I have a scar from her bite. It’s my forever memory of her.
You could give Elsa a Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon and she would sniff it, think, sniff again, think, sniff, then slowly take it and put it aside for when she was ready to eat it. The others would try to go over and check to see if her Filet Mignon was still there. She would growl, protecting her food. No one messed with Elsa.
One of my favorite stories about her was with this pack of street dogs. Several years ago, we would have to deal with this pack of 5 dogs. We called them Chico and the gang. There was Chico, Pretty Boy, Whitey Bulger, Adolfo, and Kevin Hart. (I named them obv.) They would bark and follow us for several blocks each morning. They never got too close to us but it was stressful. One day Kevin Hart, a short, black, muscular dog, nipped Elsa. She swung around and yelped. I pulled her away and shooed Kevin away. The next day we were at Plaza Colon. The dogs were off leash. Chico and the gang showed up. Elsa started to display subservience towards Kevin. I thought it was odd. Rodrigo started to get nervous. We moved towards them ready to intervene if Kevin or the rest of the gang attacked her. However, once Elsa was able to get Kevin’s guard down, she attacked him! Flora, Zena and Marvin surrounded the two, keeping Chico’s gang from helping Kevin. Obviously after Elsa gave Kevin a few bites we pulled her off.
Elsa had that way about her. Everyone underestimated her. She was the runt of the litter. She had a maternal twin, Persephanie. The two of them were always pushed away by the other pups in the litter. Oftentimes, I would have to pull either Bela, Marvin, Apollo, or Dmitri off of Zena to let the twins eat. When they weaned off of Zena I made a separate bowl for Elsa and Persephanie. They eventually came to expect me to assist and would wait patiently for me to feed them.
As Elsa grew older, she got her revenge on her greedy siblings. While everyone was eating, she would growl at a location. This would alert the others. She would get more intense which would case the others to run and bark towards the direction she was looking. Once they all left to see what it was that concerned Elsa, she would steal all their food.
Hole in My Heart
Elsa has been gone only a few days. After 11 years, it is hard to explain the hole that sits in our house. For 11 years, she would sleep stretched across our pillows with her paws hitting our heads, and snoring in our ears. God, did she love to sleep which she earned the nickname Sleeping Beauty.
Eleven years of playing ball with her. Eleven years of trying to call her back from chasing something. Eleven years of her barking when it was time for treats. Eleven years of her coming home from a walk and sitting on our back stairs to bark at all the dogs on our block. Eleven years.
I keep thinking about something Janis Joplin said at her concert in Calgary July 1970 just after she sang “Ball and Chain”. My dad inherited this album Joplin in Concert from his best friend Jimmy Reed. I would listen to it all the time ever since I could remember. She had many life anecdotes but this one stuck with me. “If you got a cat for one day man, say maybe you want a cat for 365 days right. You ain’t got a cat for 365 days. You got it for one day man. Well I tell you that one day man better be your life. Because you know you can cry about the other 364 but you gonna lose that one day and that’s all you got. You gotta call that love.” I got 11 years with Elsa. I’ll cry about the missing other years later.
Details
I am assuming some of you would like to know the details of her death. So here it is:
February 1st Saturday night, I noticed Elsa had swollen glands, conjunctivitis, and a serious ear infection. We called our vet. They said to watch her and if it seems serious to take her to a 24 hour hospital. If not, come in on Monday. We saw the vet on Monday. She started to have trouble walking. Based on her swollen glands on her throat and legs, they assumed it was lymphoma. They took X-rays, ultrasounds, blood samples, and biopsies. They give her a cortisone shot. They gave us a couple more shots to give her while we wait for the results. Few days pass and the exam results show that she doesn’t have lymphoma. We celebrated. We booked an appointment with an oncologist for the upcoming Wednesday just to confirm. Continued with the medication.
Saturday night February 8 Marvin won’t stop bothering Elsa. He keeps licking her. We check out Elsa to see what is Marvin’s obsession. Elsa has lesions all over her back and sides. She is having issues walking.
We go to the vet on Monday. They give her more cortisone.
Tuesday her lesions are worse. We go back to the vet. He suggests we go to a dermatologist.
Another week of visiting various veterinarians taking blood, biopsies, giving us medication, and waiting for results that show nothing. On Saturday February 15 the dermatologist asked us to go to this special blood testing place to see how her white and red blood cell numbers look. Sunday we get a call from the dermatologist telling us to rush her to the nearest 24 hour hospital because according to her blood tests she has kidney failure.
So on Elsa’s 11th birthday February 16, she is admitted to the hospital overnight. The next day take her to another hospital under the suggestion of our dermatologist. After the first 24 hours we are able to visit her. She doesn’t look good. However the vet wants to keep her another day to review the results of her blood tests. The next day we take her home. She is holding on but barely. We called our local vet to euthanize. We spent the whole day with Elsa on our couch. We would alternate having her head on our lap. Marvin sat beside her. At the end of the day, our vet arrived. At 7:20 pm February 19th, Elsa took three deep breaths, pooped a ton, and died. Sort of sums up life; you breathe, you poop, then you die.
My pretty little Elsa
Sweet Dreams Sleeping Beauty, until we see each other again.
running with dogs 