A tribute to Elsa

         I was 12 when we got Elsa. I can still remember going down to the mall in Pocatello and there being this woman with a box of puppies sitting on a bench. I was holding this cute puppy and the mall security guy was telling this woman she needed to leave. Elsa was the last puppy she had. She felt like family from that moment, and she was.
         We had three three year olds it seemed like for a while. Adam and Alyssa literally grew up not knowing life without Elsa. She was always my dog, even when I went off to college and then got married. Whenever I came home she was always the first to greet me and was always excited to see me. She would lay next to Mom while she was sick and it seemed that she was trying her best to comfort her and make her happy and in many ways she did just that. After Mom died Elsa seem to take it hard she would lay around the house and sigh these great big sighs. That was when she started showing her age.
       Elsa died October 6, 2012. She was 15. Before she died she had lost a lot of her hearing, and her eyesight was bad (I watched her walk into the fridge door about a week before) The vet had told us that she had many teeth that needed pulled, and when you petted her you could feel the tumors, and to top it off holding her bladder seemed to be a greater and greater challange. We had discussed making an appointment to put her to sleep, and I think Elsa knew what was going to happen. A week later, before we were able the appointment, she was gone. Our neighbors found her in the road and thought she had been hit, another neighbor (a P.A.) thought she had a stroke. She had no broken bones and was not scratched up at all so I think he was probably right. I was grateful that fate interceded and I didn't have to be the one to make that choice for Elsa.
         Everybody who knew Elsa loved her. I remember Brandon would microwave her dog food for her so she would feel spoiled. It made the house reek. Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen loved to have her visit and my mom and her siblings even got them a schnauzer because they like Elsa so much. When Elsa had puppies two of the four ended up with neighbors who liked Elsa. She was a very sweet, quiet, good natured  animal. We will all remember the way she kicked her leg when she wanted to play. She was all of our best friend and she will be missed.