18 November 2007

Elsa 1994 - 2007 (May she rest forever in peace)



Our much-beloved Basset hound Elsa died today. For those of you who knew me when I lived in New York, you know how much I doted on her. She was a beautiful dog with lots of sparkling personality to match; like her namesake Elsa Maxwell, she had the innate gift of befriending anyone, including those who claimed to dislike dogs. I cast her as herself in my not-yet-released feature film GHOSTED, so it's going to be hard for me to see her in the movie when I return to editing its final cut. As my former partner Tom said in his email, "We had to put Elsa to sleep this morning. She developed what appeared to be lung cancer, and was beginning to suffer. She was nearly blind, couldn't walk very well, and had been panting for about a week. She virtually stopped eating and had lost about 10 pounds over the course of a week. [My sister] Marcia and [her wife] Lynn took her to the vet for us--we couldn't do it. There was much crying on all our parts, but it really was time. She didn't suffer at all at the end, they gave her a sedative and off she went, very peacefully." She was thirteen years old. The picture of her above is the last time I was with her in February 2007; the one below is when she was an adorable puppy in June 1994 who bounced right into our lives and earned our great love and affection. It was so hard to leave her back in 2005 when I moved from New York to Minneapolis, so it's even harder to let her go now. It may take me yet another box of kleenex before I can talk about her without emotion in my voice. No words can convey how much I will miss her.

3 comments:

MoBhlog said...

So sorry to hear about Elsa, Raymond.

I know how much you loved her. It pains me to see you in such pain.

I felt the same thing when we had to put Schroeder to sleep. :-( It's gut-wrenching. Pets aren't just animals--they're family.

:-)

Patty said...

Aww, so sorry about your sweet Elsa!

We've lost 6 "furkids" of our own over the course of our 18-year marriage and it doesn't get easier ever.

I love that photo of you with Elsa!

Raymond Luczak said...

Patty and Lou:

Thank you for all your kind condolences.

I'm still trying to get used to the idea that I will never see Elsa again. Tom said that he will give me half of her ashes, so that will be nice to have.

Sometimes I think it's a crime that dogs are biologically designed to have such short lives when we humans live way too long, you know?

*sighs*

Raymond