Elsie is my first dog who changed fate

I didn’t have a dog for a long time. Just monstrously long – as much as five or six years. And I began to think that I never would, despite all my attempts to convince my parents otherwise. But one day a miracle happened…

History in brief 

I don’t know which angel whispered to my relatives that the child was missing, but on one truly beautiful May day we went to the Storozhevsky market, where in those ancient times everyone who wanted to sell or buy something four-legged or feathered, or just stare at different animals. As dad always assured me later – just to get rid of me.

We were about to leave without buying anyone, but, apparently, the Universe intervened, and quite by chance our attention was attracted by a small gathering of people staring at something incredibly small and funny. It was she, a tiny, greyish-red lump fighting furiously with her mistress’s shoelace.

I fell in love with her at first sight, and, of course, there was no question of leaving just like that. We were assured that it was a purebred miniature pinscher, the purchase was made, and I solemnly dragged my new friend to the car. That’s how we met.

Young years 

I must say, we enjoyed all the joys and charms of growing up and transitional canine age in full. Even after many years, my parents recalled with a shudder that they were afraid to return home from work, foreseeing what awaited them. And it must be admitted that we got a puppy of rare ingenuity and enterprise.

No, with regard to accustoming to cleanliness, there were no problems with this. Elsie regularly went outside and did not try to spoil the floor. The problem was different: during the day she was completely alone. And, of course, she was bored. Considering that she completely ignored all toys such as balls, squeakers and other nonsense, and despised any games, both with people and with her own kind, she had to look for entertainment herself. And she approached this issue with all her inherent seriousness.

First of all, the dog decided to make repairs in the apartment. Apparently, the apartment seemed uncomfortable. Therefore, having taken a fancy to one of the walls in the corridor, she began to rip off the wallpaper from it, and, despite her midget height, she reached quite high, so that the first person who came home was presented with a delightful picture: bare walls and finely torn pieces of wallpaper, neatly folded piled up in the middle of the corridor. Elsie herself was extremely proud of the work done and was very surprised when the owners did not share her point of view. However, she was not going to give up so easily, and the next day the same thing happened, and on the third, and on the fourth …

This went on until all the walls in the corridor were a rather pitiful sight. However, they decided not to glue the new wallpaper yet, but to wait until the puppy “goes crazy”. Just during the day they began to close the doors to other rooms and suggested that since there was nothing more to rip off the walls, she would stop being harmful.

Naive! Bored of being alone, Elsie took a closer look at the corridor, concluded that there was probably nothing left to take from the walls, and decided to accustom us to order. I don’t remember whose shoes were the first victim, but after that they began to carefully hide the shoes.

Disappointed by the fact that any of her initiatives does not find not only support, but even elementary understanding, Elsie, however, did not give up. Once, having come home, the parents were horrified to find shreds of cotton wool on the floor. It turned out that she ripped open the door trim from the bottom and pulled out all the filler.

The chair that stood in the corridor fell next in an unequal multi-day battle. First, the wooden armrests were eaten, then the legs were sharpened, and, in the end, he suffered the sad fate of the door – gutting.

This went on for six months, and then Elsie changed a lot. All dirty tricks are in the past. And we got the best dog in the world that you could dream of.

“Good man Elsie!”

It so happened that there was no time for everyone to engage in purposeful training of Elsie, so in addition to the commands “Walk!” and “Eat!”, which she loved very much, our dog was not trained in anything. However, this was not required. Never before or since have I met a living creature who would approach everything with such sanity and prudence, who would anticipate all our desires, but at the same time not lose his self-esteem. And Elsie was just that.

Photo from the personal archive of the author

Of course, she was not a pygmy pinscher – an ordinary mongrel, although in her appearance one could find signs of both a chihuahua and the same pinscher. Perhaps she was not very beautiful (although for me she remains the most charming dog). But one thing is for sure – any lion would envy her brave, faithful, little heart. As a three-month-old puppy, she rushed into Viliya and, despite the fast current and rather impressive width, swam across the river when we crossed to the other side for mushrooms, and they thought to leave her for several hours near the tent. And when we tied her there another time and took my grandmother to the train, Elsie ran after the car for several kilometers, breaking the leash, and found us at the station.

Wherever we went, she accompanied us everywhere, having traveled all over Belarus – from Brest to Orsha. But once we went to Moscow for a week and left the dog in the care of my grandmother, and when we arrived, it turned out that she was seriously ill.

Or rather, we did not learn about it immediately, but only the next day, on the way to Viliya. In the car, she suddenly became ill. We stopped at a nearby village and found a veterinarian who said she had pneumonia. And we began to take Elsie to injections every day. At first, the dog was very ill: she lay motionless in the car, refused to eat and drink, but her will to live nevertheless won out – one fine day, staggering from weakness, thin as a skeleton, she expressed a desire to go for a walk with us. And since then it has gotten better.

Elsie, like almost all mutts, was very cautious – she was afraid of thunderstorms, bypassed other dogs and strangers, but boldly rushed into battle, ignoring the superior forces of the enemy, when she stood up for someone’s defense.

But more than anything, she loved to eat, and was a rare gourmet. When they tried to feed the dog soup, she would carefully select vegetables and pile them up next to the bowl, and then eat what tasted better.

However, with all the love for food, she still remained a serious and incorruptible dog. She did not like strangers, and attempts to treat her by even our acquaintances were perceived as a bribe and a personal insult, which she made clear, bursting into indignant barking.

Despite the fact that Elsie was extremely serious from early childhood, she still possessed a sense of humor, although this did not please some people, since her favorite pastime was to scare them. Our upstairs neighbor, a terrible drunkard and dog-hater, was especially hard hit. Elsie couldn’t stand drunkards at all, but he was still dissatisfied with the presence of dogs in the entrance all the time and constantly yelled that they should all be put on the skins. Dogs in general are very sensitive to how they are treated, and Elsie knew perfectly well what he was like. Therefore, every time she saw him, she sneaked up from behind and loudly said: “WOW!”. Just once, but what a bass! One would have thought that there was at least a shepherd or a Doberman. The neighbor jumped in horror, and Elsie, quite pleased with herself, went about her business.

In general, she liked to create the illusion of the presence of a big dog in the apartment, trying to bark as bass as possible (although sometimes her voice broke and almost squeaked), while, as a rule, she hid in the closet, so those who came for the first time always looked around, expecting to see something quite impressive and terrible, and were very surprised when they finally saw such a small and completely harmless creature.

She was also an amazing mother – both to her children and to her adopted ones. 

Elsie was a miracle – a little firefly that lit up our lives. They say that truth speaks through the mouth of a child. My nephew, being two years old, once proclaimed: “Good man Elsie!” Yes, that’s how it was.

End…

Elsie’s name is short for English Alice – Alice, although no one has ever called her that. But she entered my life as Alice – in Wonderland, opened a new wonderful world, allowed me to see that there is love without conditions, friendship without betrayal and loyalty without borders. “She’s like a person!” some exclaimed. “What smart eyes your dog has!” we often hear from others. She was not only smart, she was wise. And kind. And she loved this world. She must have been perfect.

She has been by my side for most of my adult life, and I couldn’t imagine a world without her. It seemed to me that it would always be like this and nothing would change. But everything changed – she was gone.

She left for a long time and hard, perhaps giving us the opportunity to accept it, come to terms with her departure, but these six months were one of the most difficult periods in my life. She developed diabetes, her kidneys began to fail …

And yet she wanted to live, she really wanted to. But then she began to have pains, she moaned and cried like a person. And on June 13, 1998, Elsie passed away …

There is a cartoon called “All Dogs Go to Heaven”. It seems to me that if there is a paradise for people, then it must be for dogs, by all means – otherwise it is terribly unfair. In any case, I want to believe it. Perhaps I would rather believe in a paradise for dogs. And if so, then she is definitely there – strong and healthy, basking in the sun on the green grass, as she always loved.

Many years have passed. You get used to everything – and we almost got used to living without Elsie. Almost … But every time I see an old chair in the country with traces of her teeth (marks of “transitional age”), it seems to me that a small red-haired dog with white is about to jump off it, wagging its tail-steering wheel and run up to doors, inviting for a walk …