Vaya Con Dios, Mi Carina

You are all familiar with this adorable face:

Last week, my sweet Elli died at 15 years old. She almost made 15.5, but her combination of ailments finally got to her. We were heartbroken, even though it was obvious that she was rapidly declining for the last few months.

I adopted Elli in 2012 as a rescue. She was a ten year old senior, and had nowhere to go. She was given to me by a friend who is a veterinarian. She had been surrendered and spent 2.5 months in the animal hospital. When I got her, she looked awful, and I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But I continued to work with her and do physical therapy on her, and she perked up and lived for five more happy years. She was also my first tiny dog, and I quickly found out why people love tiny dogs.

Elli had lots of friends. I was her BFF.

I took her out with me a lot. She even went on a vacation with us to San Diego, which might have been the best time of her life. Doc was her next best friend:

She got along with Kenni and Vinni, and was actually the alpha.

All children went nuts over her. I think it's because she looked like a stuffed animal come to life.

She wasn't always thrilled with the attention, but she was a good sport about it.

She was also gainfully employed. Every other Thursday, my housekeeper Amy came by, so Elli had to go. She had a tendency to run out the front door and head down the street to Subway. So Doc took her to his office, and she became the spokesmodel for Beach Medical.

We practiced our posing.

Elli hung out in the back where Doc's private office was, at least until someone wanted to play with her or walk her. But the last few months, she was too frail for that, so she mostly slept.

But she did have time to get a boyfriend on the side - Dr Turner.

She always tried to stow away whenever I went on a business trip.

Her other great love was food.

But her gluttony occasionally caused problems. In the five years she was with us, she had:
1) exploded anal glands
2) Pneumonia
3) Kennel cough
4) Congestive heart failure
5) Anasarca
6) Pancreatitis
7) impaction.
8) Cardiomegaly with murmur

You can see how arched her back had become from arthritis. She also hated to have her nails trimmed, and the only way to keep her from biting the poor vet ladies was to burrito her in a towel. But they actually liked her at the vet.

She also hated baths and water of any kind.

Nevertheless, she did go swimming a few times, and was a better swimmer than Kenni. She never got knocked into or fell into the pool.

She had a lot of clothes, just like me.

She found one of her costumes to be particularly odious. But it sure was funny.

She loved flowers.

This is how we mostly saw her for the last couple of months. Either pleading for something to eat

Or curled up snoozing and dreaming of being able to eat pizza again.

Well, adios my tiny love. She is now up in heaven with Delila, Black Jack, Jackpot, Domino and Bella. She also has teeth again and no pancreatitis, so she can eat pizza and egg rolls until she pops.