Essi came to us about fife years ago. I got her from my friend Mike. They were moving all over the place and couldn't keep her any longer. Since then the sweet and intelligent pincher has been a part of our family (the head of it and, it seems, the most wise).
She has been the greatest thing ever. She would point out what she wanted so precisely there could be no mistake. And her retribution would be terrible to behold, should we choose not to obey.
She took care of me when I had the stomach flu, she never left from my side even though we were at our summer cottage where she loved to sniff around in the bushes. When we went to a walk in the winter she looked as though she was taking me out. "Gotta walk that stupid thing again. Aww man, I hate winter." There could be no sweeter thing in the world to me.
And two years ago I noticed how her lymph glands were slightly swollen. The vet said we should monitor the situation, no worries. A year later she starter to chew her food a bit more that usual. This time our vet saw what we had failed to see. There was a tumor in her mouth. Almost always bad he said. There would be nothing he could do. He looked grim.
Despite the little more chewing she was fine. She started to get some saliva and phlegm in her mouth every now and then after a while. Oh how she hated it when we took it away. Must have felt nasty.
Then, a few months back, her eating got worse. Some of the food would get stuck in her mouth and she'd try and scratch it away. She usually let us help her and clean her mouth from phlegm when it happened. The phlegm the tumor produced did smell quite awful.
Then she started wheezing slightly. It never slowed her down. She was just as cheerful as always. She didnät like it when we would "blow her nose" when we were on a walk though. We fed her by hand to help her, she was starting to have difficulties picking food up from her cup. We put her water bowl on top of an upside-down jar to lift it up for her.
About a fortnight ago her eating plummeted. We had hed her by hand already, but now she had trouble eating that way. There was a lot of phlegm, too. By the end of last week she could barely eat. We took her to the vet once again, to get something for the phlegm. He prescribed her some antibiotics for it. She was wery tired at that point too. She was having trouble sleeping because the tumor would stop her from breathing if she didn't lay her head down just right. She had had an abscess the size of a baseball in her neck too. I was relieved when we got home from the vet. I went to my room as usual. After a while I ran to the kitchen at the scared cry of my mother. She was feeding her and the food had got stuck in her throat. She gasped for breath in panic and the collapsed, senseless. I managed to revive her and clear her throat.
She was never the same after that. So tired it was sad. And she couldn't eat. We gave her water with a syringe and tried to ease her discomfort.
Every time she looked at me I could see her begging for help. I couldn't do anything. It broke my heart.
We called the vet and he came to our house. At 11 AM in monday 27 July her suffering ended. Ours remain, deeper than ever since her passing. We will never forget what a magnificent creature she was. She will forever live in our hearts.