“Elsa always reminded me of Grizabella from the Broadway musical CATS.
In the play, Grizabella was a very old cat, withered by her age to the point
that she no longer resembled the proud, carefree, flamboyant cat of her youth.
I always pictured Elsa that way, too. I met Elsa when she was already 16 years
old. Whenever I came by, I would always see her resting in the underbrush
of the cat-a-tat she shared with Great Pretender. For me, she, more than
any other, was the cat that reinforced all the animal observation skills we
had been taught as new volunteers. Since I knew she was very old, I
was always careful to check her respiration and paid close attention to her
eating habits. I was so surprised when, for a couple of days, I came
upon her unabashedly drinking from her water dish. Little did I know
that the end was near for her and those moments watching her would soon be
gone. I was there the day she died and it was sad to see such a majestic creature
pass through my life. As Grizabella’s song ‘Memory’ says, ‘Let
the memory live again.’ The memory of Elsa’s will always
be in my heart”…..Julie, Senior Volunteer Keeper
From Elsa's Bio Page
Female Northern Bobcat
Date of Birth: 4/88 - 10/19/04
Elsa was purchased at an auction in 1992 and brought to Big Cat Rescue. She originally came from South Dakota, where she had been kept outside in a pen with no shelter from the freezing temperatures. Her ears were so badly frost bitten that they fell off. She appears older than what we were led to believe. She spends her days sleeping and eating in her large, 1200 square foot cat-a-tat with her neutered buddy, The Great Pretender. In 10/99 she had an abscessed tooth and under anesthesia it was discovered that she only has a couple of teeth left. She is fed a soft diet and is obviously not going hungry.