Obituary to Madog
One week ago, left this world, you have.
It was the 21st of May when the phone rang in the middle of the night. Confused I stumbled out of bed to switch off the alarm and get ready for work but the next moment, before I could even grab my iPhone I knew that it was not the sound of the alarm but the ring tone of a telephone call I did not ever want to receive. The veterinarian at the other end of the line then told me that you had sadly passed away shortly after she provided medical care to you. When she came back from looking after another patient in the clinic, you had stopped breathing. Your weak heart had lost the fight against the relentless hemolysis that had started probably five days earlier. At that moment the vets could not yet conclude if any of the applied therapies would have been the appropriate way to fight the unknown intruder that killed your red blood cells, since the last tests of the analyzes took 48 hours.
For me as the helpless witness of your suffering all started on Friday morning just before I had to leave for work. Usually you never refrained from eating your meal, but that morning you just lay down and did not even put your nose in the bowl. It was with uncertain feelings that I left you in the flat, because it seemed to me that I might already have remarked a sign of apathic behaviour on Thursday evening. I wished you well telling you that I would call the vet when returning from work in the evening if you would not show any sign of improvement by then.
As I passed my whole workday with our department in a secondary school (that day of reflection had been planned well in advance so I did not want to miss it) I managed only to return home ten hours later to look after you. I was shocked to find you lying in the hallway next to something vomited apparently containing blood, so I immediately called your vet and took you to her for a medical examination.
Both the vet and her colleague took a lot of time for the exams, they took blood for a blood test, X-rayed and ultrasonically examined your internal organs. Then you received meds both against auto-immune and bacterial diseases. As there was also a suspicion that a parasite might be the germ that had provoked the jaundice your body was showing, your blood was sent to a specialized laboratory and I could take you back home. In anticipation of the results I should give you the medications during the weekend and return with you to the vet on Monday.
Saturday you were even more apathic than Friday and it was obvious that your urine contained blood. But as you took your meds with some food I still had hope that they would help you to get better. On Sunday morning however you would not touch any food let alone the meds. At that moment I could not endure to see you further suffer and I began to feel terribly worried about losing you so I took you to the emergency room of the animal clinic in Bettembourg.
The on-duty doctor was very worried when she heard my report and she told me that you were in danger of life. I implored her under tears to do everything possible to save you. You were hospitalized immediately and I was kept informed of your condition on a daily basis. The veterinarian responsible for you told me that your condition was still critical on Monday, as your body was continually fighting the hemolysis by producing new red blood cells. But the blood count was still too low, so that unfortunately there was no sign that any of the three medications (at the clinic you had preventively been given a third treatment against possible parasites) would assist your body to fight the germ. This fight was getting more and more difficult for you as since about six months you had to deal with a heart weakness, the latest in the series of health problems you had to confront since I had you as a puppy back in 2011. On the 21st of May around 1:10 you finally lost that fight.
After I got the message from your death I decided to take a day off at the office. I wanted to say goodbye to you though you could neither hear my sobbing voice nor feel my trembling hand at the moment of farewell in the clinic when the caring veterinarian brought me your lifeless body into the room. In all these moments of sorrow I am grateful that the last image I will remember of you reminds me of your sleep, as it is one of the most peaceful images I have internalised.
Several days after your death I finally got the results of both laboratory analyzes. Since all were negative, the most likely cause of your deadly disease is probably due to a tumor. Life’s good, but not fair at all.
You were my best friend and my most faithful companion, dear Madog. You were always happy to greet me and your rejoicing always seemed to be proportional to my absence time. You were such a proud dog and the circumstance that you lost your eyesight could never cloud your joy of life. You have made me laugh and gave me happiness in my own darkest times. Now that you have transformed into the Light I hope that you will join Momo and play among the stars. I hope I see you again sometime. I am still suffering your loss, but I am grateful that you were by my side for more than 7 years. RIP, my dearest friend.
