Uncle Puppy's Death (6)

Uncle Puppy's Death (6)

Uncle Puppy had an obstinate tumor on his head, all right; but that was by no means fatal, because he was still strong and had no difficulties at all for the ordinary life. But this irresponsible intern, together with equally irresponsible Dr. Fox must have given Puppy some sort of strong medicine, after a long period (nearly five months) of indecisive treatments. After this treatment, Puppy began to drink a lot of water, and he became weak very quickly. Our mother became anxious, and took Puppy to the hospital again towards the end of September 1997. The foolish intern, in all probability, gave again a wrong treatment. Without paying any attention to the state of the dog, he gave an intravenous drip; we do not know what sort of medicine he added to this drip, because we do not have Puppy's case record (still in the hospital, but we never visited again!). Puppy was unable to stand when he came home, so our parents let him lie on a matress in the entrance hall.

Around the midnight he became unconscious, and although the parents were very anxious, they decided to wait until the morning for taking Puppy to the hospital again, because the hospital was closed. But, alas, when the father saw him at dawn, he was not breathing any more, although his body was still warm.

[Uncle Puppy wrapped in a blanket, with flowers of fragrant olive, October 1, 1997]

His face looked very beautiful though; the younger daughter could not believe he was dead, and I could not either. Even when the father began to wipe the whole body and wrap the body in a clean blanket, I could not realize that he was gone forever. I will never forget his calm and gentle face; and the whole family thank him for many happy meomories to which Uncle Puppy contributed greatly. We could not say "good-bye" to you, so let us say it now. Thank you very much, Puppy, Farewell!

[In Memory of Puppy 1985-1997]