I did not grow up with a pet dog and yearned very much for one so when Cyrus came along, I secretly hoped that he and our family dog will grow up together - except, deep down I knew time was finite. Our corgi was no longer a pup, neither a teen but an elder. When Cyrus was born, he was already 12 and truly, we were playing with time.

Cyrus' first fur friend and he took to him like a fish in water, from gesticulating excitedly to patting the glass door that separated them to wanting to feed him pellets and chasing him around the garden. July 2019 was his 14th birthday and we celebrated it as we always did over cake. Clearly there were ageing signs which we chose to ignore, it broke my heart when he could no longer run around or chase balls with the same enthusiasm as he could.

The decline there after was sharp and quick. He suddenly developed a lump on his hind paw, started limping to not walking, we had it surgically removed and he seemed fine and dandy. Then one day his ear infection started (AGAIN), sent him to the vet's and got him more meds. I guess he never got better from that and he preferred lying down mostly to sitting up and one day when he started heavily breathing, it was probably the beginning of the end. He had stopped eating and drinking, had sticky saliva and foamed at the mouth, lay flat and barely struggled when we lifted him to see the vet again - the second time in two days. He was immediately warded, blood test ran, put on the IV drip and we were given our options.

His kidneys were not functioning, there were kidney stones, arthritis was acting up and basically in a lot of pain. If we wanted to, we could consider daily dialysis when he was discharged. Euthanasia did cross our minds but it was a painful decision to make - how could we put down our fur brother? How could we?

From the time he was warded at 230pm to about 5, we received the call that he had left us. It was emotional. He chose to leave us and gained his angel wings 17 days after his 14th birthday.


 

We miss you, poppers. Your bird friends do too and so does Cyrus. He says you're in the hospital and never coming back...While we bade you farewell at the ward, seeing your lifeless body and frazzled hair, we know you fought hard, we've had our good years together. You were never quite a dog dog, more like a cat. I never had you run happily to me after school, nor snuggle up when I'm sad but you were special just like that. The closing of windows irritated you and you ran up and down the garden, you dropped out of training school in true hooligan fashion and never learned to pee and poo in designated areas...but you were our special first dog.

Fly high, run free...till we meet again. When we see a rainbow, that's you smiling back at us...right?