Loss of a Dog

Marcus Fulbright Reece - March 6, 2012 to August 8, 2013

A dog teaches you unconditional love.  Return it. You will be the better for it.

Anonymous

Generally in these posts, I write of medical innovation and health reform. But  today I shall digress.  I shall speak of our beloved dog.  We lost him today.

Marcus Fulbright Reece was a 17 month old French Bulldog.  We named him after our son,  Mark Spencer Reece,  a Fulbright scholar and an Episcopal priest now working in an orphanage for girls  in Honduras.

The veterinarian  put Marcus to sleep because of  fast growing retroperitoneal malignancy.    The tumor came upon him suddenly  two weeks ago.    It caused profound anorexia,  extreme lethargy,  insatiable  thirst,  frequent urination, and rapid weight loss with muscle wasting and dulling of his lustrous fur. 

The anorexia was striking.  Marcus simply refused to eat anything, no matter how liquid, protein,  prepared, or presented.   He resisted being force fed.  He clenched his jaws shut and turned his head away.   

He seemed to sense the end was near. It was a cruel, unremitting illness, but merciful because it was quick from onset to end.

Marcus was the love of our life.  He was like a child to us.  We considered ourselves his parents.  

He followed us wherever we went. He cuddled next to us.  He leapt into our laps. He slept in our bed. He pressed his body against ours the entire night.  He looked up at us  with those adorable big brown eyes.  

He was a handsome,  red-fawn colored, proud French bulldog with the stance and stature of a champion.  He was unusually bright. He understood words.  He knew when we were talking about him.  We loved him, and he loved us.   

We did what we could to save him.  His suffering is now over.  We will miss him, but as a friend told us,   “All dogs go to heaven.”