Today I want to tell you Mila’s story, a mastin with a regrettable life. Her misfortune began a long while ago with a skin problem, and, in my opinion, a badly understood animal protection, since her skin problems not only wouldn’t improve but on the contrary they would get worse. In my opinion, the best thing would have been to euthanize her for her not to suffer anymore, since there was no way for her to get better. When I got to the shelter where she was, I already knew about her and asked to see her. What I saw horrified me, it was something I had never seen before, and it was a mastin with not one hair on her body, with wounds on her body from scratching herself.

My immediate reaction was to call a vet for her to euthanize her. Because there wasn’t any available, I went home thinking all the time about the poor animal. I decided to help her, to try to give her a last chance, and if it didn’t work, at least we would stop her from suffering. I called the best parasite specialist and a good friend of ours, Guadalupe Miro. She immediately arranged an appointment to see Mila. We took her to Madrid, and even Lupe was horrified and told us she had never seen something like this. We started a treatment against mange, as also one for “erlichiosis” and baths to alleviate the itch. Truth is that very slowly it got better, but at least she was getting better.

After a month we really doubted if we would ever see her with hair again. I even took her with me to the walks with my dogs, and I believe that the goats and other animals didn’t consider her a dog, for where they were afraid of and ran away from, with Mila it wasn’t like that. They would get close to her, probably because they had never seen something like that before. But as happy as we got, Mila turned up dead in her bed.

I can’t even tell you the feeling of desolation that overwhelmed us. Me, as a scientific, I called Lupe and told her what had happened. She told me to take her to Madrid for an autopsy, and so we did, and she simply died from a heart attack. She had an enormous heart, and I know, for I had the chance to see it, and that killed her. Mila, I can assure you your big heart and these last days among us has deeply marked us. And we would like to think that you left with the conviction that your human partners are, in some cases, not that bad.

Your friends forever in Scooby, will never forget you.

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