Lost: Casa Perdida [Completed]

Goodbye

Felipe Altamirano Alvarez Espadachín

The conversation with Nacho the previous day was the hardest.

"Pápa? How are you?" he said after picking up my call

"I'm good Nacho. I called you to tell you something important," I said.

"Go ahead, I'm listening." I could hear the sound of Nacho move somethings around as he held his phone near his ear.

Taking a deep breath, I conveyed one of the most difficult news that I had to share. I told Nacho everything about what happened to Amor. I told him about how I took Amor on an investigation in a tribal village and how I lost him there. I told him how despite trying to search for him, I never found him. I told him how I found him injured as a coincidence when I went back to the same village where I lost him. I narrated how I struggled to get Amor to the hospital and what the doctor told me after he finished the surgery on Amor: that Amor needed to be on life support till he died, and his body was paralyzed. I could hear Nacho's breathing get heavier as I told him these things.

Nacho never blamed me. Although he was deeply grieved about what happened to his pet, and with the fact that I never told him about losing Amor in the first place, he never broke into a fit of blaming me for Amor's condition. To my surprise, he consoled me by saying, "Don't worry Daddy, I know you tried your best to take care of him." Those kinds, soft words were very comforting to me especially at that time when I was blaming myself for the condition Amor was in. "As for putting him down," he said, " I think that's what we must do. As much as it is hard for us, we shouldn't be selfish by allowing him to live a life of pain."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, Papa," he sniveled. Nacho was tearing up. I could hear his deep sighs. "Papa?"

"Yes, Nacho?"

"Can you put me on video call during Amor's last moments, please?"

"Are you sure, Nacho?"

"Yes. I don't want to abandon Amor on his deathbed, Papa. I want him to die happily seeing me and you in his last moments"

"As you wish, Nacho." Sighing, I put my phone down the previous day after the phone call. "Adios, Nacho,"

I told the doctor of my decision to euthanize the pet. He told me to wait until the next day (which is this day) to euthanize the dog. We decided to carry out that euthanasia as soon as possible because there were complications that Amor was suffering. Just when the doctor said that he was out of danger, Amor's body began shaking violently and the machines in the hospital went haywire. Only this morning were they able to bring Amor to a stable condition. It was heartbreaking to see my dog suffer like that.

Claire Dakota

Because of her old age, Miss. Longhorn couldn't travel to Bolivia, so she deputized me for the task of going to the country to help in the efforts to bring back our children. So there I was sitting on a bus, staring at the green fields pass by with some hills showing up occasionally in the view from my seat. The sun was bright as the storm that plagued the Northern part of the United States had dissipated. I had been journeying on this bus since the day before. The bus was on an eight-hour journey from Powell, Wyoming (which was near Wolfgang Estate) to Denver, Colorado. I had a very long itinerary. Because of an accident at La Paz airport, all flights from America to Bolivia were canceled. Since there were no direct flights I had to first travel to Denver, Colorado. From Denver, I would board an Aeromexico flight that would take me to Mexico City, where I had to take a flight to Lima, Peru on a LATAM Airlines plane. Upon reaching Lima, I had to take my final flight from Lima to a place called Santa Cruz De La Sierra. There the Bolivian Police arranged my accommodation. In my hand, I had a lot of papers and documents that I needed to hand over to a Policeman. The intervals between each flight were not less than fourteen hours. Therefore, I had rooms booked for me in the Airport hotels in Mexico City and Lima.

Shifaly Udawatte

I felt safe: a feeling that I felt after many days. I couldn't believe that we were actually going home. I was really grateful for these American kids who helped me. If it weren't for them, I would have been carried endlessly until I reached the sea or I would have become prey to some predator. Kirt was still sad about Amor. He didn't spend ten minutes without worrying about him.

It was getting dark. Kirt was telling Hernanda how he missed Amor as they sat together, staring at the water and the riverbank in the distance. AnnSophia managed to gather some of the fruit that I found, for dinner. We were all huddled together towards the center of the raft even though we made the raft very long and wide. We were wary of standing up suddenly or making any moments that would upset the balance of the boat.

The waters were still calm, even though they turned dark after the sunset. Since we had no way of making a fire, we kept each other warm by huddling as close as possible to each other. Timothy warned us to not go near the edges of the raft or to touch the waters after dark because there might be a predator or crocodile that could attack us in the waters.

Rhett and Tom were fast asleep. AnnSophia and Hernanda were sleepy yet they tried to be awake. We all agreed on a system where two of us would sleep in turns while the others kept sentinel. As it became darker, Kirt and Timothy tightly clutched onto their machetes, ready to strike anything that would try to attack us.

Felipe Altamirano Alvarez Espadachín

Amor was lying on the operating table at 6:30 p.m. There were a lot of tubes connected to him and stitches on his body. With the parts of his body that weren't paralyzed, he tried to show his excitement at seeing me and Nacho on the phone screen. He let out a whimper. Sitting by a chair near the operating table, I stroked Amor's head, which wasn't injured. Amor looked at the tears in my eyes, desiring to lick them away. He would have licked them away if he wasn't paralyzed. I broke into tears and sobbed as I saw my Amor lying in that condition. Amor's whimper grew and his body gently shook: he wished he could lick my face and cheer me up. I bent over and kissed his head and smelt the musky odor of his fur. He wagged his tail slowly. "You were such a good dog Amor," I said as I looked at his eyes, interspersing my words with sobs and deep sighs of heavy grief. "I don't think I'll find a friend and a fun-loving companion like you."

Amor whimpered and grunted as if he was trying to say, "Don't cry human. Don't cry in front of me. I'm there to make you happy not cry."

I smiled and kissed Amor once again on his head, smelling his fur. Amor moved his neck a little bit as he attempted to lick me. Even though he attempted to lick me, he couldn't. I had the same grief that someone would have when their mother or father died. The doctor was waiting for me to finish saying my final goodbyes.

Nacho with sobs said, " Amor boy...you were...the best pet in the world. We're gonna miss you." Amor whimpered louder when he heard that.

Nacho and I bade our final goodbyes as the doctor injected the medication to euthanize my dog. Amor slowly closed his eyes as the medicine began to kick in.

I leaned over his body and planted one kiss on his head.

He slowly died.

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