Xavier, my beloved dog my companion for 13 years, died of heart failure on 10.30pm on Friday, 24 July 2015 in the town of Sicily, Cefalu.

We came home at around 7.30pm I signaled him for his daily walk but he refused to come to the door. I thus carried him downstairs but even at the main door on ground floor he did not want to go out. That was very strange I thought. “What’s wrong, xav?” I asked. Despite his reluctance, since he did not pee or poo the whole day, I insisted that he goes out. He had his slowest walk ever and even with 2 other dogs at fairly close proximity in front of him he did not seem to be interested. He stopped and peed on the street without even doing his usual sniffing or to the side, not even lifting his leg. His pee was fairly dark in color (dark yellow) but I thought it was because he didn't drink much water. After stepping away from the pee, he just refused to walk any further. I thought that was really strange and decided to walk back. That was barely 10 meters from the house. Even walking back, he did not want to move so I carried him back down the street and up the stairs.