My parents were not convinced of the story so they decided to walk away; in addition they were not at all intentioned in taking a dog. Passing by the same place a couple of hours later, they realized that the notoriuos oriental man had really abandoned the puppy. What could they do? Could they have left him there? Certainly not, so they decided to take the puppy with them, hoping they could find him another home.

Of course, after only few minutes that Oscar had entered our home we were already terribly fond of him and we started organizing ourselves for this unexpected ''arrival''. No need to say that was the best Christmas I could imagine...

Life with Oscar as a puppy was very animated: he was untirable and bringing him to the park was a joy for us.  We suddenly realized he had a particular passion for water (his Labrador descent was showing up), which he tried to sneak in on any occasion. We never had the heart to stop him from having a bath in all the fountains of the park!! But he used to push himself even further: I remember the day when he was pulling the leash near to strangling himself because he absolutely wanted to dive in one of the twins fountains of St.Peter Square...

Thus, when Easter break came, my brother and I decided to bring Oscar (he had 5 months) for a few days at our grandparents' house, in a seaside resort near Rome.

I can't explain Oscar's joy when he saw the sea... sand... He was hyperexcited and we spent some wonderful days!! On Easter day also our parents came and altogether we stayed at the beach appreciating the tepid april sun. The beach was empty and Oscar was playing happily.

Suddenly, Oscar started running towards the beach exit. What was in his mind? What was attracting him near the road? We never understood. We called him, but he went on his way; we had just started educating him and had still scarce results when calling him... We tried catching up with him, but he was already on the road...

It was almost lunch time and the road was deserted, however a car passed the moment Oscar tried to cross the road... None of us saw the scene as we came the instant after the accident: a red Fiat 128 was running away and Oscar was laying on the edge of the road. He seemed without life.

While we where running towards the veterinary (Easter Sunday!) Oscar recovered and curled himself near me seeking comfort; it was obvious he was aching, particularly in a foward leg. We were able to find a veterinary that on the moment took care of seeing if Oscar had any internal hemorrhage. He injected him a medicine and we brought him back home, watching him constantly.

Once the first 24 hours where past we calmed down: Oscar's life was not in danger! Thus we started taking care of the forward-left leg that Oscar dragged. The diagnosis of our veterinary in Rome was not comforting: radial nerve paralysis. With the latter we reconstructed the accident: the car had not gone over him, but had hitten him violently on a side, causing the nerve lesion. Oscar must have passed out for the pain. Would it have been a bone fracture it would have been simpler, but with the nerve there were no remedies... The veterinary adviced us to amputate the leg, assuring us that Oscar would have lived a normal life.

We remained sceptical on this option and we consulted many other veterinaries and clinic universities, but the diagnose and ''cure'' where always the same. Successively we found a veterinary that gave us some hope: with an operation there was a chance of saving the leg; we decided to trust him and Oscar had the operation. The latter resulted needless: he was operated 4 times during the year, but his conditions remained the same.

His life during that period of time was always playful and lively, so we had to bandage his leg to make sure he wouldn't wound himself dragging his leg while running. I cant explain how complicated it was: Oscar was always lively and exhuberant, the bandage lasting always for few time. Thus we did all we could to find a better solution, making him a leather boot which lasted surely longer.

All of this, however, dint last long: also the sticks used to keep his leg straight ended wounding him more and his conditions where not better at all, until the point that there was a necrosis risk: at that point we had nothing to do but amputate his leg.

The decision was very tormented; my mother and brother thought it was better to directly put him down, they couldn't imagine such a lively dog living without a leg... My father and I, instead, insisted to have him operated; after all there was always time to take such drastic decisions. In addition all the veterinaries assured us that he would have resumed his lively habits. They also told us that many other people in this cases unjustifiedly decide for the euthanasia.

The leg was amputated. It was incredible to see Oscar walk in the house immediately after the surgery, still being dizzy from the anaesthesia. And the day after he was already able to run and play! It took more time for us to get use to his new ''look'' than him finding his usual exhuberance.

His new ''look'' also determined a constant in our life with Oscar: nearly every person that saw him asked us what had happened to him. For nearly 17 years we had to repeat always the same story... many times a day!!
Exhausting, although comprensible...

In any case we have always considered Oscar as a normal dog. And he was! He peed raising his back leg (staying in equilibrium on two legs!), ran, played, swam... everything! He has always been with us everywhere, from restaurants to hotels, from the beach to the mountains, and we never had problems of any kind. The sea especially has always remained a constant rendezvouz in his life: on the beach he was always lively, either swimming or making holes. Even when he was old he maintained the same vitalility, and it was hard for us trying to let him rest once in a while!

It's impossible to describe what Oscar has been able to give us in many years of vitality, power and energy that he always had until the last of his days!

He had his own ways of greeting us: not only he wagged his tail, jumped and groined with the typical facial mimic of these moments; he also did a strange grimace, like when dogs show their teeth in sign of aggression, but raising his lip only on one side, rotating his head at the same time... really funny! We used to say he was ''laughing'', because the ritual around the grimace seemed to signify such.

At the age of 10 he became... brother! Some family friends gave us a dachshund dog puppy, Cora. At first Oscar was very jealous, but soon he got endeared of that wild ''little sausage''. We couldn't even scold her without having him bark on us, protecting her.

We were lucky that Oscar has always been in good health. Only in the last two years of his life (between 16 and 18 years) he started having different infirmities and senile deambulation problems; not so much for the forward leg, always very robust, as with the two back legs: the neurological problems that would lead to his death where starting to show up... But nothing that had to do with his triped condition.

During that time we had a shoemaker make us a special leather breeching with which we helped him at first climb the stairs and later also walking. Later on we found a way to make him tire less: the structure of a baby carriage, with a wood board on the lower part. This allowed him to go around comfortably laid down, walking only now and then.

Dominating from his carriage he liked looking around and meeting other dogs; even if he didnt walk for long (and progressively always less until not walking at all in his last times) he was constantly interested in everything and he was always happy and lively! He was always able to obtain morsels from all shops in the neighbourhood: groceries, bars... and he would never continue his short walk without having first munched something good at every leg!!

On the day of his seventeenth birthday (unfortunately he never got to the eighteenth...) he stealthily savaged the cake!!

When Oscar died he left us an unfillable emptiness. But we are aware of having received a precious gift: a wonderful dog that has filled our life for many years, giving us an immense fondness.

And he left us a really special heritage: the intimate convinction that life is always worth to be lived...