Iza Calzado on losing her dog: It haunts me every single day

They say that dogs come into people’s lives to fill in the emptiness they did not know they ever had. But their loss does not bring back the emptiness but instead leave a lesson to their humans.

It is with a heavy heart when Iza Calzado tapped on the letter keys on her phone screen to share her heartbreak over losing her dog, Hugo, for she knew that unlike saying goodbye when leaving the house, this time it is forever.

While it has been three weeks ever since Iza’s five-year-old dog Hugo passed away, the actress still could not let go of her heavy emotions.

“As we write this, we are still filled with sadness, anger, and guilt. I am no stranger to death but this is the first time I have lost a loved one that I am fully responsible for. The shoulds, woulds, coulds of the situation haunts me every single day,” she wrote on an Instagram post on May 6, Sunday.

Recalling her fond memories with Hugo, she described him to be an explorer who always wanted to march forward with them.

“We took him on many weekend trips to the Farm, the beach, on dive trips and on a few hikes. He had a willful nature. His conquests include a sparrow kill, trapping a five-star hotel’s) peacock and humping various celebrities’ legs. However he could never quite catch any cat,” Iza wrote.

“Hugo loved to socialize with humans, unable to contain his excitement at every greeting with his whimper and vibrating little tail. His attentiveness and obedient nature made an impression of intelligence and his affectionate gaze conveyed a complex soul,” she added.

Iza continued by saying that as much as her fur baby loved all humans, ironically it was “human behavior that orchestrated his demise.”

“Hugo was gone too soon at the age of five and a half. He ingested [a] part of a plastic bag that likely contained some leftover food (someone’s misplaced litter), when he was on a walk or off leash at a park,” Iza continued, adding that they only discovered his cause of death through the autopsy.

While grieving for Hugo’s passing, Iza still hoped to share the lessons she learned from it.

She called on others to reduce the use of plastic as it kills only sea life as reports say, but now it can kill even in homes.

She encouraged others to pick up litter and be a positive example for others to follow.

Lastly, Iza advised pet owners to push for more testing when a pet is sick.

“Our vet conducted a barium x-ray study to identify harder to find objects in his gastro tract when it was too late,” she cited.

Hoping that the incident will serve as an “education anecdote” for people to realize that day-to-day decisions cause ripple effects, Iza ended her post with, “If you have a dog, please give him an extra hug for us.”