HIH Emperor Father Terry arrived back at the Imperial Residence at 17:55 today with pet bullmastiff Rose, who is suffering from a swelling feared to be a mammary tumour.
Rose – whose pedigree name is Bramarley Paloma of Carothan – had spent the past few hours at a veterinary surgeon’s in Carshalton, where a swelling on one of her mammary glands was inspected. According to the vet, there is an 80% chance that Rose has a tumour, and a 20% chance that the swelling has been caused by an infection.
Medicine has been given to the Emperor Father to give Rose in case the swelling is the result of an infection. Rose will be brought back to the vet’s in a week’s time to be assessed again. If the swelling has not reduced, then it will be clear that it is a tumour. There is, unfortunately, little chance that she would recover from a mammary tumour.
Rose will be seven years old this June – the average age of bullmastiffs is seven or eight years. She is also the last of her litter known to still be alive.
Rose has been Mascot of the Order of the Bullmastiff – effectively the symbolic embodiement of the Empire’s national animal – since January 2009. An Imperial Edict passed last month states that in the case of Rose’s death, her sixth cousin Edd (also a pet of the Imperial Family) will automatically and immediately succeed her as Mascot.
