Darcy, the dog whose antics once led ex-president Zeman to fall and injure his knee, has died

Darcy, the golden retriever belonging to former Czech president Miloš Zeman, has died. The dog had lived with the presidential couple since 2013. Zeman confirmed the news to the tabloid Blesk, explaining that the elderly dog had died of pneumonia.

“An emergency vet took him to the clinic, and although they gave him antibiotics for the pneumonia, in the end the vet had no choice but to put him down,” the former president said.

A long-awaited pet

The retriever puppy joined the presidential family in the spring of 2013. Zeman’s then-wife, Ivana Zemanová, once said that Darcy had fulfilled a long-held dream of hers — and according to the former president, losing him hit her especially hard.

The dog that got the president in trouble

Darcy was known to the public not only as a beloved family pet but also as the unwitting star of a curious incident back in November 2013, when Zeman fell and injured his knee, leaving him in a wheelchair for several weeks.

The president’s fall caused quite a stir at the time, sparking speculation that alcohol might have played a role. However, the then-health minister, Martin Holcát, who led the medical team monitoring the president, firmly dismissed such theories.

“At night he got up, didn’t turn on the light, and tripped over a rug that his dog had moved,” Holcát explained at the time, describing how the president had injured his right knee.

Zeman himself later clarified the details of the incident: “It wasn’t a hit against a wall — it was my knee hitting a cabinet. Solid wood hurts a bit more than a wall does.”

Source: novinky.cz