An innocent four-limbed creature succumbed to Ebola this afternoon after days of intense public outra—wait, wait a second, we're not talking about an African person here. Open that tab back up. Can you hear me? It was a dog. A DOG. A poor, adorable, defenseless pup who never did anything wrong in this cruel world.

Excalibur, the dog of a Spanish nurse infected with Ebola, was euthanized by authorities there over concerns that it, too, had Ebola and might pass it on to the nurse's husband or others. The fate of Excalibur was in limbo until this afternoon—the regional government in Madrid had obtained a court order to put the dog down, but protests in the city led some to believe that his life might be spared.

"Save Excalibur! Pet Lovers Unite to Protect Ebola Patient's Dog," shouted an NBC News headline about the protests. The upheaval was particularly strong on Twitter, where the hashtag #SalvemosAExcalibur was tweeted over 400,000 times yesterday.

The world will soon return to tweeting about saving the humans infected with Ebola, just like before a dog maybe or maybe not caught the disease. Just kidding that hasn't happened.

But let's not lose focus on what's most important here: mourning the true face of the Ebola epidemic.

May #Excalibur rest in peace, but let his soul and spirit live on forever.

[image via AP]