Your story sounds like analogy for Government Motors. It had a parasite that made it deathly ill. A nanny "nursed" it back to false health.......and the hawks are picking it apart.
My daughter had a hamster. The cat, Smitty caught him and he died. We buried him with the epithet: Smitty was his bane, Smitty was his sorry, Smitty wants to dig him up for breakfast tomorrow.