A Post I Hate To Write

It is a busy month what with me working on the farm, getting ready for a solar power install, doing some accounting and cleaning house. I also have a birthday which makes me 74 years old.

Over the past years I have lost many friends and relatives. Of course the older we get, the more this happens. Unfortunately, many of the deaths have been of people a lot younger than I. My Dad was 58 when he died, however my Mom made it to age 96. I am in relatively good health having a quadruple bypass 10 years ago so I guess, time will.

Over my life we have had pets; mostly dogs but there were the ocassional turtle, fish and then there were the two monkeys. My Sister bought them out of an ad I guess and we had two squirrel monkeys which stayed in a cage most of the time.

When I lived in Maryland I had a golder retreiver/collie mix dog named Goldie. I had changed her name from ‘Lassie’ which her previous owners had named her. For a short while I had another golden but had to let him go as he and Goldie did not get along. Goldie lived a pretty good life but deteriated pretty quickly. When I took her to the Vet to have her put down, a woman saw here and said “What a sweet puppy!”. She had that kind of face. Unfortunately I was unable to stay with her and that brought me quite a bit of sadness.

When I moved to Georgia I wanted to get a dog, but there was so much going on with a new job there and my hours being weird. Also I didn’t have a fenced in area.

When I moved to Hawaii, I made sure that I would have room for dogs and ended up with an 8 acre farm. Although there was no fence, I was far from traffic and could let me out without much supervisiom.

I was helping a neighbor breed and raise Labrador Retreivers and some poodles. One female Lab was named Bonnie. She was brought in from Australia but was very scared of men in particular. The breeder said she did not notice that so perhaps something happened on the flight to Hawaii. In any event Bonnie would not come near me. The Vet gave her a prescription for anxiety and all of a sudden it kicked in. I was sitting in a chair and a dog came up to me from behind and I instictfully reached down and petted it. After that Bonnie was my friend and when I stayed there, she would come bounding down the stairs and onto the bed where I was staying. Even the Vet was surprised when I accompanied Bonnie to the the office and the Vet said “What every happened to that dog that couldn’t stand men?” to which we pointed at Bonnie and she hugged me.

The reason I bring up Bonnie is that she was the Mother to a litter I helped deliver. My friends said that for all my help, I could choose a quilt that she made or choose a puppy. I chose a chocolate male whome I named ‘Koa’. Koa is a Hawaiian wood, it means ‘fearless’ and Koa worked on being that his whole life and KOA is also the 3 letter designation for our airport, thus it had to be his name.

Koa loved playing fetch and found avocados on the farm. He also enjoyed visiting the farm where he was born as there were many Labs and other dogs there which he had grown up with. He was featured in a Youtube video I created called “My Dog Koa Loves Chicken”. I fed Koan raw food for many years and dogs CAN each chicken with bones as long as it is not cooked. Cooking chicken with bones causes the bones to become brittle. If you think about it, dogs in the wild eat all sorts of dead animals and no body has cooked that nor removed the bones for them.

Anyway Koa began having hip problems. He had been diagnosed early as having the probability of hip dysplaysia a common ailment of large dogs. When he started having problems standing the Vet prescribed pain meds and shots. They helped some and probably prolonged his life a few months but at what cost? He still had problems standing and going out to the bathroom. He made it to 14 years and 7 months, quite a long time for a Labrador Retreiver which is normally 10 to 12 years. Large dogs are generally considered Senior at age 8.

I took Koa to the Vet where we set up a blanket on the ground outside. They administered the drugs and he went quietly. After a short wiule they haled me put him in the bed of the truck and I drove him to the creamatorium where I had him creatmed. I received his ashes back in a box. This was different from Goldie where her remains were taken care of by the Vet.

So 3 years after I brought Koa initially to the farm, I got another Lab, this time a yellow female which I named O’Lena. (Oh Lay Nah or just Lay Nah). O’Lena is a Hawaiian name for yellow and name the HAwaiian called the plant they brought to the islands from Polynesia. That plant is known to you are Turmeric.

O’Lena and Koa got along fine. It was funny because Koa would run and bring a thrown stick back to me and as he aproached, O’Lena woudl grab it out of his mouth, turn toward me with is like she had done any of the work.

O’Lena was bred and delivered over 10 puppies. Koa was not impressed at all with the puppies and jumped on the bed to keep away from them. Whetehr it was the puppies themselves or the though that ‘momma’ was going to get protective, I could not tell, but as I say, he was working on that ‘fearless’ part.

Kona and O’Lena were both born on April 30th but 3 years apart. Somewhat recently O’Lena began not jumping on the bed as often. Then one day I heard a thump. I live on the second floor and she had collapsed 1/2 way down the outside stairs. I rushed to steady her and since that time she has progressively had issues standing and walking. Her hind legs will go out at angles and she collapses on the floor. Because of the stairs, I moved in to the recently vacated aprtment downstairs and she has been down there. She has a lanai/porch where she can walk to on the same level and she has peed and pooped out there at times. She also can be taken out through the bedroom and there only =has a step and a half to the ground where the lanai is about 6 steps. Letely she can’t easily traverse those 2 steps and has trouple not sliding on all the laminated wood floors downstairs.

So with much sadness I find that it is time for her to be put down. I am giving her a last meal today, a last bath and will stay with her tonight. Tomorrow I’ll call the Vet and bring her by. Then I will drive to the creamatorium and drop her off. It is a very sad time for me as you can imagine, going from 1 dog to 2 back to 1 to none over the past 17 years (about 1/5 of my life).

There are those who say ‘get another dog’ but having dogs involves more than that. Since my Sisters moved down island, it is more difficult for me to have someone come to feed and check on dogs. That impacts any travel plans I want to make. A few years ago I traveld to the mainalnd for High School reuinions and they were a week or so apiece. I want to travel to England and Australia so having dog sitters helps. I also understand that a particular dog can never replace another one.

Over her life, my Mom used to say ‘Never Again’ when it came time for dogs. She said that we kids always wanted a dog but then she had to take care of it. In an oddevent, before she died, Mom saw a puppy and decided that she needed one to care for. Perhaps she was filling an emptiness after Dad died; who knows? Her dog passed away something like a week after she did, but I know that dog kept her company.

So again in the past 3 years I have to say goodbye to a faithful companion. I thought I would be cried out by now, but I am not. There is a difference in having a friend, relative or pet die in an accident than having to make the decision what day will be the last of their life. In most cases, regardless of what or who, it is the person making that decision who goes through much of the heartbreak. That is why oftentimes the medical directive a person makes helps the decision maker an easier path to that decision time. Pets don’t have that ability and we have to make that decision for them. We want to keep them forever, but it just is not possible.

One of my Sisters is the one who will decide if I am incapacitated. I have the medical directive but I told her (pretty much as a joke) but to decide if she will better off or have more money if she ‘pulls the plug’. I said that I will probably be so drugged up that I don’t know what is coming.