The Story of Hatha -- Beginning to Present...

The above entry may have been a little ... ahem ... "graphic" ... but it is an important (and often unspoken) aspect of care for the elderly and invalid, whether person or animal. My apologies however, if it offended anyone's less-rough nature.

New developments occur almost every day. This one calls for a little backstory to set up a picture of our neighborhood society for you...

My wife and I built our new 2-story home and karate dojo here in 2000. At the time, ours was a more countryside location with a beautiful view of the ocean to our north, and the mountains of northern Okinawa to our northeast. Two large rock hills sit to our east with a private cultural art gallery close by to our southeast. When we looked out our windows, we saw mostly greenery -- fields of sugar cane, shrubs growing up the sheer rock face of the hills to out east, and foothills climbing into low mountains to our northeast. Sumako loved especially the ocean view and misty islands in the distance, while I loved seeing the mountains while sipping my morning coffee.

Our many cats just loved chattering at the many birds.

The setting was perfect for the meditative development of our peace-oriented karate and yoga styles.

Of course, developers and others saw the beauty in the area after we built the dojo ("Oh BOY! -- What a beautiful, peaceful VIEW! Let's DESTROY it...!"). The land sold fast, new homes were built all around us, a pizza restaurant, a small private bar, and an Okinawan family-style restaurant all opened close by, plus a few “mansions” – very large ritzy homes for highly-paid military and American civilian workers – all built in the past decade or so. Of course a lot of the natural beauty was eradicated for a “beautiful” home here and there, buildings and trees got in the way of the natural view, traffic increased exponentially, and we lost several of our cats to the road.

Our neighbor across the street has been an angel to us in times of both need and plenty. Like all good Okinawan neighbors, she and her family extended the hand of welcome and friendship when we first moved in, and they never swerved in their steadfast friendliness through the years. They always seem to have a large excess of fresh and sweet vegetables from their fields, and those extra bushels somehow always end up on our front doorstep. When Mr. Arakaki went fishing, there always seemed to more fish than they needed, and our freezer was filled. And Sumako bakes the most delicious breads and cakes for the Arakaki Family (baking is Sumako’s joy and specialty).

Yesterday, Mrs. Arakaki (Yoshimi-san) asked about Hatha, and why she had not seen Sumako walking her and Musashi the Bulldog recently. Well, Musashi has become very lazy and prefers to walk only as far as the driveway, expecting to be taken for a ride (he LOVES a drive!). He absolutely refuses to walk further than the nearest telephone pole, then back to the car and sits by the car door like a lump of rock.

Sumako then gave Yoshimi-san the recent updates on Hatha. Yoshimi-san was deeply moved, as the last she remembered was seeing Hatha out for a jaunt with Sumako…

That would have been last year.

Yoshimi-san has generously volunteered to help with Hatha. Instead of Sumako or me rushing home to feed, diaper, water, and comfort Hatha during the lunch hour, Yoshimi-san has taken over the lunchtime task herself.

This is in addition to her other chores. Beside her normal family care routine (school kids in her house, daily cleaning and laundry chores, weekly shopping, harvesting veggies in the family fields, etc.), the Arakaki Family also hosts groups of 5 to 8 HS boys from Mainland Japan who are on their cultural exchange tour during the school year. The group changes every day during their stay on Okinawa, so Mr. Arakaki picks them up one morning, his family hosts them all day (usually they go to learn agricultural technique from Mr. Arakaki during the day), Yoshimi-san makes sure everyone is fed and happy, then Mr. Arakaki drops them off the next morning at another home on their tour while picking up a new group.

Now, in addition to all the above, Yoshimi-san volunteered to help us with Hatha.

Last night she came to the house and Sumako taught her how to take care of an invalid dog. I think probably Yoshimi-san found it similar to taking care of a baby (she’s a Grandma). Sumako assured me Yoshimi-san was very gentle and did a good job as if she was already familiar with the task.

Today will be Yoshimi-san’s first day to care for Hatha while Sumako and I are away at work. We have to find an appropriate way to express our thanks and appreciation to our wonderful supportive neighbor…

Thank you, Yoshimi-san, from very far away.

Thats good stuff. Its great to have some neighborly neighbors.

PS, when would someone go from "san" sttus to "sama" status. Thats been buggin me ever since I read SHOGUN many years ago.

"San" means Mister or Miss, or Mrs. It's a general honorific for both males and females.

"Sama" is very formal, equivalent to something more like "Honored Sir or Ma'am".

Your neighbor would be suffixed "-san". The Governor, a judge, the president of the university, the mayor, or any high-ranked official would be suffixed "-sama".

My Okinawan wife tells me that one would use "-Sama" for addressing all mail, and anytime one wanted to be a bit more polite. "-San" is a general-use familiar suffix.

Thank you, it brings the story back to me. I must re read Shogun.
PS, I think we discussed the role of B vitamins back aways. Whenever one of our cats gets the appetite "blues" we use a complex vitmin B paste in a cube. Its flavored and they LOVE IT. (Our coon cats are total freaks for licking that hairball paste off one's finger). The vit B somehow restores (albeit temporarily) their appetites.

There has been no change in Hatha's condition. She eats less but drinks a lot of water. She can barely move except for lifting her head a bit to see around herself now and then. I wonder if the time has come to talk with Sumako about saying goodbye before Hatha lapses into the despair of total loss of life quality. I now believe our Hatha will not return from this state of immobility and inability to feel the joy of living.

We will give her more days of sunshine and some more trips to the dojo to see the kids, watch all the movement, listen to the joyful sound of children's laughter, and to be petted again by small gentle hands. But I think it's maybe time to discuss the next move...

Right now I am playing about 24 hours of violin music (mostly Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein) on a looped MP3 player near her pen where she lies in the living room. The volume is kept low but hearable so there is no shock of sudden loud orchestral dynamics. It plays until all 24 hours have played, then starts again (she is probably unaware it repeats). Over the past 5 months, the music has been changed fairly often from about 120 hours of olde-tyme radio shows, then yoga and meditative music, collections of classical, modern easy-listening, and now violin music. Hatha used to pay strict ears-up attention to the player when she was healthy, but now she simply lies and listens (it's fairly close to her pen where she can hear it clearly). Lately I have been contemplating how to place a screen where she can watch a several-hours-long movie-loop of outdoor animals and birds in their natural habitat to give her something more interesting to see than the back patio and the weather while we are gone to work during the day.

Good post. The cusp of when to act, letting go, can come fast, as we reading here know.

this is key



as long as there is joy, it is hard to think of anything but life

Thanks. We always try to keep that in mind...

Today when I came home from school, the amount of food left in the bowl told me that Hatha hadn't eaten for Yoshime-san at all at lunchtime. I tried her on some water and she drank a fair amount.

when Sumako came home about 30 minutes later, she tried to feed Hatha, and to our surprise, Hatha awoke and ate about half of the bowl ravenously, then fell asleep again...

We'll try to feed her again later tonight. Tomorrow or Saturday, we'll bring Hatha back downstairs to the dojo to keep the kids company again.

No substantial change over the past week, other than that we are giving Hatha a mild seizure-control medicine twice a day now. We take about a cup of special dry nutrition food for older dogs, add water, and blend into a paste. We then feed Hatha using a syringe, and she eats a lot more than before (she was having trouble chewing and swallowing dry food for a while). She still drinks lots of water, and diaper changes are frequent.

We really don't mind, though she keeps us up in shifts much of the night. Very much like a baby.

Tonight Sumako brought Hatha down to the dojo to watch the kids again. She had been barking, but not out of hunger or thirst. I think she just wanted company. The kids really love to have her there, and she seems to enjoy the attention and watching the kids go through their paces. Lots of movement -- she stays awake for the entire training session and doesn't seem bored (we see her eyes move to watch the kids moving across her field of vision).

I think in her "previous life", she was treated kindly by children. She has always loved to be near kids. Maybe that's one factor in her loving Sumako so much -- Sumako is small and petite, like a child, about 40kg. I am an 83kg big scary bald guy...

Thanks for the update.

Hatha -- July 4, 2008 (+14 to 16 years) to June 17, 2016. RIP.

Yes, rest in peace, Hatha.

My sympathies on your loss.

The date you listed would indicate that Hatha was only 9 yrs of age. Is it possible Hatha had a different birth year..like 2002?

So sorry. No words.

2008 is when Hatha joined Seizan's family.

____

Run free Hatha.

I know it hurts now, but , from my own experience, Ive been able to replay some of the goofy things our dogs had done during thir lives and I can smile.

Thanks everyone.

As near as our vets can guess, Hatha's birthyear was around 1994. We use 2008 because that was when she began her second life -- with us.