Spot's last day

Tessie placed a bunch of flower in
front of Spot's shelter on the deck.
(photo Oct. 1, 2012)

 It is five o'clock early in the morning, September 30, 2012. I'm writing this blog post to commemorate Spot, our family pet. Before I started writing and was sorting my thoughts, a cat was crying outside on the driveway, sounded to me as if the cat was asking me "where has Spot gone?"

"Spot is gone at 3:30 this morning." Chenny sadly told me when I woke up to toilet at about 4:30 this morning. He continued, "the vet has called me not long ago." On hearing this news, I felt a loss of something that had attached to me day and night for the past 13 years since our adoption of Spot. Although Spot had not been a very obedient dog, there were bits and pieces about him won our hearts. There are two blog posts (post links: 1   2   ) I have written previously talking about the loveliness of his personality.


I would never believe that yesterday will be the last day of Spot's life because every thing was occurring as usual on this day. When I came down to the garage in the morning, he was greeting me by waving his tail as usual. After I had opened his pan door, he rushed out of his pan and ran back and forth urging me to be quick to get out of the garage to the garden for the morning walk. Out in the garden, he sniffed here and there, nibbled some grass; had his wee and poo done and then came back in the garage as usual. Then I put a handful of his dog biscuit in the bowl in front of him, and as usual, he raised his head and stared at me for a few seconds with a facial expression of gratefulness, as if saying "thank you Dad", before he started eating as usual.

Spot on neighborhood watch duty
on the deck (photo Sep. 17, 2011)

Having had all of these usual routines done, I took him off the garage at around eight o'clock and set him free on the deck. That is where he carries out his daily watch for the neighborhood.

Everything was running well as usual. The only thing that was unusual in the last two or three months since his surgery in May this year to remove three tumors in his abdomen, was that he slept more during his daytime duty. And we also noticed that he had tremor now and then, and yesterday he trembled a lot; and for the first time he didn't bark around two o'clock to ask for lunch. I told Jean about his recent unusual behavior and Jean said "he is old, he is very old."

When it was about four o'clock in the afternoon, that was the time he finished his daytime duty usually, but yesterday he didn't argue by lightly barking at me to take him in, instead, he was still sleeping in his little hut on the check.

This was unusual too. I woke him up, and he stood up very slowly. And when he walked into the livingroom, he immediately sat down and then lied down on the floor. And this really worried me. I asked Jean to come over to have a look, and she said "probably he is going to die." We had thought about this quite often since spot had the surgery in May this year. "Take him down to his pan and play the Amituofo chanting to help him pass away peacefully", Jean said.

Photo taken on Sep 29, 2012. after
I held him down to his bed. He
curled up straight away to sleep
upon landing on the mat. That was
about 11 hours prior to his death.

Spot was very weak, so weak that he could not walk down to the garage himself as he usually does so I held him down and put him in his sleeping mat, and played the Amituofo chanting.

Chenny came home at around nine o'clock. He noticed that Spot was very very sick because he saw Spot vomited twice and pooed right beside his sleeping mat. I came down to the garage and realized that Spot was not just sick but terribly sick, so sick that he couldn't even stand up. Chenny asked if we should take him to the vet immediately. But it was Saturday.

Tessie transported Spot home after
his surgery done on  May 10, 2012

Chenny must have been accompanying spot all the time since his returning home that at around 11:30pm he woke me up from sleep and told me "Spot vomited on his sleeping mat and pooed. he looked at me as if asking me to help him. Dad we must go to see the vet immediately, Spot is in pain."

I agreed with what Chenny suggested. When I came down to the garage, Spot looked at me as if saying "dad I'm very uncomfortable." His eyes were full of helplessness. I said to Chenny "okay, let's go." Chenny already located the nearest vet available for emergency clinic. I grabbed a piece of cloth to wrap up spot with my hands and legs shaking seriously.

Photo taken on Aug 19, 2012

The vet is called Sean. He quickly and carefully made a thorough check and set up a bottle injection. He explained to Chenny that the medicine he used was to help to relieve Spot's pain and enable him to sleep through the night. But because spot was so sick that he would believe the night might be his last night in the world. The vet held spot to a chamber to rest and there we left for home feeling a bit better but could not forget what the vet said that tonight might be Spot's last night in the world.

Back to home, I checked my mobile and there were three messages all sent from Tessie. She said that Lily has informed her of what happened to Spot, and she asked me to call her anytime if we needed her to come home to help.

Photo taken on Sep 17, 2011

When Chenny told me that Spot had passed away at 3:30 this morning, I felt an undescribable loss in my mind. Then I thought if I should call Tessie immediately to inform her of Spot's death, but then I thought now that Spot had died why to ruin her sleep?

Here are links to some photos of Spot's. We wish Spot well in the other realm of the universe and Amituofo has guided him to His extremely blissful world.

Diamond ring

Son,

In a shallow meditation I had yesterday morning, a topic I like to discuss with you emerged and my concentration was ruined so I set my thought free to roam all over this one, Diamond Ring.

I remember that you recently told mom after you finished dinner and was leaving for your room to practice your guitar, that you probably will propose to your girlfriend during the upcoming school holiday trip to Melbourne. But you had not got the diamond ring ready yet for the proposal.

I did not know that diamond ring is a must-have when a pair of boyfriend and girlfriend in relationship has come to the stage of planning a wedding, then, the first thing the boy has to buy is a diamond ring. As if among the many stages of the young people’s journey toward marriage nowadays, there is one stage that can be referred to as “diamond ring stage”.

Diamond is known as being unbeatable, undestroyable, most bright, most sparkling and etc, all in all, it symbolizes every positiveness of one's marriage. Everyone is longing for a harmonious relationship, an eternal loyalty, and may be out of their subconsciousness, they think their marriage can be assured to achieve all of these quality a diamond ring has.

However, that is just a symbol, just a stage where young people of your generation all believe it can bring happiness and harmony to them throughout their marriage life, or it is simply a fashion to them and everyone simply doesn’t want to be left out. Less people are calm enough to realize that all that is indeed a blessing or a guarantee to retaining their affectionate marriage life is not from the external diamond ring but the internal virtues both of them cultivate and observe constantly.

From the movies depicting the marriage life of a couple, usually see their very affectionate wedding photo magnificently framed and hung over the most outstanding position of the living room. And one day, they begin to fight on trivial problems, and it goes on and on, often and more often, and then finally one of them erupts anger and throw the glass of wine they are holding in hand onto the photo, drag it down from the wall, and shatter it. Interestingly, this kind of scenarios are seen in the movies or TV dramas a lot, and I believe there must be a lot happening in real life. It reflects a fact, the external decorative jewelry or magnificent wedding photos are not reliable, are not the guarantee of a happy long lasting marriage. They are just items wasted; items to make the expectation seem to be very absurd.

Of course, there are examples that they follow all of these fashions of large framed wedding photo, expensive diamond ring, and are in a profound marriage throughout their lives. But those items are not necessarily to have to be pursued, are they?

Suppose you treasure my opinions about your plan of buying a diamond ring for your beloved, the following is my idea that I take it as being significant, sacred and meaningful:

• Donate the money you originally planned to spend on diamond or huge framed wedding photo to a charity such as World Vision or Red Cross. They know how to help the people in need on behalf of you.
• Follow the most basic etiquette of engagement customs only. A no frill gold ring, an outdoor ceremony party with tea, lots of photos out of your iPhone camera.
• Observe constantly and consistently the virtues you have been taught.

Forget the diamond ring. Be liberated from ironic belief.

Father's Day 2012

Today is Father's Day in New Zealand, probably in most of the Western countries, the first Sunday of September. Tessie contacted me a few days before by texting message asking how would I like my day be celebrated? Would I like to have a lunch in the restaurant?

It seems to have been a fixed customary to our family that when there is something worthwhile to celebrate, the one who proposed will organize for the whole family to have a lunch together in a nearby restaurant, and of course pays for the bill too. But this customary has been changing gradually in the past two years when I am the main character to be offered a free lunch celebrating either my birthday or Father's Day, I opted having the celebration at home with the meal purchased from a nearby takeaway. So when Tessie asked me what would I like to choose, I said to her "thank you very much, just bring a couple of dishes from the takeaways near you."

Because she will be available on Saturday, and Chenny will have his music classes on Sunday, so we decided to change it to Saturday.

Since the date and time were decided last week, I have been looking forward to its arrival. After all, having the whole family together for a meal is such a precious occasion.

The lunch was a very pleasant one. Everyone enjoyed the food from takeaway restaurant, everyone laughed. Tessie told us that she went to watch 10 movies during the film festival, and the two of them impressed her the most were "the last ocean" and "the climate change". Tessie has been a happy and talkative girl since she was very small. So she talked a lot about the two movies. I know she is very enthusiastic about the environmental issues. Chenny talked about his plan to organize a performance concert for his student, and Lily gave him her ideas and suggestions about how should the concert be presented.

When the celebration was coming to an end, I asked Jean for that pack of sticky rice she bought the other day from T-mark, and moved to the kitchen to demonstrate how to cook sticky rice in only one pot for Tessie. The demonstration was a success, and I packed the whole lot of the stir fried sticky rice in a recycled lunchbox for her to take home.

And this concludes my Father's Day celebration of 2012.