Story 90: Pill Taking Champ

Today I ran about 14 miles roundtrip to a famous mountaintop temple overlooking Chiang Mai. The view was good, but I was more interested in the many dogs just chilling around the temple. They seemed so content. It made me think about Laika and seeing the dogs brought me joy like when I was taking care of her. One was even full-body dreaming like she used to do!

Looking at the photos I have of her, I almost completely forgot about the amount of care she needed since my last trip to Thailand. What stood out the most was the amount of pills she had to take; first with peanut butter, then with pumpkin puree. She was a pill taking champion of the highest order and was very seldom difficult about having to take them, which was good because of the sheer volume of pills she needed morning, noon and night. These included 2 kinds of antihistamines, prednisone-ish stuff, Prilosec, antinausea pills, probiotics, chemo meds (at times), Chinese herbs and other various pills. I even had to get a daily pill organizer to keep it all straight!

Life was hard for poor Laika, but her wagging tail and upbeat outlook were contagious. The pills she needed to take just became part of life and provided some comfort in routine. It was one of the aspects of her treatment that seemed daunting at first, but led to a regimen that helped sustain her quality of life as long as possible. I was also glad that herbal alternatives were also included. Here are two pics of the monumental amount of pills she took!

Story 89: Master of Kisses

Laika loved to give kisses to anyone and everyone. She was very affectionate, especially with me. This isn't a specific story, but more of a collection of photos that I just found to illustrate her loving demeanor. Please enjoy these photos of the Master of Kisses!

Story 88: It's a Wrap

Over the last few months of Laika's life, she had some unfortunate accidents inside the house due to her treatments and medicines. She always felt guilty, so I didn't try to draw attention to it. She was trying her best, but sometimes it was just too much to handle. However, she maintained her smarts throughout it all, as it was more of an intermittent problem.

When she would poop in the house, she actually always did it on one of the small rugs and not directly on the floor. This was her way of playing by the rules, which also made cleanup a bit easier for me, as well. Laika was sick, but also trying to be considerate.

She then raised it up a level. Not only would she have the accident on a rug, but she would then wrap it in the rug, as well! This was usually done by rolling it up or folding it neatly into thirds. The first time I came home to discover this, I was confounded, because it was so neatly done. Also, she happened to decorate the one rug I was about to dispose of anyway. How nice of her! The last full day we were together, she did this one final time to help in the cleanup. I could tell at that point that her body, but not her spirit was failing.

Laika was truly a wonder-dog. Even in the face of doing something that she felt guilty about, she continued exhibiting a sort of thoughtfulness to try to make it right. She was unique and perfectly imperfect in all tbe best ways.

Story 87: Sweatshirt Bomber

Just a quick tale before I go to bed. This one has to do with Laika's thought processes to outsmart the breaking of rules...and pooping.

One day about 7 years ago, it was raining really hard. As a being that poops indoors, I can safely say that I understand why a dog would not want to poop outside in such conditions. Laika hated the wet weather, so on that day, she didn't want to poop outside before I left for work around Noon. No big deal, Elaina would let her out at 5 pm.

At 5 pm, it was raining even harder. So, Miss Laika opted to continue to test her rectal fortitude. As I didn't have a cellphone at that point, I got a call at work from Elaina around 7 pm. Trying to contain her laughter, she told me to check my email. As I did, I saw an email from her with a photo attachment. Elaina stayed on the phone to hear my reaction, which was laughter and surprise at seeing s photo of my sweatshirt pulled off of the bed where I left it onto the floor...and with a textbook turd left on it! Apparently, Laika couldn't contain herself and solved the problem of pooping directly on the carpet. She was smart, too smart.

Needless to say, Elaina and I laughed for a long time. I could clearly picture Laika frantically searching for the solution and being satisfied with her choice, proudly doing the deed. Still, this was not the last of her fecal feats!

Story 86: Snowbearding

Ice was nice for Miss Laika. A cold, crunchy treat for her to happily destroy. Snow was even a more rare delicacy for her to eat. Yes, she was a little weird.

The third or fourth winter that I took care of Big Baby, we received a HUGE snowstorm. I think we got like 26" if just over a day. Elaina and Heisa were living with us, so as the snow fell heavily and quietly in the late, dark evening we bundled up the pups and took them to a random fenced-in area between our apartment and the hospital for them to run in the drifts.

Laika had seen snow before, but this was different. She LOVED it and bounded insanely through the shoulder-deep snow with just her head poking out. While making a video of her frolicking and Heisa keeping it low-key, Laika got so excited that she jumped the fence! The video actually ends mid-leap, and I had to run to collect her from a drift on the other side of the fence. She was sitting there, waiting. Elaina thought it was hilarious because, well, it was. On the way home, I swear that Laika was eating snow the whole time, but her icy beard might have created an optical illusion.

Upon returning home and drying off the hounds, Laika immediately starting acting weirdly. Since we had just gotten inside not 5 minutes before, I didn't think she had to go out. But...I was wrong. The next thing I knew, she looked me directly in the eye and unleashed a small flood of basically water on the rug in my room. We were both surprised! I took her out again right away and the floodgates eventually closed. She seemed relieved...and my suspicions were correct. She did eat a ton of snow!

Among Laika's quirky habits, this was one of the weirder ones that I had never realized before. Maybe she didn't either, until presented with Snowmageddon! Still, each time it snowed after that, I would catch her walking around and grazing the snow! Even when would would run in the snow together, she would stop periodically to "sniff" (i.e. eat) some of Mother Nature's cold treat. Her full snow beard was the giveaway that she had been snacking! She loved it so much that I would find sometimes find small trails that she had eaten in the freshly fallen snow. Quirky, yes. Insane, yes. Loveable, no doubt!

The Smallest Gifts

I should be asleep now, but I wanted to write about something very memorable that happened this evening while I was walking around near the night river market. (I'll type in Thai about it later, sorry!)

In Bangkok, sadly, there are lots of people obviously living on the streets. In Chiang Mai, there are also people in the same situation, but the city isn't as urban so seems to afford less harsh conditions for the homeless. Still, the temperatures here are cooler, which is not good for those without shelter.

Basically my rule in Thailand, which I don't like to usually tell people about, is that if someone looks in dire need, I'll usually give then 20 baht, which us about the equivalent of $0.70 but can pay for a meal at a lot of sidewalk vendors. It isn't much by $ standards, but can definitely help someone eat.

Tonight, as I was returning from the market, I passed an older woman with a pillow in her lap sitting among several full, pink cloth bags on the step of a building near a large intersection. Despite the size of the intersection, the sidewalk was very narrow and I smiled at her as I walked past. Even though the lighting was not so good, I immediately felt how peacefully she was sitting there, despite possibly being surrounded by all of her worldly possessions.

I walked a little further until I was under a streetlight and checked my pockets, but only had large bills. Luckily, there was a very convenient convenience store nearby and I stopped in for a soda water and to get change. While walking back to the spot where the lady sat, I passed a shirt seller with a baby fast asleep in its stroller. I made a comment about the baby being cute and the mother laughed.

Back on the other side of the street, I approached the lady sitting on the corner. I said hi to her in Thai and offered her a 50 baht bill. Upon seeing it, she slowly pulled a small, dark drawstring bag out of her pocket. She motioned for me to wait while she took a wrapped-up white cloth out of the bag. She placed it on the pillow and started gently unwrapping it. I watched with extreme focus and curiosity as she fully unwrapped it to reveal a smaller folded cloth. Again, gently unwrapping it to produce a number of very fine, intricately knotted orange threaded bracelets. She took two and held them out as she smiled at me.

"Are these bracelets?" I asked in Thai. "Yes," she said, happily handing them to me as she accepted the money that I offered her. I thanked her and wished her good luck. I knew she could tell how grateful I was to accept the two small gifts she had given me.

I usually make it a point to give without expecting, because any other motivation detracts from the true meaning of generosity. Today, however, this unexpected return gift was also given from the heart of a stranger. As I walked home, I held the tiny bracelets and thought how lucky was to have received them. More importantly, it was a clear lesson of the nature of the soul: Give to live. Live to give.

Story 85: Breaking the Ice

Laika's canine teeth lasted a long time, given the testing they went through on a regular basis. She would chew almost any toy until it was destroyed and any crunchy treat was met as an eager challenge. Ice cubes, in fact, where one of her favorite treats.

I never thought that Laika would be so fond of water in frozen form! Realizing this kind of came as an accident, when I dropped some ice on the floor and she immediately grabbed it and took it back to her bed to munch with extreme joy, tail wagging as bits of crushed ice fell from her mouth and littered her blankets. She could not have been more happy.

Her love of ice only increased with time. Her ears would perk-up at the sound of the freezer opening and she would fly into ecstatic wigging as the ice cube tray was cracked. Upon receiving her "treat" she would always retreat to a small rug or her bed to enjoy the cold crunchy cube. She wouldn't always eat all of it, but she just loved chewing it.

It was a perfect treat, as it was more or less free, something she could destroy and something I didn't have to worry about cleaning-up, other than a little water. I am not sure if it had a negative effect on her teeth, but I suspect not more than anything else, really. Depriving her of such simple joy was not really an option, though; except in the immediate aftermath of her broken teeth, that is.

I actually have a theory that she liked to eat cold things. Tomorrow, I'll offer more decisive evidence to support this!