Dreaming of Warmer Weather and Clearer Skies…

08 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by Birdie in Food, Life, Travel Tags: , , , ,

It was another gloomy and dreary day today.  Got up, had to pass out some information about an upcoming community meeting to the households in two blocks I’m in charge of (another thing I’ll have to write about someday)… came home to take care of the “zoo”.

After giving one of the birds some medicine, it started acting strange.  Poto started fluffing up, shaking his head back and forth, opening his mouth… then he threw up once, then again and again and again…

Yes, at this point, I was freaking out!!  I was PRAYING that there wasn’t going to be another bird death… if that happened it would be another in less than a week!  😦  While being in panic mode, it was odd because I’d never seen a bird throw up before.

Anyway, Poto needed to go to the vet for his medicine refill.  So, got his cage and off we went.  He actually started singing in the car, so I felt a little bit better.  (Only a little…)  Arrived at the vet, only had to wait a few minutes before we were called in.  While Poto was getting weighed, I explained about his nausea.  The vet said it sounded like he had just eaten too much just before I gave him his medicine.  (Whew…)  She proceeded to check inside his mouth, his ears, the color of his beak, his wings, his heartbeat… then his one foot.  He had had a wound on it, but it was clear and the vet gave him a clean bill of health.  (BIG sigh of relief!!)

After getting home and getting settled, I sent an update text to his “mom”.  She was happy to hear he’s better.  (I was just happy that I wasn’t having to send a, “Something terrible has happened to one of your birds…” message!)

So, today hasn’t been as blue as yesterday, but as I sat down in front of the computer, I started to think about my mom whose is in Hawaii at this very moment.  Kept thinking how simply wonderful it would be to be able to blink a few times and instantly be there, zooming on the freeway, listening to some great classic rock tunes (maybe some Cream or Fleetwood Mac), driving up past Schofield Barracks, up to the North Shore to Giovanni’s to get some garlic shrimp.

Man, I need a vacation…  (~_~;)

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An Early Morning, A Cloudy Day, A Buddhist Funeral Service for a Little Bird

07 Mar 2012 2 Comments

by Birdie in Japanese Life/Culture/Customs, Life, Uncategorized Tags: ,

I think I wrote about my friends’ animals that are presently here at my house… and one of the parakeets that died in my hand the other day.  (Not my pet, but a sad day regardless.)

My friend had sent me a text a couple of days ago, asking if I could contact a local pet funeral home about a service.  The service was this morning.

Had to wake up rather early.  Went by to pick up another friend before going to the funeral parlor… she’s a friend of this other friend, too, and wanted to be there to kind of stand in.  We got there and the service started at 8:00am sharp.

Yes, a Buddhist funeral service for a bird.  For some reason, it didn’t seem so off-the-wall.  (Am wondering… are services held for pets in other countries?)  As the smoke from the incense rose and filled the room, the Buddhist sutra was chanted by the others there, including my friend who knows it all by heart.  (Her parents are very faithful Buddhists.)

As I sat listening for those few minutes, my mind drifted… thoughts of life, my own pets, pets I’ve had in the past, thoughts of how I can recite The Apostle’s Creed in Japanese, but have no clue how it goes in English.

The short service ended, we chatted for a while and then the funeral parlor owner and his wife took us to another house they own on the side of a mountain nearby.  There’s a house and, next to it, he built a crematorium.  (Explained that they built one there instead of their original neighborhood because of protests from local people.)  The tiny little bird was placed on a metal net, more incense was offered and then Pon (the bird) was slowly put into the furnace.

My friend and I were led to the house next door, into a small living room.  We were asked to wait there for about 30 minutes.  Usually she and I would be chatting about everything under the sun, jumping from one topic to the next.  But we were both rather quiet and she kept talking about how sad she will be when her own cat passes.  (No, he’s not sick or anything… is still young and as healthy as any strong, young cat might be!)  I kept trying to change the subject and was successful most of the time.  Not sure why she was being so blue about her healthy cat… perhaps that’s what funerals do to people sometimes.

After the 30 minutes, we walked back over to the crematorium.  The metal wire was out of the furnace and the only hint that something had been there were the tiny, TINY bones… a perfect little skull and a tiny beak.  The owner took tweezers and gently placed the bones into an urn.  The urn into a box, the box into a bag, the bag to take home until it can be handed to my friend who is away.

We rode back in the car with the owner and his wife, got back and they served us some coffee.

It was nice, all in all.  Just somber, which is normal, right?

After I got back home, I saw my neighbor from across the street, standing in front of her garage.  She looked a bit teary-eyed… my stomach did a flip… not a good flip since I knew their dog, Chappy, had been very sick.  Sure enough, I walked over to her garage and there he was, lying on a blanket, covered in another, breathing weakly.  She told me she had called her husband and he was on his way home.  The two of us sat next to him on the concrete, petting his cool body, telling him that daddy was going to be back soon if he could hold on a little longer.

I later learned Chappy had passed away about 30 minutes after that… and, yes, he waited until his daddy got home.  He was such a good dog and will be missed…