With Dog as My Co-Pilot: Between Death and Life [sic]

My life continues to be blessed with lots of great teachers. I count Nature as a whole university of teachers, with its departments of plants, animals, moon, and stars. Within my world, dogs have counted among the most important teachers and friends. Between my recent article “Transitions,” about where we go when we discard our physical shells, and my upcoming article “On Living,” the health of one of my two 15-year dog-friends plummeted. I'd the privilege of staying by her side on her last 14 days. Naima was her name, and also the lesson she imparted was deep, frustrating, and possibly served as a tremendous metaphor within our own human school of learning.

Canine Teachers

Before sharing the song of Naima, I will discuss my earlier canine teachers- There is Fang, who came into my life during my junior year of high school. As my companion and teacher, he shared the lesson of unconditional passion for 14 years, passing on the day the Oregon board issued my naturopathic license. Fang stood by me through a number of my darkest days, revealing a loyalty and love that few humans had revealed before.

Shortly after Fang left, I adopted a dog from the pound, and he earned the name Shadow because he silently hid within the shadows for around 2 weeks. He went completely blind by age 3, and at age 5 an X-ray revealed arthritis in his hips comparable to the worst films I saw in med school. I had helped my vet having a tenacious sports injury, and that he offered 2 free fusion surgeries out of gratitude in my simple naturopathy. He recommended aspirin for the pain . I attempted the aspirin for just two days only, because every time the aspirin cleared, Shadow began moaning – the only real sign of pain in his Fifteen years beside me. Endorphins trump OTC and opiate pain relief many, many-fold, and the utilization of pain meds is related with reduced endorphin production. Shadow never had the surgery, lived a very long life, and showed me courage under fire, coping with pain, while living a life worth living.

Shortly after Shadow, I bought a hound from the pet shop – a beautiful half-Springer, half-Samoyed puppy – and named her Gina. She passed 30 days shy of 16 years of age, and I shared her last moments in the vets office. Gina taught me the lesson of play. Many who know me, know me as a pretty serious kind of chap, and I continue to focus on this lesson used. I believe fondly of my old friend, Bill Mitchell, the first time the AANP reserved the Biltmore for any conference; all night, Bill climbed to the top from the water slide as he and others attempted to maximize velocity by minimizing friction and drag. Goodbye again, Bill.

Naima

Taking a couple of months off after Gina's departure, my wife Susan, daughter Shayla, and that i began the search for a new dog, companion, and teacher. I was at work one Saturday when Susan called saying she'd found our perfect dog. I agreed to come to the pound, here is where Naima entered our way of life.

Shayla and that i are clearly dog people, but Susan is not as universally grateful for all dogs. Naima had impressed Susan with her pretty eyes, her quiet nature, and the fact that in a pound filled with barking dogs, Naima remained calm and silent. Naima was the name this dog came with, even the name of the river in Africa , the very first wife of John Coltrane, and the first jazz piece I ever learned in my early music studies. For me personally, adoption was clearly the right choice. We took Naima, who had remained unadopted at a pound in Eastern Oregon coupled with been used in Portland for a second chance. We drove to some park, got out of the car, and as soon when i got 8 feet away, Naima began frantic barking, which continued non-stop until I returned. This behavior lasted for nearly annually, her fear of abandonment remaining strong regardless of my constant attention and love. Slowly, she allowed me to enter my co-op for any quick trip, a coffee shop, and also over a few years time, I could enter a company without imparting a non-stop barking gift towards the neighborhood.

When we got home from the pound on that first day, Naima came upstairs, smelled the meals, and hopped right on the surface of the dining table to assist herself. My intervention paralyzed her, as she'd drop limp and play dead. She'd clearly been abused after which abandoned. After i would leave home, she'd often wait outside for hours for my return even though Susan and Shayla might have been inside. For 12 1/2 years I gave her love, I applied probably the most patience I possibly could muster, and attended to her special needs.

Naima started to age quickly this past year and, as summer hit, she had 2 grand mal seizures as i was home alone. I have been gift for about 30 human grand mal seizures in my life, and that i was impressed using the variations within the canine expression, but I knew that her health was on the decline. I began EFAs, lecithin, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and administered much more care and compassion. We warded off any additional seizures until November, when Susan, Shayla, and that i were preparing to visit NYC to sing Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall. When 2 additional seizures occurred, I cancelled my trip, began adding OTC CBD oil from my co-op, and she had no further seizures. I stayed at her side during the last week of her lifetime, comforting her, and with her not showing any pain. I had been able to be there with Naima at 5 AM, December 2nd, when she took her last breath. The sound of gurgling within the GI tract, created by the emptying from the jejunum .

Lessons

What did Naima bring to the table as a teacher? More lessons may unfold, but for now, it is the very important facets of human/dog psychology that she educated me in. The trauma/abuse in her own puppy years created a permanent stain on her personality. Twelve and a half many years of my favorite effort at love and patience, and she or he was still being not secure and whole at death. This serves as a reminder to moms and dads about the weight of their actions, also it provides for us all a reminder from the extreme delicacy in our youth. May all of us make time to pause before we end up being the cause of someone's painful life journey.

Today I'm playing 15-year-old Lucy, an 80-pound yellow lab who thinks she is 3. Her depression from losing Naima has softened, and that i hope that I am none too early to say goodbye to another teacher. Next article – what is life, what's the purpose, what is the meaning?