I once had a dog-named Ralph. Ralph was a mixed breed of Lhasa Apso and Shih Tzu, he was a unique little guy. He passed away over 10 years ago, died of old age. Nevertheless, it was traumatic to all of us because he was considered a member of our family. I took it the hardest because we went through so much together, technically speaking; he wasn’t my dog, he was my youngest sister’s dog; I rather inherited him when he was ill with diabetes. Yes, animals have very similar diseases and illness like human, Ralph was no exception, he had to be cared for in the same way as people with diabetes.
When he was first diagnosed with the illness, I was a poor college student, working, trying to pay my way through school at the time; I was living in NYC. Ralph was ill; he lost a lot of weight, and stayed hungry and thirsty all the time. I took him to the veterinary hospital, and they told me he had diabetes. It was such a shock to me at the time; I didn’t know how I was going to pay for his treatment and his maintenance drugs. If I remember correctly, I started to cry in front of the veterinarian but he assured me that Ralph would be okay as long as I give him insulin shots, morning and night. I’m not a big fan of needles, actually afraid of them but it didn’t take me long to get use to it. They kept him at the veterinary hospital for almost a week to regulate his insulin; his medical billed was quiet a bit, but luckily all my sisters helped pay for it.
Ralph continued to live a good happy, healthy life for about 5 to 6 years; toward the end, he was completely blind. I knew it was his time the night he passed away, it was during the week of Thanksgiving, my youngest sister who lives in NYC came down to visit us, she knew Ralph was ill, I kind of felt like Ralph was waiting to see her because she was his owner. I sat with him till late that night, it was sad that he couldn’t say good bye in words, He looked at me through those sad eyes, tears rolled down his face, and tail wagging and to think back now, I don’t think I looked so much different from him (except for the tail part.) I always wondered from time to time, what happen to animals, such as dogs and cats after they passed away. Where do they go? Where did Ralph go? Then I came across an article in Koosang Koosom Magazine written in Thai language by the owner of Yipso, a small poodle. A car hit Yipso; his owners claimed that he has a spirit, very similar to human, very interesting I thought; maybe there’s hope for Ralph.
This was a story told by Yipso’s owner…
We used to have 5 dogs, and one of them was Yipso. Yipso was a poodle; he was very active, intelligent, and carried himself proudly; he was dark brown. One of my co-workers gave Yipso to us when he was 3 years old; my friend got tire of caring for him. I took him in, cared for him no different from my other 4 dogs. We treat our dogs as if they are members of our family, Yipso was 3 years old, so he was somewhere in the middle, therefore he had adopted younger and older brothers. My children then have these 5 dogs as their sibling as well because we treat them as if they are our children; we would call them our sons, and call ourselves ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ in their presence. If you are reading this and starting to roll your eyes, then I want to apologize, but this is how it is at our household, we are a much-closed knit family.
Continued at Spirit of a Poodle – Part II
Nye Noona 