nuiloa

Thank you so much. I hope she and your sweet old boy are having fun playing. --nuiloa

Here is a poem I've written for my Faerie: I could hear your paws on the lava rock as you came around the house in the early Hawaiian sunrise. Your eyes always looked bright to me your tail wagging you were the picture of youth, exuberant delicate joyful. Others thought you were ancient hardly adoptable. I never noticed. Your ears like wisps of morning cloud held back in hopes of getting pet your dancing paws for the joy of seeing me again although you saw me every morning. I stood guard over your food so the cats wouldn't steal it. You always loved me with effortless unconditional love. I can say the same for no human. You were always welcome in my lap on my bed in my heart. I'm sorry your last days were lived outside when you should have passed on lying on soft pillows before the fire. The sun rises. I go out to feed the cats and dogs. It seems silent now. and yet...I hear the sound of your paws on lava rock and turn to see you sitting there, looking over your shoulder at me like you did when you watched down the road for me to come home and I came from a direction you didn't expect. You smile at me and love is there the bond between us unbroken. You seem to tell me there is a Rainbow Bridge, and it's not the one from Hawai'i to the mainland US we joke about on-island. You're there in the fields, playing, able to run on all fours again restored to youth and glory. In the distance, there are piles of pillows and a cookstove just for you. A soft brown hand pets you; Pele picks you up, holds you, and smiles. The gentle fire, the one that heats Hot Ponds and Champagne Pond in Puna the one that gives us fireworks every night on the Big Island without danger. I have always had a special relationship with Pele as well and I know she has a place in her heart for small dogs. In Hawai'i, when something dies, it must be buried to become one with the mana, or life force, of Hawai'i. Faerie, you are mana now, and I feel you in the wind and rain and the warmth of the Kilauea fires. Aloha, my sweet old girl, a hui hou. -nuiloa

Thanks, WhiteShepherd. I do feel that I should get another small dog now; Faerie made me love them all. -nuiloa

Thanks, raz. I didn't mean to upset you. I just miss my girl a lot. I have been up before dawn most of the week putting flowers on her grave. -nuiloa

My beautiful, beloved Papillon Faerie died while napping in the yard recently. She loved to dance and run around; you wouldn't have believed she was fifteen! I adopted her from the pound a year ago and she became my closest companion. She was sweet, obedient, hardly ever barked, and slept in my lap all the time. She 'smiled' a lot, and put her ears back so she could be petted. What a sweet girl she was. I miss her so much. I haven't been able to sleep since she died. I just keep seeing her. I think I should adopt another dog, but I feel like it might be insulting to her memory. I had to take 'incompletes' this semester of school because it hit me so hard. Is this weird? Any advice? -nuiloa