Little Luna

So on Thursday, we got the call at 6:30pm. Mom said that they came home, the gate was open, and Luna was gone! Luna is the dog our family has loved since 1992, when we picked her up from the Humane Society. She immediately stole a spot in all of our hearts and grew up with me like a little sister. She was already housebroken when we got her and therefore spent a lot of time in the house. She was strong, beautiful shiny brown coat. When my dad died, she sat at stared at his spot on the couch as if saying goodbye to his spirit, her tail wagging the whole time. We'd come home from work and she'd be sitting on top the red picnic table, just waiting to give kisses and love. On the rare occasion she'd get loose, she'd run her usual route to the park behind our house, and make it back home to be on her table. We once found her in the back yard with a few neighbor kids and a tennis ball, playing their hearts out. No idea how she convinced them to play with her.

But this night was different. She's now about 17 years old, arthritic, mostly deaf, mostly blind. Mom and Doug had gone looking for her in the usual haunts to no avail. Becky and I posted up lost dog signs all over the neighborhood, and Brian took me to the Humane Society the next day to check if they had her and give them a picture. By Saturday evening, I was finally able to talk about her without bursting into tears. But as I fell asleep, my thoughts were on her.

It's Sunday morning, and I woke up to a strange number on my phone. Katrina said she found our dog! That they had her for a couple days and just saw the sign. They said she was a very sweet dog, who never barked, and who offered comfort to their very old dog who was dying. I don't think I ever literally "jumped out of bed" until this morning. Comepletely thrilled to know that Luna was safe. They had found her in their garage when they got home on Friday, all lost and bewildered. My guess is she was looking for her red picnic table.

Floods

I remember when my Popo's house in Kailua flooded, Goong Goong told me to never keep your toilet paper and towels on the ground. He was so proud that after the flood, he still had his 6 month stockpile of paper goods ready in case of disaster. When Brian and I moved out on our own, I remember my mother warning us to get renter's insurance, just in case. I'm finding out that I learn best by hard lessons. Today, Brian got the call from our landlord as we were headed home in traffic. The neighbors had called and said that our townhouse was flooding, and that water was leaking over into their unit. They didn't mention that water was pouring out of our front and back doors. When we opened the "floodgates" we were welcomed by 4 inches of cold water covering the entire first floor. Ember was on the stairs so relieved that we were home. Our landlord showed up minutes after us, as we were hopelessly sweeping water out of our home. Luckily, he knew who to call; the Insurance company who will see us tomorrow, and the emergency carpet savers who we'll see for the next 3-5 days. I called my mom. Her and Doug came by right after work to help us move our entire living room into the backyard where it still sits. We've got 4 industry sized air blowers under our carpet, and were told that more would be on the way tomorrow. Apparently, they will be using so much heat to dry out the carpets that it was recommended that we stay elsewhere. We're still deciding where we'd like to live for the next few days, and where would suit Ember best. We might decide to stay and keep an eye on our things in the backyard and strewn about the second story. Between work schedules and the inability to sleep with all the noise, it's going to be hard to find that silver lining. As I had a fit of tears earlier while sweeping water, I mentioned to Brian that the carpet did look a little cleaner. And even though all my paper towels are ruined because I kept them on the floor, our landlord assured us that everything would be ok. We've constantly procrastinated on getting stands and proper storage for our instruments, and seeing them standing there in 4 inches of water was a true realization that it was too late. The futon that I've had since a teenager will finally get replaced. The myriad of things that were too hard to let go of on our first move will now be sorted and decided upon. If anything good comes out of all this, my dreams of purging unnecessary items will finally come true. And not to worry, everything of real value to us is fine. Even our neighbors, who were so unsure of us these past 3 years have all gotten together over this and I finally feel a real sense of community here. It makes me love where I live so much more than I already did.

the Holidays

The holidays drive me nuts! I've got the shopping done, wrapped all the presents, sent out the cards (some of my thank you notes are still in the works, sigh) and mailed stuff to the mainland. All that is left to do now is enjoy what's left of the Christmas season. Got some friends coming in town like Masa! Yay! That will be really fun as long as there are some sunny days to hit the beach.
When Brian and I came home today, Ember had attacked a few of the presents. So re-wrapping will be necessary. Then I guess we'll have to hide them in the closet. We don't have a tree up this year, so the presents don't look any good on the floor in the living room anyhow.
To all those who visit, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

New Ember in the Family

So I've decided to start a blog! This was spurred by the adoption of a little kitty I must share with the world. We picked her up from the Hawaiian Humane Society yesterday. She's about 5 months old, so we're gonna say that her birthday was July 7th, 2007. It's been about 24 hours since we met her and she's already jumping in Brian's lap for loving. We left her at home today for about 3 hours while we bought some Christmas gifts and stuff for the cat (picture a scratchy tower, 3 stories high with a sleeping area and holes to climb through). When we came home, we couldn't find her, and I got so worried. I guess she's found a hiding spot to sleep in. She came out when we weren't looking, and happily grabbed some love.
Gonna watch the fights tonight with little Ember. That's her name, Ember Ashe Hazen.