Sometime in 2016, Jerry decided to co-own an Akita with his friend Jimmy. In the beginning, Hmwun spent time living with Jimmy and here with us but then Jimmy’s housing situation made it impossible for Hmwun to stay with him. So, Jimmy would just visit him here. I believe I wrote about the time Mabel kicked up a huge fuss because Jimmy let himself into Hmwun’s dog run.
Anyway, because of his size (Akita’s are large dogs) and their natural tendency to be aggressive with other dogs, we kept Hmwun in his dog run. (Don’t worry. He had shelter and water. Jerry also spent a great deal of time out there with him.) We had talked about allowing Hmwun in the house, but he didn’t get along with Reeses or Mabel, and we weren’t sure how he and Xavier would get along. We were also positive Tiger wouldn’t like him in the house.
Well, last year after we lost Reeses, Tiger, and then Mabel, we decided to let him come in at least once in a while. We did, but he seemed to much prefer his dog run.
It was about this time that Jimmy’s housing situation calmed down and Jerry decided Hmwun should stay with him again. Jerry would regularly (mostly on Sunday afternoons) head over to Jimmy’s to visit them. Since Hmwun absolutely adored Jimmy, he was in heaven living with his favorite person. It should be noted that Jimmy, a man somewhere around 80 years old, wasn’t in the best of health, but he loved having Hmwun around to keep him company.
About a month ago, Jerry started bringing Hmwun over here for short visits. With the absence of our fur family members whom we knew he didn’t get along with, we tried letting him come inside. Our main concerns were Xavier and our newest dog, Lakota.
At first, both found Hmwun as someone new to play with but being a senior dog, Xavier quickly tired of attempting to play with Hmwun (a senior himself). Being still quite young, and full of youthful exuberance, Lakota was more energetic but eventfully gave up when Hmwun showed no interest in dealing with her.
Though we assured him all the dogs were fine, Jerry was concerned about possible fights, so Hmwun only visited for a few days before returning to Jimmy’s.
Then early last Thursday, I’m talking before the sun was even up, Jerry’s phone rang. He answered it on speakerphone, so we were both able to hear a woman bawling into the phone and saying something so garbled by her tears that it took us a few minutes to understand her.
Finally, she managed to make herself understood. “My dad’s dead.”
I’m lying in bed thinking this woman must have the wrong number because I couldn’t think of a soul who’d call us because their dad died. Jerry tried a couple of times to get her attention and ask who she was, and she finally explained she was Jimmy’s daughter. Someone Jerry had met before. She told him to go get Hmwun.
So, Jerry jumped into his clothes and hurried over to Jimmy’s. By that time, Jimmy’s body had been removed and Hmwun was there by himself in Jimmy’s backyard.
Now Hmwun was outside when Jimmy passed away but being so close to him, Hmwun still seems to understand that something happened to Jimmy. He is a bit mopey, so we all love on him and let him know he still has family.
Jerry is also a bit mopey. He misses visiting his friend. Sunday he expressed the desire to make his regular Sunday afternoon visit to Jimmy’s. It may take a while for both of them to come to terms with not seeing Jimmy.
Anyway, when Hmwun came to visit us Jerry began to notice some behavior changes in Hmwun. The main one being he was looking down at the ground a great deal while moving around and he’d stumbled a few times in situations that had never bothered him before. When we brought him back permanently, Jerry decided Hmwun was blind or at least going blind.
Melinda, our resident vet tech, checked him out and found indications that he was clearly losing his sight, a common issue with Akitas, especially male Akitas.
So, now we have a large dog somewhat terrified of change because he can’t see well and also missing the man he loved the most in this world. Poor Hmwun.
He is, however, getting used to being here with us. He comes inside whenever he wants to but can still spend the night sleeping in his dog run, which he seems to prefer. I’m sure he understands that we all love him too.
Smile. Make the world a better place.
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