Leslie Wilcox Blogs

The Pain--and Painlessness--of Losing a Beloved Animal

    Wonder how many of us who are animal lovers have entertained the thought of becoming a veterinarian?  That is, until we find out that it's even tougher to get into veterinary school than medical school--and we realize we'd have to see a great deal of animal suffering in the course of doing the job.

    I had a chance recently to speak with one of Hawaii's respected veterinarians, Laupahoehoe-born Billy Bergin, who for 25 years was the chief veterinarian at huge Parker Ranch on Hawaii Island. At a taping of PBS Hawaii's Long Story Short, I thought we'd talk mostly about Parker Ranch history and Hawaiian cowboy culture--and we did.

    As Dr. Bergin spoke, I tried to put out of my mind my worry about my family's dog, a sweet and formerly athletic German short-haired pointer named Kaena. He's 13 years old and has been diagnosed with a degenerative disorder. There's no recovery. It's a silent heartbreak for my family as we watch Kaena closely for  loss of movement and for pain.

    Dr. Bergin had wonderful stories of Hawaiian ranch life--noble horses, brave cowboys, quiet leadership, sunsets, campfires, food, bonding, faith, the vaquero connection, the easy detail of phrases in the Hawaiian language to describe animals' conditions.

   Finally, I asked him what his greatest reward has been in taking care of animals. His answer brought Kaena to my mind right away.  Dr. Bergin said he is able to do something that physicians cannot legally do--and it is a source of great peace to him. When an animal is seriously hurt or ill--and its remaining life will be full of  suffering--Dr. Bergin can painlessly euthanize and spare the animal. It's quality of life, not length of life, that counts most, he said. 

     After talking with Dr. Bergin, I called the Vannatta family, my former next-door neighbors in Niu Valley, who've taken care of thousands of animals over the decades. I asked family matriarch Mrs. Joan Vannatta, a devoted animal lover, what she thought.

     "I've had many of our animals put to sleep when they became very ill," she said, "maybe hundreds of them. It's the responsible thing for humans to do for animals who can't tell us of their suffering. The injection doesn't hurt them--it's very calm and peaceful. But continuing to live with their pain would have been awful."

     "I've never regretted putting one of my animals to sleep," Mrs. Vannatta said. "But I have very much regretted not doing it sooner."

       I appreciate the experience and wisdom of ranchman Dr. Bergin and suburban Mrs. Vannatta.

       Kaena, with his terminal diagnosis, still has quality of life. When he no longer is able to enjoy his life, my 'ohana will do what we  now realize is the right thing--take him to our vet, hold him in our arms, and have him receive that painless injection.

       It'll be difficult to lose Kaena no matter when we lose him. I hope we have some satisfaction in knowing that it's his timetable that we value, not ours.

      (You can watch Dr. Bergin on Long Story Short at 7:30pm Tuesday, Dec. 2, on PBS Hawaii. See video clip at

http://www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/longstory.php

 Irish by ancestry, Dr. Bergin learned to speak the Hawaiian language from native Hawaiian cowboys.)

     

     

    

    

  

Surviving Ocean Foolishness

     The only problem with the magnificent view of  high surf breaking on Oahu's North Shore is that sometimes the view includes something it shouldn't:  the sight of someone who doesn't understand the "juice" of these waves, and who puts him or herself at great risk. The need for a rescue puts rescuers at risk too.

      It was a beautiful day, with Thanksgiving weekend gatherings on the shore.

      But socializing abruptly stopped as people all along the beach noticed a  small yellow kayak heading out toward  15-foot waves. It was a totally senseless action. All of us along the shoreline knew it. It's a fairly remote stretch of coast where no lifeguard is assigned.

      Quickly the scenario worsened.  The kayaker stopped paddling  and rested, right in the impact zone,  during a lull between sets.  I guess that what he saw  was a safe place to wait for a wave. What we all saw  was trouble with a capital T. In fact, you could hear a collective groan up and down the beach.

     "What is he thinking?" was the universal question. And, "how bad is this going to get?"

    A black wave took shape outside. The kayaker paddled furiously to get over it before it came crashing down upon him. He nearly made it--he got close--but the ten-foot wave tossed his kayak back and spun it around broadside as it pitched  over and slammed down upon him with fury. Right over the falls! The kayak bounced around, empty, and  caught up in the rip and whitewash, swiftly headed off by itself.

      An anxious few moments later, we spotted the kayaker again, minus kayak. He too was bouncing around, but at least he wasn't underwater.

     He'd  somehow survived his initial trouncing... yet he still had to get back in...

     Fire Rescue and Ocean Safety were called. But a surfer who'd brought a longboard to the beach didn't want to wait and decided to mount a solo rescue. An off-duty fireman had a talk with him, asking him what kind of back-up he had if HE got into trouble too.

    We watched as the man bobbed, high and low, in churning whitewash. Finally, there was a sign of relief as he made it past the reef into calmer waters, where beachgoers were waiting, holding his kayak for him. 

     Waialua firefighters arrived in time to check the kayaker for injuries, and he quickly took refuge in a helpful resident's house, no doubt exhausted and humiliated.

     Suddenly I had more blessings to count on Thanksgiving weekend. How fortunate that the kayaker survived his colossal foolishness, and how glad I am that nobody got hurt going in after him...

Traditional Hawaiian Music Rocks!

     An island music-lover and musican wrote a fan letter about PBS Hawaii's weekly television show, "Na Mele: Traditions in Hawaiian Song," which is all about enjoying, documenting and preserving Hawaiian music.

      Here's the viewer's message:

      Re: Thanks, you rock

Thinking about the past and what it has taught us brings a valuable lesson. Although the society I am raised in forgot what it was like to remember what kind of music there was before. Na Mele makes me remember. With a show like Na Mele it makes me remember what my kupunas taught me about the sound of music and that it never dies. It just brings me joy to see  musicians that brought so much to Hawaii never get forgotten. Always telling their stories and always keeping the true Hawaiian music alive.

   Thank you for the lovely sentiments.

   When I was a kid, living in a rural neighborhood on Oahu, a potluck get-together usually meant some traditional Hawaiian music, too. People would bring along a guitar or ukulele and riff and sing.

     Today, when I speak with young islanders, most say they've never experienced kanikapila. Many are growing up in apartments. You need a little real estate for a backyard jam. And you need to know your neighbors.

    The kids have Ipods and other digital music players--but chances are, they're not playing traditional Hawaiian music.

     Our program Na Mele (Mondays at 7:30pm)  is a little like a backyard jam--with fine musicians and good lighting. Sorry, no food!

      Na Mele keeps remembering and celebrating the past, which is a foundation for the present and the future.

Carlos Andrade: "Enough is plenty"

    "Enough is plenty."  That's a saying that I've come to associate with tonight's guest on Long Story Short  on PBS Hawaii.

 Garden Island native Dr. Carlos Andrade earned his Ph.D and became a college professor later in life than his counterparts at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Until he was 43, he was taking diverse jobs to pay the bills in rural north Kauai, and he was living in a house he built out of recycled materials.

He and his wife  Maile decided to make a move when they concluded they needed more education to support themselves in the face of Hawaii's rising cost of living.

They weren't looking to get rich. For them, "enough is plenty."

Today both Carlos and Maile teach different facets of  Hawaiian Studies at the UH Manoa.  Carlos, a musician, composer, member of the musical group Na Pali, former crewmember on the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule'a, has added "author" to his resume. His book, just out, is Haena: Through the Eyes of the Ancestors.  In it, you'll read of  how Hawaiians traditionally used the lush land and flowing waters of the ahupua'a of Haena, Kauai. And you'll learn something not widely known--39 Hawaiians pooled their resources and bought the entire ahupua'a! They held the land from the late 1800s till 1967. 

You can catch my conversation with Carlos at 7:30 tonight on PBS Hawaii. There's an encore showing at 2:30pm Sunday (Nov. 30). We'll also post a transcript of the conversation on this website. Just click on the Long Story Short box at www.pbshawaii.org

Saving the Day with Words

     My fellow Hawaii blogger, Damon Tucker, has a pre-schooler son who knows what he likes and what he doesn't like. The little boy tried out "WordWorld," PBS' animated TV series, and gave it a thumbs-up, because it kept him entertained. But that's not the main reason his dad wants him to keep watching.  Here's Damon's blog entry:

http://damontucker.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/that-was-a-good-show-dad/

    "WordWorld" airs at 5:30am and 1:30pm every weekday on PBS Hawaii. It describes itself as a place in TV land "where words come alive, words save the day, and words become a child's best friend." http://pbskids.org/wordworld/

FCC Fields Staffers to Help Hawaii with DTV

     Do you know someone with an older, analog TV set and an antenna who's not sure what to do, after seeing the DTV spots running on PBS Hawaii and the other television and radio stations in the islands? Please let them know that they stand to lose their picture when Hawaii goes digital on January 15, a month ahead of the rest of the country.  And that there are resources available to help them make the switch-over.

     The Federal Communications Commission has dispatched staffers to Hawaii to assist with public information as we move from analog to digital transmission. With Hawaii ex-pat Lyle Ishida back in town to coordinate, FCC staffers are holding informational sessions in many communities.

     The feds have set up phone lines in Honolulu for viewer assistance, at 541-2389 and 541-2389.  You can write to FCC staff  locally to ask questions or provide information at:   HawaiiDTVtransition@fcc.gov

     

Bye-bye, Sun and Sunflowers...

    It's a different kind of North Shore weekend on Oahu. The tropical sun that normally goes with our high surf has given way to calm rain.

     We're missing another kind of brightness as well. The acres of yellow sunflowers of uniform height growing alongside Waialua's Kaukonahua Road are gone. That's right--no more sunflowers, and no more motorists stopping off to marvel at the plants' simple, happy beauty and snap pictures.

      Pioneer Plant Seed Hawaii has turned the sunflowers back into the ground, to serve as mulch for the next crop--corn.

      The sunflowers had their moment in the sun primarily to suit the purposes of research. Pioneer Seed used Hawaii's ideal growing conditions to monitor the plants' growth and quality and then send the findings to company offices in California.

       The North Shore sun will be back sooner rather than later. But I'm going to miss those grinning sunflowers on my daily commute.

"Extraordinary" Findings about WordWorld

     In case you haven't watched the creative, learning-based kids' programs on PBS since you were a kid,  Big Bird, Elmo and Barney have plenty of company. PBS keeps the TV pipeline fresh.  Just this year at PBS Hawaii, we added two new keiki shows, "Sid the Science Kid" and "Martha Speaks." In January, we're adding the comeback of "The Electric Company."

      But right now, it's "WordWorld" that's causing a big buzz in the universe of children's TV. The U.S. Dept. of Education funded a study which recorded "extraordinary" results in the show's effectiveness as a critical early literary tool.

      "WordWorld" airs on PBS Hawaii every weekday at 5:30am and 1:30pm.

      Researchers from government-contracted Michael Cohen Group LLC discovered that watching "WordWorld" doubles children's specific oral vocabulary and it triples children's ability to read and recognize featured words.

       "The importance of these findings should not be minimized," the researchers concluded. "(The study) provides scientific legitimacy to 'WordWorld's' claim of addressing pre-literacy learning of young children and distinguishes 'WordWorld' in the market place."

        Of course, we all know that for a children's TV show to be effective in teaching children, kids have to want to watch it. "WordWorld" succeeds on a pure entertainment level, and kids do choose it.

         At PBS Hawaii, we're very pleased to have a strong line-up of educational and fun children's programs. With our supporters' help, we intend to keep strengthening our offerings for children, at a time when Hawaii's educational system is undergoing serious funding cuts.

Dreams and the Comfort of Loved Ones

        Last night on PBS Hawaii's program Long Story Short,  composer and entertainer Keola Beamer told a story about seeing his beloved mother, Hawaiian cultural treasure Nona Beamer, in a dream.

         He didn't recognize her at first--she was young and vibrant and joyful, with long black hair.

         When he woke up that morning, he would find that his ailing mother had died overnight.  He believes his mother had "transcended the cocoon of age" and came to him to say good-bye.

        I've heard similar stories from other people. Sometimes the dream comes long after their loved one has passed. My own husband, Jeff Brown, said his father's death troubled him for a year. Then he dreamed of his father as a young man, possessed of a sense of well-being.  Jeff said it felt like his dad was right there in the room with him, visiting to tell him something. After that dream, Jeff was able to accept his father's death. He thinks that's what his father's message was.

        A friend says in a time of emotional crisis, she felt someone stroke her hair as she was going to sleep, exactly the way her late mother did. There was nobody else around. I can attest that after that, she dealt with that difficult period in her life from a position of more strength.

        What do these stories mean? I don't know. I just know it's not rare for people to  tell of experiences like these.

Keola Beamer Opens Up on PBS Hawaii

Singer/composer/author/Hawaiian slack-key guitar master Keola Beamer keeps his own counsel about many things. But on tomorrow night's edition of Long Story Short at 7:30pm on PBS Hawaii, he'll speak about some matters that he's kept private.

 Keola discusses surviving prostate cancer; losing his mother Nona Beamer last April; and adopting the Buddhist faith.

That's not all. He responds to a decades-old question that he's tired of hearing. What happened to break apart his successful musical partnership with his brother Kapono? The duo produced the phenomenal island classic, "Honolulu City Lights.' Maybe this time his answer will put the question to rest.

Keola also explains his project to bridge worlds through music--collaborating with musicians from other indigenous cultures. PBS Hawaii has taped a show featuring Keola on ki ho'alu (slack-key guitar) playing with Navajo R. Carlos Nakai, a master of the native American flute. The show is in production. I'll let you know when it's scheduled for broadcast.

Keola lives with his wife Moanalani, a hula dancer, in Lahaina, Maui.