ARTICLE: MOVIE REVIEW: HACHI (based on a true story)

This article originally appeared both on Yahoo.voices and Bubblews which no longer exists)

If it hadn't been for Facebook and my involvement with animal issues, I may never have come across the whole story of Hachiko, an Akita dog of which the 2009 movie is based on.

First let me share a bit about the story of Hachiko itself. Back in 1924, a Professor named Hidesaburo Ueno who taught at the University of Tokyo. It was in that year, he took in an akita dog and named him Hachiko. The dog was completely loyal to Professor Ueno, so much so, that a routine seemingly began where the dog would patiently wait every single day at the Shibuya Train Station, waiting for his master to come home from the University. But then one day in May of 1925, the Professor didn't. he had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and passed on.

The story doesn't end there however. From 1925 up until 1935, Hachiko continued his patient wait at the train station for his master to come home. The story of Hachiko's loyalty toward his master didn't go unnoticed, and the story started to circulate and made public. Even before his passing, a statue of Hachiko was erected in his honor at the Shibuya Train Station, in 1934. A year later on March 8, 1935 passed away and a ceremonial funeral was heldat the station.

Now for the movie version.

The 2009 movie the story is "Americanized" with Richard Gere playing the role of Professor Parker Wilson, who one night, when coming home from the University that he teaches, finds an abandoned Akita puppy roaming the train station. The dog almost immediately seems attracted to the Professor and of course, Professor Parker feels sympathy for this lost, abandoned puppy. At first he tries everything possible to find a home for the puppy, especially since he knows his wife Cate (played by Joan Allen) wouldn't be too keen on the idea of having a pet in the home. For a good part of the beginning of the movie, you might say it's a sheer battle between the Professor and his wife and in keeping the puppy. Well, as you can guess, the puppy does stay and is named Hachi.

A close bond occurs between the Professor and Hachi, and true to the original story, Hachi develops a routine where he goes to the train station and patiently waits for the professor to come home, and like the original story, as you can guess, one night the Professor suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and passes on. Also true to the original story, Hachi waits, and waits, and waits for ten years for his master to come home.

I'm not going to kid you, while watching this movie, one definitely needs a box of tissues nearby. I think what gets a person the most is the demonstration of loyalty and devotion that this dog exhibits to his master. I'm not going to spoil things by giving the entire plot away but the ending of the movie is truly bittersweet, and yes, tissue time again.

For the record however, this demonstration of the loyalty of a dog to his master, even after death is by no means the first recorded incident. There is also the true story of Greyfriar's Bobby, which was made "famous" by the 1961 Disney movie of the same name, and was one of my childhood favorite movies that I had watched. In this case, the story takes place in 1865 in Edinburgh, Scotland and of a Skye Terrier owned by a shepherd who passed on, and after his master's death, kept vigil watch and slept on the grave of his master in the Greyfriar's churchyard. Like Hachiko, there is also a statue in Bobby's honor. More recently is the story of Huachi, a dog of mixed breed in Bolivia and had been owned by a student who tragically died in an accident. In similar fashion to Bobby and Hachiko, Huachi waits for his master to return.

The movie Hachi is definitely one of those must see movies, particularly if one is an animal lover. The movie and the original story that it is based on clearly demonstrates that animals do indeed show feelings, emotions, joy, pain, depression and grief, and as the former movie critics, Siskel and Ebert would have said, I give this movie two thumbs up. Just remember those tissues!

For a little more background of the true story of Hachiko one can read all about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachikō

Hachikō

There are also a good number of books that have been written about Hachiko and if you're interested they can be purchased over at Amazon.com

1). Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog by Pamela S. Turner

2). Hachiko Waits by Lesléa Newman and Machiyo Kodaira

3). Hachiko: The True Story of The Royal Dogs of Japan and One Faithful Akita by Julie Chrystyn

4). Hach-Ko: The Samurai Dog by Shizuko O. Koster

5). Hachi: The Truth of The Life and Legen of the Most Famous Dog in Japan by Mayumi Itoh

The official Greyfriar's Bobby website:

http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk

Greyfriar's Bobby

Story of Huachi of Bolivia:

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2014/01/after-five-years-dog-continues-to-wait-for-diseased-owner/

Huachi of Bolivia

Image source:

http://www.moviecape.com/product_info.php?products_id=5665

ARTICLE: Do People Take Medications "Blindly" Without Knowing All The Side Effects?

(Also published at Bubblews with an additional addendum)

I have to confess, I'm not really big on taking medications and that is probably a throwback to my great-grandmother's viewpoints, as she was a nurse, thought doctors for the most parts were idiots, relied on natural remedies, never took anything stronger than aspirin, and lived to be 98.

Thankfully, I don't have any of the common health problems that many people may have: I don't have high blood pressure, nor high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. that would indicate the need for medications. I'm also not one to rush out to the flu vaccine as I haven't had the flu since I was eleven years old. Like my great grandmother, I try to find natural remedies to keep me healthy and also like her, I never take anything stronger than aspirin, with the few exceptions when I've taken an anti-biotic for some infection in my system. Unfortunately, that you might say was my downfall.

In the past, when I have taken an anti-biotic, I did fine with the simple penicillin types, they did the trick, but the last time I was prescribed an anti-biotic, the doctor insisted on my taking "Cipro" (Ciprofloxacin). Being the ever curious type, I decided to look it up on the web to find out if there were any side effects one should be aware of. You see, doctors do not, repeat do not know all the possible side effects any medication may have, usually just the more common and expected ones. Upon looking the medication up on the internet, I didn't see any serious side effects so I took it. Well I did have one effect right away. Not to be graphic, but let's put it this way, I could have read Tolstoy's War And Peace while sitting on the "royal throne". Yup, it triggered a real severe case of diarrhea. I even complained to the doctor about it, and he told me, "Oh, that means it's working," and that I should continue to take it.

For the first time in my life, I perhaps went against my better judgment, and rather than insisting in perhaps asking for a different anti-biotic, especially a penicillin type, I did indeed continue to take it. Then, about a month after I stopped taking it, I suddenly noticed an ever increasing stiffening and pain of my joints, particularly my wrist and hands and my ankles and feet. As time went on it became worse and worse and worse. I didn't connect the dots as to why I was having this problem, and no, I didn't exactly rush to the doctor about it either.

Well one time after a year had passed by and when I was researching for an article to write about, and yes dealing with medications, I came across and looked up "Cipro" again. NOW it had warnings about triggering RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) and even ripped tendons and was now one of those medications that had class action lawsuits against it. Gee, wonderful. Yes folks, I now have severe RA, with it CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and often feel like 150 years old at times.

Now, you may ask, do I now take medications for my RA? Are you joking me? The medications often prescribed for RA and severe pain issues aren't exactly stellar and even if you gave me a million dollars to take them, I won't. One common medication prescribed for RA includes the warning: "Please tell your doctor of any sudden mood changes, depression or have suicidal thoughts." Gee, lovely. I'm sure quite often while watching TV, you may have seen those commercials for some medication for a particular health problem, then the announcer lists all the side effects. Are you like me and shake your head in amazement and wonder, with all those side effects, why on earth would anyone want to take this crap?

So now the question, do people blindly take medications without knowing all the possible side effects? I would have to give a loud resounding yes to that, as way too often people perhaps trust their doctors a bit too much. I can give one great example of this, my own grandmother. Unlike my great grandmother who had a distain for medications, my grandmother was the opposite. In her later years my grandmother had developed a bad case of asthma and was given a wide variety of medications including Theophylline to clear her lungs. That medication was to have fatal results: one night when my grandmother went to the ER while having a bad asthma attack, the doctors gave her a stronger than usual dosage of Theophylline. Did my grandmother pass away due to her asthma problem? No. She passed away due to the Theophylline since it can trigger cardiac arrest.

In my own life, for a very, very brief time, I too took Theophylline whenever I had a serious case of bronchitis, but in very, very low dosages, much lower than what my grandmother had taken, but even with such low dosages, I could feel my heart palpitate , would feel shaky, and often had anxiety. There was one time while having a really extreme bad bout of bronchitis, I went to see my doctor and he decided to give me an injection of Theophylline, and I asked what effects could I expect, and he told me I might feel a little dizzy. A little dizzy? A little dizzy? Are you kidding me? The room was actually spinning and I thought I was going to pass out.

I can't emphasize enough how all too trusting people may be with their doctors and any medication that are prescribed. People will rattle out their symptoms of this or that problem, the doctor will then write out prescriptions, but again without full knowledge of all the side effects or possible drug interactions. Also, in this day and age of accessing the internet for information about medications, people still fail to look them up. I mean wouldn't you want to be aware of just what you are taking? And even then with looking up information, there are no real guarantees of being fully informed, as was in my case when I took Cipro since not all the side effects and warnings were known at the time I took it.

So do I take any medications? No. Like my great grandmother I only take aspirin, and even that only sparingly. I've been on a quest you might say to find an alternative, more natural means to help my RA problems. I refuse to be a guinea pig taking pharmaceutical type medications that may have far more serious detrimental effects and perhaps trigger even more health problems.

ARTICLE: Pets As Christmas Gifts: Good Idea Or Not?

(Originally published on Bubblews~December 22, 2013)

Bubblews Article

With the Christmas season upon us there probably is not a better way to express the idea of giving than to adopt a shelter pet and give the gift of life to that pet; this is especially true when adopting a pet in a high kill shelter. Whether a shelter pet is from a high kill shelter or a no-kill shelter, both types of shelters are overwhelmed and crammed with unwanted pets and by adopting a pet, especially during this time one is giving a chance for a new life, new home to that shelter pet. However! Is it a good idea or not?

The Pros:

I've had cats ever since I was five years old, in fact, my very first cat, a "tuxedo" cat, that is a black and white cat and named Babette, was adopted by my mother and yes, given to me as a Christmas gift. Babette became my animal companion and was to live throughout my elementary school years, junior high, high school and even college. I came from a background of people who were "pet" people and knew responsibility in taking care of pets. Since I was introduced to a pet at such an early age, I too learned the responsibility of having a pet and was to have many pets afterwards. To this day, I have two cats, the most recent is Ouija, a cat I adopted from the Grayson County Humane Society, a no-kill shelter all the way in Kentucky and was transported to me. I adopted him and he came into my life on December 1, 2012, so in effect, he was my Christmas present.

As I've indicated, whether pets are in a no-kill shelter or high kill shelters, both types of shelters are overwhelmed with too many pets and not enough people adopting them. The sad statistics for high kill shelters is that as many as one-hundred pets can be killed weekly in one high-kill shelter alone, multiply that by each and every high-kill shelters nationwide, it's not hard to understand that up to three to four million, yes, million cats and dogs are "euthanized" every year. (1)

Therefore by adopting a pet, especially from a high kill shelter at anytime of the year, one is indeed saving a life, and one can't help thinking what better time of the year to save a shelter pet's life than at the Holiday/Christmas time? So yes, adopting a pet at this time of the year and as a "gift" can be a true miracle, especially for that pet. What better way to celebrate Christmas?

The Cons:

There are of course the cons to the concept of adopting a pet as a gift for Christmas and it all has to do with how responsible the adopter and/or recipient of the pet is. The adopter has to realize, that when adopting a pet from a shelter and as a "gift" we're talking about a living creature with feelings and emotions; the pet isn't a disposable or returnable item or commodity.

I hate to say it, but to my mind, pet shelters can often be at fault as well as far as the concept of giving a pet as a gift during the holiday season. So many shelters, whether high-kill or no-kill, are always overwhelmed with too many pets in their shelters and not enough people interested in adopting a pet. What happens then is that during this time of the year, shelters will lower adoption fees, much in the same sense stores will do to entice people to buy commodities and therefore will have spectacular sales for their electronics, shoes, and so forth.

There's a big difference however; one can return an item that was given as a gift such as clothing if it's not the right size or color, but one shouldn't have the same mind-set with a pet; unfortunately this has become a sad fact, that yes indeed, many shelter pets adopted during the Christmas season are sooner or later often returned for a variety of reasons. Those reasons can be anywhere from that cuddly puppy or kitten is now grown and has lost it's "cute appeal, to perhaps the recipient of the "gift" pet not realizing the responsibilities and costs involved with owning a pet.

Bottom line: If one is thinking of adopting a pet as a gift, one needs to give real serious thought of what's involved. This is a living, breathing animal; a life, an addition to the family, and therefore, should be a member of the family for the remainder of the pet's life and not to be gotten rid of when no longer convenient.

Sources:

Shelter Pet Statistics: (1) http://www.humanesociety.org/animal_community/resources/qa/common_questions_on_shelters.html

Shelter Pet Statistics

IMAGE SOURCE~©DESIGN BY MELANIE NEER VIA PHOTOSHOP

Article: A Quick Cute Way To Make A Black Cat Halloween Decoration

Well this year has sure gone fast and Halloween is fast approaching, and I have to confess it's one of my favorite times of the year. Each and every year, I just love decorating for Halloween, not only in my home, but for my front door. Now of course I often buy Halloween decorations and have a fair sized collection of all kinds of decorations that I've bought over the years, but every once in awhile I decide to get a little "artistic" and create something on my own.

Being that I'm one of those environmentalist type of people and like to reuse something instead of merely trashing it out as garbage, I'm one of those people that tries to think up ways of recycling something for another purpose and use. I haven't a clue how I came up with this idea, but it's one way I discovered to recycle plastic shopping bags, especially those rather small sized bags.

How often have you done some kind of grocery shopping, especially for very small-sized items and you're given a very small sized black shopping bag? Normally, with regular sized plastic shopping bags one can in a sense reuse them say for throwing out garbage, but those really small-sized bags are kind of pesky and not really great for reusing again. So what happens? One usually just throws them out. Well guess what, I found a way to reuse them by coming up with and creating a quick, kind of cute Black Cat Halloween decoration.

In the included photo you see just one of my Black Cat Halloween decorations and here's how I made it.

What you will need:

One black plastic grocery shopping bag

One or two more plastic shopping bags

Orange yarn

Orange acrylic paint

Small artist paintbrush

Duct tape

1). For this particular decoration, the bag size itself was about 12 inches long. To create the head part of the Black Cat decoration, take more plastic grocery bags, perhaps one or two and form a ball out of them and stuff into the bottom of the bag.

2). With some orange-colored yarn, cut about 18-inches of the yarn, center the yarn and wrap it around a few times to form the "neck" and then tying it into a "bow". Smooth the front of the head to form a better "face" and form "ears" at each top end of the bag. Cut off the handles of the bag.

3). Now take the orange acrylic paint, and paint directly on the "face" the cats eyes, nose, whiskers, and mouth…get as fancy as you wish with these details, though not really necessary.

4). In order to hang up the Black Cat Halloween decoration, cut a bit more yarn, create a loop and tape it to the back of the cat's head with some duct tape.

Voilà ..that's all that's to it. Simple to make yet kind of cute and festive for Halloween and even kids can make these. Not only that, but stored away properly this decoration will last for years.

IMAGE SOURCE~©Melanie Neer~Personal Photo

ARTICLE: How To Make A Mustard Plaster: An Old Time Remedy For Congestion And Backaches

(Originally Published on Bubblews~March 22, 2014-a website that no longer exists)

My great grandmother who while being a nurse, was a virtual walking encyclopedia of natural remedies and preferred them over pharmaceutical medications; she never took anything stronger than aspirin and only relied on the old-time natural remedies and lived to be 98 years old. You might say, that her sense of natural remedies is what we might now call holistic, homeopathic or alternative types of healing. It's unfortunate however, that neither my grandmother nor mother wrote any of my great grandmother's "remedies" down, however there is one I do remember very well: the mustard plaster.

The mustard plaster has been an old-time folklore remedy mainly used for both chest congestions and backaches. Growing up, I always remembered seeing a tin can of Colman's Dry Mustard, both in my great grandmother's home and in the home where I lived with my grandmother and mother. In other words, none of us were ever without it. While there may be other brands of dry mustard, the Colman's brand seemed to be the preferred choice.

How To Make A Mustard Plaster:

From reading different articles about the Mustard Plaster, I noticed there were many variations of just how to make them. However, from a very old tin of Colman's Dry Mustard that I still have, it gives the directions, and as a by the way, none of the newer tins have them. Here are the directions:

MUSTARD PLASTER or POULTICE (Adults)

"Take equal parts of flour and Coleman's Mustard and make into a pass with tepid water. Spread on cotton cloth and cover with a second piece. Apply and allow to remain as long as can be borne but not more than 20 minutes. For sensitive skin increase the amount of flour used to four parts flour to one part mustard."

For the cotton cloth part, one may use a washcloth, and spread the plaster onto half of the washcloth, then fold over. One can then place directly right on one's chest to clear chest congestion, or on one's back for helping backaches. Have I used the Mustard Plaster myself? Yes. Does it work?Most definitely! In the past, when I've had bad bouts of bronchitis to the point where I felt like an elephant was sitting on top of my chest, I would make up the plaster. However, in my case, I was often a little more daring and I dispensed with the cloth part, and would apply the plaster directly on my chest. I would then keep it on as long as I could tolerate it. Why? The plaster does make the area where it is applied on feel hot, also and I did notice that my skin would turn noticeably red.

Now unless you have a very good condiment section of your local supermarkets, which I don't have, Coleman's Dry Mustard may be hard to find. Wanting to have a tin of the mustard on hand as a just in case, I had to resort to buying it on-line, therefore you may also have to resort to buying on-line as well. One can find it via Amazon.com, eBay and a good number of other on-line websites and runs about $5.99 for one tin.

Other articles about Mustard Plaster:

http://thewellspring.org/mustard-plaster-for-stubborn-chest-congestion/

Mustard Plaster Chest Congestion

Mustard Plaster

There's even a video on how to make a Mustard Plaster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIw9Ay3zEJs Mustard Plaster Video

Image Source: ©Melanie Neer~Personal Photo of my tin of Colman's Dry Mustard

Article: Have You Ever Just Found Out A "Celebrity" That You Knew Had Passed Away? Actor Rino Thunder

(Originally Published At The Discussion Forum MyLot~under the username of pyewacket~January 23, 2008)

MyLot Discussion

I had been involved with a discussion by worldwise about the passing of a rather well-known Native American actor, Floyd Red Crow Westerman. I gave her a link to a website that is a listing of all Native American actors....so curious I started puttering around the site myself, and came up with a familiar name, Rino (pronounced Reeno) Thunder. So clicked on his link to his site and found out to my dismay he had died back in 2003!

What was shocking for me, was that I actually knew him. This goes back to the late 1970s. Being part Native American myself I perchance went to an outdoor powwow at the Museum of the American Indian..I took my camera with me and got some excellent photos, mainly using black and white film. Then I found out about the American Indian Community House (AICH) in Manhattan and at the time they were having a gallery exhibit of Native art work. I asked permission if I could photograph some of the work and they said it was all right. A few weeks later, I went back to them, with a small portfolio of some of the black and white prints I had made up as I knew how to develop my own film and prints. I showed off my work to some of the staff members and they were so impressed that right then and there they asked me to in effect be their "official" photographer to photograph future exhibits, the powwows, to photograph their jewelry that they made on site and to photograph some of the people that belonged to AICH as many were aspiring actors who wanted their 8x10 glossy resume photos

..and yes, you can guess just who was one of the people I photographed...Rino Thunder...you can say it was a classic case of knowing him before he got "famous"--he was seen in some of the following movies:

Film

· 7th Street (2002)

· Fresh Kill (1994)

· Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

· Beyond the Law (1992)

· Hot Shots! (1991)

· Power (1986)

· Wolfen (1982)

Television

· Miracle in the Wilderness 1992

· Invisible Thread Penn & Teller 1987

· Three Sovereigns For Sarah - American Playhouse 'John The Indian' 1985

· Stone Pillow Starring Lucille Ball 1985

· Dance in America 'Song For Dead Warriors' - Narrator (Emmy Award) 1984

· Johnny Appleseed And The Frontier Within - 'Shamen' (Emmy Award) 1983

· Leatherstocking Tales - Singing Bear (Emmy Award: Outstanding Childrens' Anthology/Dramatic Programming) 1982

When I photographed him he took on the stance of the very serious person, the classic "stoic" Indian-- never cracked a smile, but he did have a wicked sense of humor. I unfortunately don't have any of my photos of him printed up..but I do still have all the negatives of all the people I had photographed during that time.

Anyway, like I said you can imagine my shock when I was looking at that website, only to find out he had passed away in 2003..odd, as I never even remember anything mentioned about his passing..I surely would have remembered hearing about it.

http://www.tv.com/rino-thunder/person/236178/biography.html

So have any of you actually known any "celebrities"? And then found out they had passed away? All I know I really feel a sadness about having learned of this actor's passing..

(Update from original posting. While I never printed up any of the photos I took of Rino Thunder, I still have the negatives and am able to scan them to digitize.)

Image Source: ©Melanie Neer~Personal photo taken at the American Indian Community House of then "unknown" actor Rino Thunder circa 1978)

Article: Keep Your Cats Safe During The Month Of October And Especially On Halloween

Summer has come and gone and now it’s officially the Fall season. The air is starting to get crisp and cool once more, and one of my favorite holidays is fast approaching, that being Halloween.

Halloween, that time of year where people can dress up in costumes and isn’t just a “holiday” for kids to have fun, but a time where no matter what one’s age is, we can let our “adult” selves let go and act silly. We can dress up as a superhero, a person from history such as Cleopatra, we can dress up as a character from Lord Of The Rings, or become a favorite Disney character, and needless to say, attire ourselves as a witch, which consequently is still one of the most popular Halloween costumes to wear. 



There is however, a very negative down side to Halloween and not just on October 31st, but for the whole month of October. The month of October is perhaps the worst month of the year for cats, particularly black cats. As an animal activist, not one day goes by when I hear of outright animal abuse throughout the year for sadly there are all too many people that are cat haters. Antagonisms toward cats aren’t limited to outright animal abusers, but a seeming hatred toward cats and rather “sick” suggestions are made even by the media. For instance, on March 14, 2013, Ted Williams, a guest writer for the Orlando Sentinel suggested to rid the feral and stray cat population by “lacing” pet food with Tylenol. (1) Some states in the USA are suggesting bills to be passed to change the status of feral and stray cats to “wildlife” so that it would be no longer considered illegal to hunt and kill cats. The latest is a landlord in Missouri requesting tenants to leave bowls of antifreeze out to poison cats. (2)

Now to get back to Halloween which may be fun for us, but not for cats. Did you know that reputable pet rescuers and animal shelters will not adopt out black cats during the whole month of October and in my opinion rightly so. Hatred and abuse of cats, especially black cats, intensifies during the month of October and all cats can be targets for sick, demented people with ill intent, and not just limited to feral or stray cats, but people’s pets who are allowed to “roam” freely by their owners. During the month of October, cats are more likely to be stolen as bait for dog fights, brutalized, abused, tortured and killed by sick demented people.

So here’s an urgent plea on my part. If you’re the type of person who allows their pet cat to “roam” no matter what color your pet cat is, but especially if your pet cat(s) are black cats, during the entire month of October, please, please, please KEEP THEM INDOORS!!

Sources:

(1). Outcry about Ted Williams article:


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130320-feral-cats-euthanize-ted-williams-audubon-science/

Ted Williams article

(2). Anti-freeze threat to kill cats:

http://news.alleycat.org/2014/09/23/cats-threatened-by-antifreeze-notice-in-missouri/


Anti-freeze threat to cats

Image Source

http://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2658/