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.