Jai-Jai. April 1990-March 2006.
Jai-Jai came to us in a strange way.
We were at Mt Gravatt Shopping Mall outside in the car park, when I had vision of myself going over the gateway bridge to the north side of Brisbane. Why I didn’t know?
I had thought that getting a dog may make my wife more happy in Brisbane, and I knew that she always wanted a little hairy dog. So looking in the papers, I called up an ad with shih-tzus for sale. It was at an address on the northern side of the river over the gateway bridge!
We went over and met a couple, who actually were into Buddhism. Jean sat and played with the pups who were about six months old. Jai-Jai was called JL McCabe after a TV personality who liked to eat. So we immediately renamed him Jai-Jai or Jai for short, which means victory in Sanskrit. He had a couple of defects so he was cheap, $100 instead of about $600. He had a blue eye and a brown one and also had a stomach hernia. We had him ‘fixed’ and the hernia repaired at the same time.
We took him home and gave him a flea bath and brushed him up.
He was an aggressive little guard dog though and would launch himself into space at the insect screen on the front door, when somebody came. He was a little scoundrel and not a peaceable dog at all, he was very bossy, and would give you a nip.
Not long after this we decided to return to Canada and we weren’t going to leave him behind. So I went ahead and he was boxed up and sent after me. Unfortunately he was lost by the airline and ended up in Japan and the USA. However he did arrive eventually a couple of days late and I put him into a shelter for a week. I first took him for a walk in Central Park and he experienced snow for the first time.
We all eventually moved into a house and he joined us there. A joy and a delight, to everyone.
His next big challenge came at about 10 years. He did suffer from some kind of neurological disease and was taken to seizures.
At one point his back legs went and so we had to take him in for aggressive anti-inflammatory treatment. He couldn’t walk, so I attached a basket to an airline suitcase wheels and took him for walks. I would take him out for a pee and poop, and let him walk a little. I nursed him for six months in this way until he could walk and run again.
He had to go into the vet’s again for some bad teeth removal and have some stones removed from his stomach. He overcame this also.
Eventually we moved to a house in Delta with a big back yard, which we shared with our daughter Brigid and her three dogs.
This was a happy time for a couple of year until it became obvious that he was mostly deaf and was going blind with cataracts. The downhill trend didn’t accelerate until his last few months, where he was totally blind and didn’t want to walk anymore. I nursed him and looked after him until the 31 March 2006, he had a debilitating stroke and had to be released from his old body, almost sixteen years old.
We loved him dearly as a child, and he carried us through some turbulent and emotional times. He held me up when I felt I should lay down. There were no empty spaces in our hearts with Jai-Jai around. He taught us so much and asked for so little, unconditional love for us. Combined with Brigid’s dogs we had a pack of four and in less that twelve months that was reduced to one, yet I know that three are together on the Astral/Heaven planes.
In fact just about ten days before he died, I saw Rumbles and Brodi standing staring at me as I was starting to awake one morning. I guessed then that they were telling me that Jai-Jai was coming up to join them soon. However then an anal infection he had cleared up with anti-biotics and I thought he may last until after Easter, but a sudden stroke in the night rendered him in a spasmic state and unable to walk. He was quite distressed about it and it got steadily worse through the day. I had booked him for his last visit to the Vet for 5:20 so Jean could be there when he left. My daughter Brigid came over and when Jai-Jai awoke he was distressed again. So I gave him some analgesics and a shot of brandy, which made him sleep again. When Jean came home he awoke again but we were ready for the trip to the Vets, and although he was distressed and barking his passing was mercifully quick and painless.
I cannot describe the pain and sense of loss we felt. I had been through the grieving process before but this bowled me over. I take consolation that he is now happy with his buddies and has all his faculties again.
I did a meditation and saw him. He was very close and looked younger with more hair.
I told him that I loved him and he said that he didn’t want to leave, but thanked me for allowing him to come here—Astral Doggie Heaven. He said that he can see, hear and everything and is very happy. I told him I was happy for him and we would meet again, that he really hadn’t gone away. Rumbles, Brodi were there and the other dogs. Also the Blue Devas were there also, doing their work minding and teaching the dogs. He said again that he didn’t want to leave me but the suffering was great. I told him again that I loved him and that we were not really apart. Some days later, as I was sitting watching TV, he paid us a goodbye visit. I could feel the love energy in my chest and heart, just as when I held him. I said to Jean, 'Jai-Jai is here I can feel him. So this was where he said goodbye to this plane and completed all his visits. To add to this the last two license tags, his rabies tag, and his micro chip tag all added up to the universal number 9. In Sanskrit and Eastern Philosophy and Numerology 9 is Jaya or Victory, which is also what Jai-Jai Means. Sometime later, I meditated and went up again. I first saw Rumbles and then Brodi and I talked to them. Jai-Jai then came over and he was staring at me, trying to remember me. Just as he would after I had been away for a while, when he was still in the body. I picked him up and hugged him the way I used to do, and I was filled with surging Blissful Energy or Love. The last time I went up; I was confronted by a Deva filling my complete line of sight. I told him we were all Devas and then I saw the dogs again, and hugged Jai-Jai. On reflection I feel my Astral Visits are disturbing their work and there is no point in my going there for my personal attachment and grief reasons. For Jai-Jai in his old form cannot come back and my visits in this way may be destabilizing him. I resolved not to do it again and leave it to when we are both in the ‘Dream World’, where it won’t have the same effect. We are all one anyway!
