09.12.09
Posted in Dogs at 11:30 pm by lance
We’ve been thinking of getting another dog for a while now. Koko is getting older and can’t keep up with Irwin. Kim’s been holding out for a Corgi, but we haven’t had much luck in finding one here… at least not without having to sell off an organ. Then we were presented with the opportunity to get a pure-breed (without papers) golden retriever, so we jumped at the chance. The breeder lives on Maui, but she flies over to Oahu often to help with her mother-in-law. We’ve been talking with her for a few weeks and have finally decided to go with one of her girls – there were 9 puppies in the litter… one of the other girls was Annie’s birthday present.
She flew in this weekend and we met her this afternoon… “purple puppy” (aka Bella) is the cutest thing ever!!! Since we met Mia (the breeder) at Windward Mall, we swung by my parents’ house (our dog sitters) so they could meet Bella. After that, it was homeward bound…
It’s taking a little bit, but Irwin and Koko are slowly warming up to Bella. What’s good is that she can hold her own against Irwin.
Couldn’t expect Dana or Megan to stay away once they heard that we were getting a puppy, so they all came over for dinner… Mom & Dad Jinbo; Hugh, Dana, & Megan (Jen was at a play); Sandy, Lane, Andie, & Mika; and Kaina, Lynelle, & Grayson.
Anywho, just wanted to announce the arrival of the newest member of our family… Bella!!!
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08.12.09
Posted in Dogs, Kim, Lance at 6:00 pm by kimi
Today is August 12, 2009. It’s been exactly one year since our playful, gentle giant Beamer left us. We just barely made it thru the one-year mark for Logan, and now here we are, doing it all over again. For those of you who know us well, our dogs are like our kids, so losing Beamer was really hard on us . . . losing him so soon after Logan made it even harder.
It’s still sad to only see 2 furry faces greeting us when we get home, but knowing that Logan & Beamer are together makes us feel a little better. We can just imagine what kinds of mischief the 2 rascals are getting into! 
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02.26.09
Posted in Dogs, Lance at 11:12 pm by lance
Irwin and Beamer were best buddies and Irwin was able to release a lot of his energy on Beamer. Now that Beamer is not with us any more, Irwin has a lot of pent up energy… more than I can burn off by playing or running with him. That’s why I bought a bike. Along with my bike, I also bought a leash attachment that has a spring in it so when Irwin pulls he doesn’t pull me over.
It’s taken a little while to just get him used to the bike. What’s even funnier is that we also had to get him used to seeing me with a helmet on. He REALLY did not like that.
After I got Irwin used to the bike (and helmet) it was time to leave the backyard. I wanted to start off easy – like you’re supposed to do with any exercise program, so we stayed close to home.
Now that Irwin and I are getting used to the run, we’ve started to venture further into the neighborhood.
I think he’s starting to like his run!
More to come…
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12.04.08
Posted in Dogs at 11:52 am by kimi
December 4th is Beamer’s birthday . . . our big guy would have been 6 years old today. We miss him so much, but we know that he & Logan are having a grand old time together . . . we’re sure that they’re getting into ALL sorts of mischief!
HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY BEAMER!! We love you!!
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10.26.08
Posted in Dogs at 3:45 pm by lance
A friend of ours got married last weekend and asked if we could dog-sit one of their dogs, a golden retriever named Kainoa. They dropped him off on Thursday and he stayed with us until Monday. He is an older dog, I think they said that he’s about 10 years old, but he’s as frisky as a puppy. He LOVES to roll around in the grass and get his tummy rubbed. He was such a sweet dog.
Unfortunately, Irwin didn’t think that he was such a good thing. Every time Kai would go near Irwin, Irwin would tense up. Once in a while, when Kai would get too close, Irwin would lift his lips to bare his teeth just a bit. You could tell that Kai really wanted to be Irwin’s friend. We tried all weekend to get Irwin used to Kai… He got a little better towards the end, but not enough that we felt comfortable leaving the two unsupervised.
It’s a good thing that we have our yard fenced off… Kai spent most of the time on the grass, while Koko and Irwin stayed on the concrete. When we were home, we would let them hang out together, but only while they could be supervised.
We loved having Kai… he’s such a great dog… we just wish that Irwin thought so too.
When I get a chance, I’ll post some pictures of him.
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08.29.08
Posted in Dogs at 8:24 am by kimi
We’d like to say thanks to everyone who have been asking us how we’re all (dogs included) doing without Beamer. For those of you who never met Beamer, he was a BIG guy . . . everything about him was big! His tongue was big, his ears were big, his paws were big, and his love for his toy was big! #1 priority for Beamer was playing with his toy . . . if given a choice, he’d much rather play than eat! Everytime we’d go out into the backyard, Beamer was right by our sides, not-so-subtly reminding us that we hadn’t thrown his toy yet.Â
Things are definitely not the same without Beamer. Feeding time feels strange because we’re only scooping food into 2 bowls, instead of 3. Shooting down the patio to clean it feels strange because Beamer’s not shadowing us, reminding us about his toy. Beamer’s absence is the biggest when it’s playtime.
Koko & Irwin seem to be doing okay without Beamer. We think that Koko is secretly relieved that Beamer is gone . . . she & Beamer never really liked each other too much. They kind of just tolerated each other and Beamer LOVED to pester her.
Irwin & Beamer, on the other hand, were buddies. From day 1, Beamer was Irwin’s pal. Irwin loves to wrestle with Koko, but he always slept near Beamer. We would often find the 2 big guys sleeping together in Beamer’s igloo! While Beamer was in the hospital, Irwin would look for him all the time. We took Koko & Irwin with us to see Beamer for the last time . . . they were also in the room when Dr. Hatami put Beamer to sleep. Irwin could sense that something was not right with his buddy. Since then, he hasn’t been looking for Beamer . . . it seems like he’s accepted that Beamer is gone.
So . . . we’re all doing as well as can be expected . . . missing our tiny guy & our big guy, but taking things one day at a time.
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08.12.08
Posted in Dogs at 3:41 pm by kimi
Today was another sad day for us . . . we had to put our big giant, Beamer, to sleep today. As most of you know, Beamer has been very sick since Friday evening. He remained a mystery to the vets because they couldn’t seem to figure out what was wrong with him. His lab tests on Sunday evening showed that his kidneys were starting to fail. They repeated the bloodwork again on Monday . . . his kidneys hadn’t gotten any better or worse, but his liver was also starting to show signs of failure.
The worst news came late last night . . . we got a call from the vet saying that Beamer had lymphoma. They suspected that he had an aggressive form of cancer and that it had already spread to his kidneys and liver. They offered chemotherapy, but didn’t have much hope that it would buy him much quality time.
For those of you who knew Beamer, he was a very playful and active dog . . . he wasn’t one who was content to just lay at your feet and enjoy your company. Seeing him lying there in the hospital’s kennel was hard for us . . . we knew that he was miserable, although the vets said that he probably wasn’t in any physical pain.
When we went to see him today, we took Koko and Irwin with us. They both seemed to know that something was very wrong with Beamer. Irwin was excited to see his buddy, but seemed to sense what was going on. He seemed very worried about me and Lance because we were both crying.
We said our goodbyes and gave him hugs and kisses . . . we told him that Logan was waiting for him. Dr. Hatami (our vet) gave him a sedative to ease him through it. She then administered the final injection . . . within seconds, our beautiful golden was gone. He went very peacefully, with his family by his side.
They say that every boy needs a dog . . . Logan has a buddy now. We think that Logan’s job was just too big for a little guy like him to do alone, so he chose the biggest guy to come and help him. We take comfort knowing that Logan and Beamer are together now, and that they’ll keep each other company until we can see them both again. Now we’ll have two babies to look for in our dreams.
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08.09.08
Posted in Dogs at 11:23 pm by lance
We just got home from checking on Beamer… As Logan’s celebration was wrapping up, Kim got a call from the Vet letting us know that Beamer was not doing too well. During the evening, Beamer threw up blood 3 times and had diarrhea with blood in it also. The vet also said that the insulin they were giving him for his high glucose levels was not helping.
When we got to the vet’s office, Beamer looked a little better than when we had left him this afternoon. He was actually upright as he was lying down… as opposed to lying on his side. He was still very weak, though, and couldn’t stand or hold his head up for too long.
The vet went over the options with us… which included doing an exploratory surgery. Since they wouldn’t be able to do the surgery until late tomorrow afternoon anyway, we opted to have them run a barium series tonight. For this test, Beamer will drink – or they’ll put a tube down his throat – a solution that will help the vet see his gastro-intestinal (GI) system with x-rays. They will run a series of x-rays to track the solution as it moves through the GI system. We should have the results tomorrow morning.
Keep your fingers crossed that they find something.
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Posted in Dogs at 2:48 am by lance
On Friday afternoon, I went out to feed the dogs. While I was getting ready to put the dog bowls down, Beamer barfed in the kennel… YUCK! After barfing, he walked out of the kennel and barfed again… double YUCK! I cleaned up the barf and fed the dogs. Koko and Irwin scarfed their food, as usual, but Beamer just sniffed his food so I took it away. Other than that, he seemed okay. This wasn’t the first time that he had barfed, or the first time that he refused to eat, so we didn’t think much of it.
We went out to Wahiawa to watch the Olympic opening ceremony and didn’t get home until late Friday night. When we got home, only Koko and Irwin greeted us at the door. We figured that Beamer was around somewhere so I went to get their food ready. As I was opening the sliding door, I noticed that Beamer was still MIA… then I saw him lying by the gate. This was really not like Beamer at all… he’s usually waiting at the sliding door, ready to play.
We put Koko and Irwin in the kennel and went to check on Beamer, who was still just lying there, looking at us. Again, this was very strange behavior for Beamer. We called him over to us and it took him awhile to get up… it took a lot of coaxing to get him to walk over to us. He was very lethargic, but seemed to be walking alright… maybe a little bit wobbly.
Pearl City Veterinary Clinic (where we usually take our dogs) just merged with VCA Family Animal Hospital… luckily, VCA offers 24-hour vet services so we decided to give them a call. We made the decision to take him into the clinic because he REALLY didn’t seem like himself. We’re usually not ones to over-react when it comes to our dogs, so needless to say, we were pretty worried about the big guy.
Long story short… the vet ran some bloodwork on Beamer and found a few abnormalities. They felt it was best to keep him overnight and run more tests on him. We asked if we could see him before we left and they told us they would bring him out to see us. We waited for awhile in the waiting room… eventually, a vet tech came out to get us. Apparently, Beamer wasn’t feeling well enough to get up and make the trip so we went in the back to see him. Talk about a SAD sight… our big guy was just laying in the kennel with his head resting on his paws. He had just enough energy to lift his head when we opened the kennel gate… he didn’t even wag his tail for us. 
We’re crossing our fingers that everything will turn out OK for Beamer… Irwin was very disturbed that Beamer didn’t come home with us. He was even more concerned when I locked them up in the kennel for bedtime… he kept looking towards the gate, trying to find his buddy.
We know that Logan is looking out for Beamer!
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06.01.08
Posted in Dogs, Kim, Lance, Logan at 12:00 pm by lance
Well, this is the first post of the brand new Shinsato Blog… We’d just like to say hello to everyone… stay tuned for more news and comments…
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