Tag: momo

July 2024 – Momo

On July 5 we went to the refuge with Momo, Lulu, and Ollie. We knew it would be Momo’s last visit to the refuge. Over the past few months Momo had been sleeping more and more, walking less and less. That week he had barely been eating. Just drinking water. He slept the whole time on the drive to the refuge.

We knew that as weak as he was, Momo would still be happy to visit the refuge. It was his favorite place! Back in the day, we couldn’t even say the word “farm” out loud if Momo was around. We had to spell it or else he would get all excited thinking we were going to the farm.

It was heartwarming to see Momo perk up when we brought him to the Water Lily Pond. It was like the Momo of old had returned to do his usual walking and inspecting of the grounds.

at the Water Lily Pond
I thought had an even nicer video of Momo walking around, but my phone wasn’t recording!

A few days later on July 11 Momo passed away. He was 15 years old. It was tough to lose Momo. I just tried to think of all the happy times we had, especially at the refuge! Those were the best. I was also comforted knowing that he passed naturally, cradled in my arms. A week after he died, I got sick with Covid and was down for one week. I guess that was my body telling me I had to rest and recover from the stress of losing my heart dog.

When I was better, we went back to the refuge to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was so sad to remember Momo’s last visit. He was on my mind. Then I noticed that there were a lot of butterflies. At first I didn’t think much of it. Then a butterfly brushed against my arm at Big Pond. When I got back to the cottage I saw butterflies on the trees, on the small kamuning bushes, and even inside the veranda. There were butterflies perched on the window! There were so many butterflies that I thought, “It’s Momo!”

on the kamuning
on the window

Tonji was out for a walk. He had gone out to look for interesting birds to photograph. When he got back he was excited about butterflies! He said that he had never seen so many different kinds of butterflies before! He was amazed by all the butterflies he encountered. There were so many of them! He tried to photograph all of them but couldn’t because his camera battery ran out of power. He wasn’t aware though that butterflies are a spiritual symbol of life after death, so he didn’t think of Momo. Whether or not the butterflies were spiritual messengers from beyond, it brought us happiness to see so many beautiful butterflies in the refuge!

Here are Tonji’s butterfly photos, with a few moths and a bee. Click on the photos to see in full screen!

April 2023

April was hot and I only got to do one quick visit to the refuge. I was able to see the Philippine Teak and Balai Lamok flowering! The water levels of the ponds were extremely low. I wanted to save the water lilies but I also felt a little conflicted about adding water to the water lily pond from the deep well. Was I wasting water? It would have been ideal if the pond water could last the whole year round. However, we decided to just go ahead and add water to the pond before completely dried up.

this is the small water lily pond

I think it was a good decision to add water to the pond. The water was very low and very warm but also very clear! I had never seen the water that clear before. There was so much life at the pond. There were tadpoles swimming and dragonflies flitting about. Usually we just see the red dragonflies. This time there was also a big blue one and small ones with other colors!

There was still enough water in the big water lily pond. We didn’t need to add water to it. The plants I was most worried about saving are the peach colored Colorado water lilies. They are in the deepest part of the pond. Tonji thinks the water in that section of the pond will last until rainy season.

the Colorado water lilies at the big pond
there are also dragonflies here!

I am quite happy with our experiment in planting water plants in these two ponds. I did not plant anything in the other ponds, mainly because I didn’t know anything about water plants back then. I think the water plants and guppies brought in more living things to the ponds. The water looks alive, not like a stagnant pool of water. I also think the water plants help to keep the water from evaporating too quickly.

In April, we also had more doggie health woes. Lulu and Ollie got kennel cough and Momo got very sick. I thought Momo was going to die! Thank goodness he pulled through.

I thought Momo was going to die!