Gigi Is Back?

Just to share some memories and a great moment about our great canine friend.

Last week, my friend's greyhound, Gigi, had passed away. It was 19 years old and had come to Japan with my friend 10 years ago from UK.

My friend and Gigi had grown up together and they are very close to each other. Gigi was huge and was a great fan of tracking. We had a paintball team and our "practice field" was inside a forest. Gigi would be jumping around in the woods while we head to our field and it would wait for us in our tent until we finish our sports to play with it.

Moving to Japan, because we are getting too old to be equipped with all those heavy gears, we still practice our "shooting skills" though we changed our paint ball guns to Nerf guns. Gigi notice the changes and love chasing my friend during our game. My friend would tell it to stay in the dog shack every time it chases him.

Years past, Gigi started to wobble its huge body when it walks. My friend went out with us less since he would want to be with Gigi more often, as he noticed that the time is coming.

Gigi weakens but tried really hard to show that it was not in pain, it was fine and wanted to go out like they usually do. My friend had called me several times crying, saying that he did not know what to do. He visited the vet, but was told that Gigi was just too old and it is part of nature. I told my friend that Gigi was happy being with him, hoping that would cheer him up. Few days later, Gigi had passed away.

We did a funeral for Gigi. My friend was depressed since his best partner had gone away forever. That night, a few more friends and I stayed with the depressed man. We talked about happy moments with Gigi and some funny things happened during our "Paintball Time". We cheered up and drank a little, until suddenly we heard someone or something scratching the front door. Our depressed man now a little drunk went to up to the door and shouted "Gigi, stop scratching!" We all went quiet then we all heard a very faint "Heek...heek..." somewhat like a sound dogs will make.

My friend became conscious and told us that Gigi had come to say goodbye.