Hearts in Hawai'i
A Tribute to Kimo (2020)
3/29/2025
These entries (and the ones on following blog entries) are mostly pulled from Facebook posts I made at that time.
Tuesday, February 11
We found out how much Kimo likes his new dog food. This morning, with the closet door slightly ajar, he walked in, chewed a hole in the bag and started helping himself.
Saturday, March 21
Kimo was bummed. I took him to the drive-through bank this morning (they always give him a biscuit or two), only to find out they had changed their hours! You could almost see it in his eyes. "Dad, you lied??? No biscuits????" Poor boy
Tuesday, April 7
Kimo seems to be suffering a potential side effect from his first heartworm pill--lethargy. After taking him for a nice walk, he came inside and went straight to his kennel. Has been there for the past hour and even the offer of a treat didn't get him out!
Wednesday, April 8
While taking Kimo for his daily walk I was able to get a bit of a "socializing fix" while talking to three of my neighbors. At considerable distance, of course! They're struggling with this as I am, and I have the advantage of being in introvert.
Saturday, April 11
Happy National Pet Day to Kimo! That little shit got into a peanut butter jar while we were out washer shopping this morning. My fault, I forgot to put the jar back into the pantry after I used it. Little Houdini pried the cap off the jar and licked out about half of it. Suffice to say we had to throw out the rest of the jar. I'll share kisses with him but not my Jif!
Friday, April 17
Kimo met my neighbor's daughter this morning. It's been well established that he loves the ladies but is not quite so enamored of the gents. He started howling at his new found human friend. She says "Oh, are you telling me a story?" to him. I replied "Yep, and now he'll sing you the song of his people"
I have no idea why Kimo is so taken by females. Sometimes too much so as evidenced by the time he met a former co-worker. After sniffing her butt, he tried to go to the other side! I don't know who was more mortified, she or I. He sure wan't.
Sunday, May 10
I tried on a new COVID mask today. Kimo promptly lost his mind. Tried to jump up on me and grab the mask off my face, he did! Then i remembered his past experience with the gorilla mask I put on one Halloween.
Eventually he got used to the mask after I took it off and let him sniff it for several seconds.
Monday, May 11
Kimo's annual visit with the vet went well. Dr Tom is back out of retirement for a time, filling in for others. Kimo likes him, but probably likes Dr Lisa better. He's down to 49.5 lbs! (Kimo, not Tom). Looking better and leaner than he ever has.
Wednesday, May 13
Headphones on. I looked down and saw Kimo standing there rapidly wagging his tail. I took off the headphones and asked "Whatcha want, boy?" And he started howling and licking my elbow.
Then I realized I was singing along with Simon & Garfunkel. Kimo's howls meant one of three things:
1. "SHUT UP!!"
2. "I wanna sing too!"
3. "Great voice! Keep going!"
I'm leaning toward #3, of course 
Friday, May 15
Kimo getting some evening sun
Friday, July 31
Time to replenish Kimo's dog food supply--Instinct Original has been the brand we've been feeding him for a few months. He loves the Real Chicken and Real Beef flavors. I just noticed they have Real Rabbit! I was tempted to get that until I saw it's a slightly smaller bag than the Real Chicken he's been enjoying. Kimo hasn't had rabbit before
He jumped up on the bed last night, burrowed his head UNDER my pillow, and fell asleep! He only stayed there for about a half hour and then jumped back off the bed, winding up on his cushion bed next to the window. Goofy guy.
We think that stray female pit bull mix was nearby again last night, from her bark (sounded like her bark) and Kimo pitching a fit when he saw something outside our dining room window. Of course, he reacts that way to anything he sees. Dogs, rabbits, squirrels, people. He has this need to announce loudly "Get off my lawn!" to any intruder.
A neighbor's dog got loose tonight and hauled ass across the yard directly at another neighbor's two dogs. Insanity ensued until the owner of the loose dog corralled his pooch and spirited him away. Kimo saw this unfolding and loudly voiced his opinion. I think it was Kimo-speak for "Hey! Where's my fun? I get the winner!"
Tuesday, August 4
Eight years ago this sweet boy came into our lives. Words can't easily express how much joy (and at the start, consternation!) he has brought us over these years. Happy Dogversary, Kimo!
Thursday, August 6
The mystery dog showed up for a third time on the opposite side of our Association's fence, Kimo went nuts. Again, the other pit stuck her muzzle under the fence and they exchanged sniffs. This time she stayed on the other side of the fence and didn't move closer to our house (where the gap under the fence was large enough for her to get under last week). Still no idea if she's a stray or belongs to the renters in the house just to the north of Golden Oaks Assisted Living (in which case, they're letting their dog run loose). Hopefully will know more later this week. If I can find our who owns the house, I could contact them and have them pass along a message--if this is your dog, leash it!!!
Monday, August 10
Got the mask with little kimo heads on it!
Saturday, August 15
The New Adventures of Old Kimo--he got loose this morning. I had him in the back seat and parked the car in the driveway. Normally he runs into the garage but the next door neighbors were out in their chairs. Of course, he had to go say hi to them! You could almost hear his thought process: "Well, let's go check out that nice grass in the house next door. Ooh! A sidewalk!! More new smells!!!"
My asking if he wanted to go for a ride was ignored and he sauntered off. I got in the car, drove around the townhouse, where I saw him starting to wander down the sidewalk toward Boundary Avenue. Not where we want him to be! Not near a heavily trafficked street.
But once he saw my car come down the driveway and I said "C'mon boy, let's go for a ride!!" in an excited voice, he tore up the sidewalk and launched himself into the back seat.
The little shit.
Sunday, August 16
He doesn’t need a tan—he just likes laying in the sun! One of his favorite places in the morning when the sun is shining through the front door!
The mystery of the stray dog is now solved. He came over a while ago while Patty had Kimo outside. Kimo went berserk, of course! Later, we were sitting up at the patio (Kimo was inside) when the dog appeared in our yard again. We called to him, and he came right over! As expected from a pit bull, he had generous kisses for both of us ❤️
We'd previously thought it was a female because two weeks ago it was sporting a pink leash. Today's leash was dark and there were two phone #'s on the attached tag. A good stroke of luck! A lady answered the second number I called. As we suspected, she lived in the house next to Proctor Storage, just to the north of our townhouse. I gave her a quick synopsis of his history with our townhouse and asked if she could come pick him up. After reminding her, of course, of Proctor's leash law.
The dog, Pluto, is a pit bull/boxer mix and acted very nice! He wasn't crazy about me holding on to his collar while waiting for his owner to retrieve him, but he stayed fairly calm. Whether he'd be an appropriate playmate for Kimo isn't known (yet). She told us he's very good with dogs, but Kimo can have issues with male dogs sometimes. Pluto is a rescue dog who came from Texas when storms a year or two ago displaced a bunch of pooches.
Oh, Kimo didn't like our scent when we went back into the house, of course. He howled at us.
Monday, August 17
Pluto and Kimo had their first meeting tonight. It started well. It didn't end up well, and it's pretty much Kimo's fault--he tries to mount (dominate) every male he meets, the bigger the better.
After Kimo was pulled back and I chased Pluto away, I yelled over the fence for his people to call him back. It didn't happen, and he was back in 10 minutes. Eventually I heard someone calling for him, after which he didn't appear again.
I'm not going to baby sit another person's dog (unless the ask me). They need to control him and the excuse of "well, the four-year-old keeps letting him out" quickly loses its validity.
I feel for Pluto. He has had no apparent training and if you let him run loose, guess what? He'll run loose! But being on Boundary Avenue is a recipe for certain disaster. I wish he had a better, more responsible owner. Also, at the end of the day, my obligation is to keep my wife and dog safe. I'm not convinced they're safe around a dog I hardly know.
Friday, August 21
The New Adventures of Old Kimo: He's come down once again with a late summer/early autumn allergy, most likely a grass pollen thing. No redness in his stomach area as he's had in the past, but a lot of scratching and licking of his paws and legs. Poor boy! He's not sleeping well because of this and just mopes around when not scratching/licking.
I called his vet today and she was talking about putting him on a steroid similar to Prednisone. I asked her if we could or should try Benadryl first and she was okay with that. So we're trying this for three or four days. If it doesn't work, we'll go with her suggestion.
His past experience with Prednisone is that he gets kind of bipolar. Either he sleeps more soundly than we've ever seen him, or he gets all wild and manic. There isn't much mid-range with him while on this medication. Oh, and he sets world records in drinking and peeing.
It was a few years ago when he was on Pred.--one afternoon I heard him come walking up the stairs so i got down on my hands and knees and waited around the corner for him. As soon as he appeared I lunged out and went "BOOO!" thinking he would run away.
He didn't. Instead, he lowered his head and head butted me. Hard!! I fell back onto my butt in one of those "Man, this is gonna leave a mark!" moments. Shaking the cobwebs out, I noticed he was standing there, staring at me with what looked like a grin, he tail wagging like mad. Rather like "Cool, that was fun, let's do that again, Dad!!!"
I haven't tried this since.
Wednesday, August 26
Happy National Dog Day from Kimo!
Monday, September 7
The New Adventures of Old Kimo--he has this thing about plastic. Specifically, the plastic casing we put on our recipes. He ran off with one tonight. Now I understand that he doesn't like it when Patty talks on the phone. It's one of these "Hey! Dog down here! Pay attention to me!" things since he knows that Patty will then have to chase him and retrieve the item he's run off with.
So I scolded him, flicking my finger against the recipe for effect. Apparently he took exception to this action and started howling at me. He was giving me sass!! Who does he think he is--me??
He's gotten really adept at tracking down his nightly "Project". We call it a project, but it's nothing more than half a biscuit stuffed inside the hole of his Kong toy, which is then hidden somewhere in the house for him to sniff out.
At first, he wasn't good at tracking. Tonight I thought I'd trip him up by hiding it behind my open home office door upstairs. Somehow he knew within about fifteen seconds it wasn't downstairs, and tore upstairs. At first he ran past the office door, and then stopped, sniffed the air a couple times and went immediately behind the door for his tasty reward.
We're running out of places to hide the thing!
Tuesday, September 8
We hid Kimo's "project" behind the door of a darkened bedroom tonight. After a minute or so of searching, he started running out of the bedroom, thinking it wasn't there. Then he suddenly stopped and actually backpedeled a few steps, his nose in the air. Yummy treat found!
By the way, the treat he gets in the Kong is a beef flavored biscuit, brand name Masterpaws and sold at Menard's.
Sunday, September 27
Kimo scolded us when we came home this afternoon from our leaf watching escapade. Apparently he's no longer used to being in the house by himself for 4+ hours. Spoiled brat.
Thursday, October 1
Kimo met Fancy, the next door neighbor's dog, today. She's a very small I-have-no-idea-what-breed dog. Kimo was puzzled as if he was thinking "Okay, they don't make dogs this small, what the hell ARE you?" They did okay.
And then he ran into Dexter. This rarely goes okay. Testosterone flying all over Waterview Drive as Big Dog Complex meets Don't Mess With Me, Boy! Dexter's owner and I know enough by now to keep the dogs separated, but that didn't stop Kimo from trying to get to Dexter! The fur on Kimo's back was in full fluff tonight
Saturday, October 3
At the drive-in bank on Friday depositing some checks. I always take Kimo with me because they always give him a couple biscuits! He loves that place now and whines whenever we drive by it So the teller was telling me about their mobile app and how I could bypass the drive down there in the future. I had to ask "Can Kimo get his biscuits through the app?" And a good laugh was had by all. Except Kimo--our talking time was getting in the way of his biscuit time!
Monday, October 5
Patty got this pic of Kimo using her cell phone cam. Not bad!
Tuesday, October 27
The New Adventures of Old Kimo--he went sledding this morning! I had him on the 25-ft lead and he walked up to the top of a slope next to our house. He then flipped over on his back (he loves rubbing his back on snow), and eventually slid down the slope with his legs kicking away. Getting to the bottom, he shook off the snow, looked up the slope and then at me, like "Hey, cool!". But he didn't climb back up and repeat the fun. Instead, he took a dump. Priorities, I guess
Tuesday, November 17
Another new pic of Kimo hanging out in the loft, looking up at Patty for some reason.
Tuesday, December 15
The New Adventures of Old Kimo: Patty got him a new bone, one of those with fake meat filling. He loves those things. At first he just held it in his mouth and walked back and forth. I was wondering why he wasn't settling down to a good chewing until I realized--he was looking for a place to hide (bury) it! Eventually he made his way upstairs. Patty had her sewing room door open so he deposited his new-found chew thing behind it.
Patty called downstairs and told me he hid it, so I went upstairs to see where it was. As soon as he realized I had found his treat, he retrieved it and began the process again.
Now that he understands I won't steal it for myself, he's leaving it out in the open with his other nine or ten bones, Kong's and Nylabone tuggies he has strewn all over the living room.
Oh, and he loves his new bed! A little bigger and much more plush than the old one.
Thursday, December 24
Kimo got a rawhide bone for Christmas and has spent the last half hour wandering around looking for a place to hide it.
Previous: 3/28/2025--A Tribute To Kimo (2019)
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