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Cha-Cha's Last Dance
















Because Mom and Dad named me after a famous Latin dance, and because Cha-Cha was born after me, I bet you think she was named after me and the famous Cuban dance, Cha-Cha-Cha. Go ahead. You can tell me. That's what you're thinking, right?


Wrong.👎❌


Dad just confessed to me that that's what he once thought, too. Here's the truth. Cha-Cha's Dad Higaki, Auntie's late husband, loved history. When Cha-Cha came home the first day, he saw nothing but her beauty and named her after a voluptuous sixteenth century Japanese consort, a sort of 'Helen of Japan' known as Lady ChaCha, the wife of Japan's top warlord. Dad, in another confession, tells me he also likes history, but, alas, was unprepared to connect my name to the history of the United States. Tango just came to him in a nanosecond, he says, while he was filling out my adoption papers, and was a function of my coat's color and the final vowel of my former name, Julio. 🌮 Mom loved it and that's all he wrote! 🥁🤣


As I mentioned in an earlier post, at first I had difficulties living with Cha-Cha. Her fierce bark and occasional petulance always kept me on my hind legs. But over time we bonded, and whenever we were in Yeongdong during the spring, summer and fall of 2020, we played outside on the grass. Just the two of us, having fun together. I liked to nibble at her meaty legs and fake-growl at her when we frolicked. She loved to raise one paw, stick out her tongue, and fake-swat me, with footwork and a rhythm that wasn't so far from doing the real cha-cha-cha. 💃 Time would fly by as we played this way, with Ddori watching from somewhere inside the sun room.


During the spring, we'd found out that Cha-Cha's illness was skin cancer. But despite that diagnosis and her daily medicine, Cha-Cha had lots of energy. She always had a great appetite, and would go for walks with Auntie at least twice a day. Her strong legs carried her far. Auntie and her would start with us but leave us behind, disappear and return later on, with Auntie all tuckered out and Cha-Cha beaming. Her twice-a-month trips to Daejeon to see the doctor continued into the fall, and she always returned home ready to rumble with me. Things were looking up.


Then one night, December 31, 2020, Cha-Cha seemed really down. We had guests for New Year's Eve dinner, a big event in our house with the promise of delicious food and an endless stream of treats. But Cha-Cha didn't budge from the living room floor. Or, I should say, couldn't. Her legs wouldn't work, so she watched the party from the floor and refused to eat. Auntie carried her up to their room and waited and waited all night in vain for her to want to go outside and do her business.


The next day, New Year's Day 2021, Auntie carried Cha-Cha out to the van, and Samchun and Auntie drove her to Daejeon to see her doctor. Ddori and I waited on the couch, and soon Mom got the dreaded call: Cha-Cha would never dance again. The cancer had spread everywhere. Surgery was impossible. Cha-Cha, who'd been carrying that burden so well and far, playing with me through the pain, could go on no longer. The next day, she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Dad reminds me that she lives on in our hearts and still has the power to bring a smile to our faces. He's right. Every night since then, when I go outside to make my goodnight pee and the stars are out, Mom and Dad and I search the heavens and call out to her. 🌠 As they say in Korea, Cha-Cha saranghaeyo! 💝💖💗


Six weeks later, we took Cha-Cha's ashes to a famous beach near Yeongdeok, a seaside town midway on Korea's eastern shore. That's as close as we could get to her Dad's final resting place, Japan. It was wintertime, cold and windy. We said our goodbyes and the waves took her away from us.


Afterward we piled into the car and went to town. Yeongdeok is famous for King Crab, and everyone's mouth was watering at the thought of a crab dinner. But because of Corona, the market was closed. No crab for sale in Yeongdeok? Unbelievable. What a downer! Undeterred, we visited a local tourist spot right on the ocean. Check out that King Crab! I'd never seen a monster that big and am glad I don't need to wrestle with them in Yeongdong!


So ends another tale. Thanks for visiting my site, and tune in next week for another one!


Tango 🐾

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