Tai

Sadly, I lost Tai in 2011. He was game to the end. Other than adding this note, I've not altered the original text written in 2008.

I have a dog who is a real treasure. Almost everybody falls in love with him, because he's a good-looking animal with an engaging personality. But it was not always so. When he was about a year old, he was taken from his original owner in a pitiful state. We never found out the details and don't know whether any prosecutions resulted, but we could see all too clearly the unhappy state that the animal had been reduced to, emaciated, bedraggled and terrified of his own shadow. He would cower at the slightest movement and we were not sure whether we would be able to do any good with him.

'Tai' has become a traditional name in our family for dogs. Before I met my partner, Daemon, he had a Boxer dog with very attractive brown and white fur, called 'Tie' (his spelling). Eventually, this dog died and Daemon took on another Boxer from the same line which was given the same name and grew up to be as attractive as his predecessor. We had the second 'Tai' for some years, until he died of cancer. At the time, we also had another dog, a bitch full of character called Foxy, a rescued dog reprieved by Daemon some years before. The present Tai, although not a boxer, had the same attractive brown and white fur so the choice of name seemed inevitable. Tai was intended as a companion for Foxy and she helped him to settle in. Alas, both Foxy and Daemon have passed on. Tai and the writer are presently in good health and hope to enjoy life for some time to come.

More photographs of Tai can be found in the Family and Friends section, partly because he's often to be found being fussed by my visitors, partly because, as Daemon always said, "Dogs are people, too".

Carpe Diem

Don't you hate it when people insist on using Latin tags? Well, I agree if it's done to be elitist but, having studied Latin to 'O' Level GCE (betraying my age here), I have to say that Latin can be an elegant (if rather terse) way of expressing ideas and a useful tool in understanding not only English but a number of European languages. So I make no excuse for offering you a short Latin tag which I've found useful in concentrating the mind - "Carpe Diem" - "Sieze the Day".

You don't see much Latin in Tokyo but I found this famous tag inset into the granite facing of the elevation of a modern office building, above the street-level windows. There were a number of less-memorable tags, as well, but I'll not bore you with those. I assume the architects throught that adding these phrases in a foreign dead language would add a certain panache (Oh dear, she's at it again) and make the property more desirable to aspiring corporations.

Why do I think it's a useful tag? Well, it has the advantage of brevity (I know, "Pity you don't, Jan" I hear you sigh), so it's easy to remember for a start. But, mainly, it's a universally applicable reminder that the sands of time are running. We sometimes act as if the present will carry on forever - it's salutary to remember that it won't - so go for it!