The Angels of WakanTanka

By ORLANDO EIJO

Orlando Eijo transports us to a story to understand the complex and beautiful relationship between man and dog. In a subtle but emotional discourse, he teaches us the main characteristics of this natural symbiosis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Dec 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781071513767

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The Angels of WakanTanka

ORLANDO EIJO

To my old, lifetime friend Ricardo Ferrer, died prematurely at the age of 50, with whom we started this work with dogs. Starting as adolescents, almost forty years ago. I know that wherever you are you´ll be playing with all those wonderful dogs with which we worked with every day.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first acknowledgement must be for my mother, who forged my love for narratives, reading me stories when I could not, and then placing my hands in the right books for each suitable stage. Thanks to her I’ve been able to write this story much more than it would’ve been, if it was a technical essay.

A special acknowledgement for the famous writer Octavio Prenz, for all his support and help in my incursion to narratives.

To my wife Estíbaliz, canine psychologist and president of the Euskabi Association of Pshycologist and Canine educators, for giving numerous ideas and checking the book once done.

I cannot stop mentioning my daughter Ayelén who resigned time with me, with no protests to let me write it.

Don Francisco had retired as a husband too early in his life, widowing at the age of seventy-two. He had already retired as a father, when their children emancipated a decade ago.

That morning he got up as usual at 6:30 am. He showered and shaved, but didn´t dress with suit and tie as usual. It was his first day of retirement. In every aspect, it looked like a regular Sunday. Same breakfast, same silence, same expectation of having his children and grandchildren for a visit, but this time the expectation was anguishing. It was just Tuesday, and they would not come until next Sunday.

After washing his cup, images popped in his mind from the day before. The toast at the office, farewells, the partner’s hug who was taking his old job. ‘I envy you’- mumbled to himself, remembering the phrase of his partner. ‘Let´s see who envies who...what am I going to do the whole day now?’. He went to the little garage and took a pair of clippers. Just as a caring father, he approached the vine, which at that time of summer, shadowed some part of the yard. He barely cut a little leaf that emerged more than the others, but then there wasn´t anything else to cut. The vine seemed to manage itself to maintain nicely. ‘Is it that no one else needs me?’- he asked himself.

Years and years had passed in which he knew this day would come, although the date was set long ago, he never foresaw what to do when the time came, his attachment impeded him to think that a change was coming. He denied himself the fact that one day it would be the last day that he entered that building to do his job as he had always done, and that his life would be rearranged to start a new one. He had delayed his retirement more than he should have had, until legally he couldn´t. Maybe he thought it to be unfair, being a good husband as he was, that he had to retire so fast due to the death of his wife. Maybe he thought it to be unfair, being a good father as he was, that his children emancipated around age twenty-five, although he knew this emancipation was due to the way he had taught them, and they turned out to be self-sufficient before others around their age, others whose education wouldn´t let them grow up until much later. In this Don Francisco used birds as examples, ‘the parents who teach their chicks more efficiently, will suffer the empty-nest syndrome sooner than others’. And maybe he thought it to be unfair, being so efficient at work, the fact of retiring from it. But life had other plans for him.

He put back the clippers in their place and sat in front of the kitchen table. The clock showed the time...7:30. Time moved slow and dense, as when pouring honey from a bottle in the middle of winter.

-People retire too young- he protested one more time. At his seventies he had had lots of responsibilities under his charge, at home and in his job, until yesterday when the moment of retirement came. Then it was as someone placed their finger on the clock hands, and time just stopped. He cleaned the table again and swiped the kitchen. But, when sitting again, it wasn´t even a quarter to eight.

Perception of time was now of an exasperating tardiness for Don Francisco. Hours turned into days, days into months, weeks into years.

The yearned Sunday hadn’t come yet, when children and grandchildren would visit, and it already seemed that he had spent several months as a retired man. At this rate, his maturity would transform into elderliness, in what could seem like few years for some, but too many for his lonesome perception.

On Sunday his children found him worryingly older. They expected to find an active and vital Francisco, now that he could rest and enjoy the ‘dolce fare niente’. Instead, they came across a really tired old man with difficulty to move, as with a body in pain for his age. The image they received could be compared to a heavy old door, with rusty spikes, that would open with difficulty and complaints.

It was Jorge, the psychologist son of Francisco who proposed a secret meeting of siblings at his place the next day, with the idea of analyzing the situation and to make things better for his father.

Jorge’s house had a slight and casual mess, something to be expected at a bachelor’s house. The three siblings had gathered that afternoon worried about their father’s situation: retirement did not seem to go with him.

-The old man should go out with his friends, go play bowling or cards like the rest of the retired men- said Mauro, the oldest.

-Almost all of his friends are still active- answered Jorge- and so, they do not have the whole day. But this is not about a couple of hours per day, recreation activities were there before his retirement. The problem here is that he suddenly encountered 24 hours a day empty; with nothing to do, no one to take care of in a silent house full of memories that come to him as they would crush him.

-He needs to get out of the house -said Melina, the youngest- maybe it would be better to convince him to sell the house and to move to a smallest apartment.

-Yeah, like a cell- said Jorge, somewhat contrary to the idea- changing a big jail to a small one will only make it worse. We are not solving the problem. It is not about the place, but his attitude. The memories of merry moments can be wonderful or cause depression for not having them anymore. It depends on the attitude one has, and that attitude depends on how you are at this moment. If dad was happy with his present time, each happy moment would bring him smiles, but if his present his tedious, memories are a burden. We need to change his present.

-For the moment let´s not dream of him having another relationship-said Melina- you know how he is, mom’s departure remains a fresh wound and he needs still some time to heal.

-Then a 24 hour-friend, like a dog- said Mauro.

-That is an idea that should not be thrown away easily- said Jorge- there are some studies conducted in the USA in which owning a dog has demonstrated to avoid and even heal depressions, and as I knew the subject could arise I have this research at hand- he raised and went to find some papers he left at a piece of furniture- the study has its basis on 167 pet owners and 50 who were not- he says while looking through the papers- and it was made clear that stress levels are lower, there is more resistance to sicknesses, and even in the study it was proved that even the simple fact of mentioning the name of the pet reduced blood pressure and heart rate.

-That is having into account all the job that takes taking care of a puppy? - asked Melina.

-Well, that is just what this is about. One of the motivating factors is the fact of knowing that there is something you have to do, you have a responsibility, which is stimulating because you are needed, it is to be a father once more – explains Jorge – a psychoanalyst called Berne, the promoter of transactional analysis, explained that there is a psychic organ called extereopsyche, which is in charge of building parents, guides and educators in us. This psychic organ is imprinted on us and the fact of having someone to take care of makes us not to suppress it or lock it up. We let that energy of fatherhood free then and that relaxes us, fills us with positive feelings. The thing is that a dog acts by showing responses, meaning, it responds to everything that we do thankfully, and so we feel excellent educators and guides, the possibility of getting depressed gets further away from dad. The dog will be there 24 hours, as Mauro said, if dad can not sleep, he does not even have to wait till morning to interact with the dog, he can just get up and the dog will be happy to see him and interact with him.

It is like having a containment psychologist all the time at home, nursing him night and day until the word depression is