This is Oni (pronounced Oh-nee). Oni is a Japanese word meaning demon. Oni was a very special dog. He was three quarter Siberian Husky and one quarter wolf. He was large. He was mellow. He was a meat head. He was a service dog. Most importantly, he was a friend. He took to me right away. He came with my (now) wife. He had the ability to detect and sound a seizure in her before she had it. He could smell the chemical changes in her brain when one was coming on. He saved her life on more than one occasion and he saved our house once. I'll get into that later.

When I met the lady that he was attached too, she had a very specific requirement for me. If the dog didn't like me, I had to go. Well, since I am now writing about him, I guess it is obvious that he liked me. The first time I took him for a walk, at her insistence, I knew we would get along. I just didn't know how well at the time. We had fun while he pulled me this way and that. You see, with her he had to be gentle. He had to stay loose and slow on his lead for her sake. With me, he could cut loose and be the curious, exploring and sniffing dog that he was. We had fun on that first short walk. Back and forth and up an down the road, he dragged me around until he wore me out. Then it was time for him to go back to work.

Oni was trained to take care of and protect his client when she had a seizure. He would not let anyone near her for fear of her being injured. He was trained to accept a medical worker to her. If he was shown a badge, he would back off and let the person work. The first time I ever saw him work with my wife, was in the living room of the cabin we had recently moved into. She was on the floor, recovering from her latest seizure. Completely out of character for him, he let me come to her and backed away. I held her as she recovered while he stood there and watched. She later told me that I was the first person he had ever allowed to do that. He had snarled and bitten at people before for fear that they would harm her while she lay helpless, wherever she happened to be.

One day, after we had been in our home for about six months, while my wife was making lunch for me, Oni came to her in the kitchen and started being a complete pest. He wouldn't leave her alone and she finally had to smack him to get him away from the stove. She thought nothing more about it, he was just trying to make her give him a snack. Well, about 30 seconds later he came running at her, jumped up and knocked her to the floor. As you can imagine, she was extremely ticked at him. As soon as she gathered her wits about her, he ran over and sat in front of the wood stove, raised his head, looking toward the ceiling and began howling. She went from anger to panic in a split second. This extremely intelligent guy had just alerted her to a fire in the ceiling where the wood stove flu had separated. Somebody had installed it wrong years ago and we were the lucky one's that it came apart on. To make this long story short, my wife had the fire out before the fire department arrived, and Oni got my chicken fried steak she was making instead of me. He was sick for three days after that as the steak had fire extinguisher residue on it. Yeah, we should have thought that through a little better. Our home should have been a complete loss, but because of this courageous canines actions, we were able to repair the damage and make our home much better and nicer than when we moved in.

These are just a few of the stories of Oni as I remember them. As I go along, I will talk about my four legged buddy as well as many things I have learned about myself, my wife and life during the last several years. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read this and be sure to check back for more as time goes on.