WAIMEA — It was hard to tell who celebrated the return of Mai Tai more — the staff at the Kaua‘i Care Center, or its patients.
Mai Tai, a poodle-terrier mix, has been the mascot of the elderly care center here for the past three weeks.
On Wednesday the friendly dog disappeared and went on his biggest adventure when he bolted through the door of a caregiver and took off. This created a community-wide effort in Hanapepe, with fliers being handed out in hopes of locating the dog .
Normally Mai Tai was the charge of nurse Eleanor Doi, but the dog was adopted by another staff member Wednesday, and at about 9 p.m. that night, bolted through the door when it was opened.
“I couldn’t sleep,” said Aurea Acorda, another of the nurses at the Waimea care facility, “so, about three Thursday morning, I went out looking for the dog.”
Doi, making her way to Waimea, joined Acorda in search efforts at about 5:30 in the morning, and the pair scoured Hanapepe Heights distributing fliers while actively searching for the mascot’s whereabouts. That effort proved fruitless, and the pair expanded their search to the Salt Pond area and into Hanapepe town.
Their fliers exhausted, the pair was about to return for more when Acorda noticed that there was a dog resembling Mai Tai walking on a ledge of one of the houses on the cliff rim of Hanapepe Heights.
Inspired by this turn of events, the pair returned to the Heights, but at the first house they stopped at there was no dog. The second home they approached had a dog resembling Mai Tai, but when Acorda called his name, the dog merely looked up from where it was sleeping. Doi called the dog and got an immediate response, the dog becoming alert, his tail wagging frantically when he recognized her voice.
That was at 12:08 p.m., a time Acorda remembers well because she looked at her watch when she saw the familiar dog in the distance.
“He was all red,” Doi said. “Exhausted, too. It was time for a bocha (bath).” Doi said that following the cleaning, Mai Tai jumped onto a bed, rolled around a couple of times, and just fell asleep.
On Friday morning Mai Tai was back on the job in Waimea, greeting his patient friends with his familiar wagging tail, ambling between chairs stopping only for an occasional lick on a face. He was obviously pleased with the attention he was getting from both patients and staff members who would stop what they were doing for a friendly pat or to offer the dog a drink of water.
Doi said that in the three weeks Mai Tai has been at the care center, he has become friends with all of the residents, some requiring a bit more mischief from the year-and-a-half dog.
“He likes to spend time in one patient’s room,” Doi explained. “And, when he’s in there, he steals the patient’s slippers, drags it outside, and tosses it into the air.”
Doi, who is the dog’s “parent,” said that another patient needed to walk more, and Mai Tai, as if sensing the needs of the patient, would stay just out of arm’s reach requiring the patient to take a step towards him. When he was about to be touched, Mai Tai would take a couple of steps out of reach again, thus getting the patient to get the required therapy.
“He also likes to sit with Tata Oroc who is a hundred years old,” Acorda noted. “He even barks.”
Mai Tai also accompanies the patients on their walks, walking slowly alongside their walkers.
Newton Young, an employee at Koa Trading as well as a member of Dog Fanciers, gets the credit for finding Mai Tai, Doi said. Young was asked about a dog that would be good with elderly patients, and his search turned up Mai Tai who was waiting for adoption at the Kaua‘i Humane Society.
“He integrated well with the patients on his first day here,” Doi explained.
And, now, the patients look forward to his coming to work. At the end of the work day, Mai Tai goes home with Doi where her daughter Chelsea has volunteered to care for the playful mascot.
Doi said that Mai Tai is currently undergoing puppy training through Young, and the Kaua‘i Care Center’s director Liza Trinidad is in full support of the dog’s daily visits to the facility.
As Mai Tai stopped to share a drink of water from a nurse, Doi quipped, “That’s our Mai Tai. He’s a good stress relief.”
Doi said that because Mai Tai has worked out so well with the patients, the facility is looking ahead to yet another project — adopting a cat.
Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) and mailto:dfujimoto@pulitzer.net
