Kokua Line June Watanabe

Rescued dog Sweetie gave 5 loving years

Her tale of survival touched the hearts of "Kokua Line" readers, many of whom contributed thousands of dollars to help pay for several surgeries to mend her broken body.

We last wrote about Sweetie - starbulletin.com/2006/12/10/news/kokualine.html - when Betty Kamida sent us a Christmas photo of a happy dog who had settled into life with her, husband Clayton and resident pooch Moses after years of roaming wild in the hills surrounding Tripler Army Medical Center.

This time, Kamida told us Sweetie had developed an inoperable mass, then pneumonia.

Here are Kamida's words about an abandoned dog that changed her family's life:

"Sweetie graced us with her beautiful energy and unconditional love for five wonderful years. Although we often felt sad about the years she spent alone, we tried to make up for it by showering her with love and enjoying every minute with her since we never knew how old she was or how much time we'd have with her. ...

"She enriched our lives immeasurably, and we were blessed to have her join our family. Sweetie occupied such a huge place in our hearts that the void there seems immense, and it will be hard to adjust to life without her - but memories of this remarkable girl and her sweet spirit will sustain us."

Question: I was surprised when a security guard at the Waikiki-Kapahulu Public Library told me and the rest of the girls on the school cross-country team that we had to go somewhere else to stretch recently. We've been stopping at the library for years to drink water and recover, and we never had a problem before. We're quiet and polite, being careful to stay on the grass instead of blocking the sidewalks. Was the security guard correct in forcing us to move? Isn't it public property?

Answer: The team shouldn't have been asked to leave and is welcomed to stop and rest on the library lawn.

The library branch manager "was not aware of incident at the time it occurred, and there may have been some miscommunication involved," said Paul Mark, spokesman, Hawaii State Public Library System.

The explanation given was that the guard was concerned about the safety of the team "because of possible uneven spots in the lawn area."

However, Mark also said that although it was not the case on the day this happened, back in August, there have been past incidents with team members gathering "in large numbers at the water fountains, sometimes blocking pathways, and who forget that their combined voices create noise disturbances for other library users."

We pointed out your description of the team's conduct as being quiet and polite, but Mark said the "team has been warned several times in the past to lower their voices and not block the doors of the entranceway (glass automatic sliding doors) in consideration of other library users."

Still, "We regret this unfortunate incident and apologize to the team members for not allowing them to use the library's lawn for stretching after their training run," he said.