4 months!

I've been adopted for 4 months! No big celebrations but to brighten up the blog godpa put up some photos of goodies he had recently at Pacific Coffee. Too bad they're not dog edible.

A curious thing happened yesterday, which is my adoption day. I got locked out of the house! Godpa's dad had come home from shopping and he assumed that I returned indoors after my greeting at the entrance. Actually I slipped past him and stayed just outside. They only discovered I was missing when godpa's mum called me but I didn't come to her. After loitering around the corridor for 15 minutes, I began to worry whether I had been abandoned again. I was relieved when the door opened and I heard my name being called. When godpa learnt of the incident he was rather worried as I could have run downstairs or taken the lift down, or maybe got dognapped to be sold or eaten. Maybe godpa felt bad, so he gave special permission for me to sleep in his room that night. He knows I like to curl up on the comfy bathroom rug.

Resistance is futile

Godpa enrolled himself for obedience training! Yep, he will be starting on a class this Saturday for my sake. It will be hard work for him but he says I would also have to prepare myself for some tough times ahead. It has been 4 months of bonding with godpa and he feels we're both ready to go through with it.

Yesterday the weather was gloomy but we went ahead to visit the dogrun in the late morning. This time there was just 4 other dogs so I could comfortably run about on my own. I barked quite a lot yesterday, especially at things outside the fence.

Nowadays, I don't get to ride the car in front with godpa because I get too excited and bark till godpa's ears ring. For my own safety and also to help godpa focus on driving, I get to rest in my crate at the back of the car. The view is not fantastic but it's a lot more comfortable for both of us.

Who's afraid of the big bad ...

Godpa took me on a walk out of the estate this afternoon, it's not my first time but somehow I was rather disturbed and barked at all the cars passing by. Later, we reached a plateau of open grass area where godpa spotted 2 large dogs running off leash! Now he was the one who got disturbed and quickly turned us around to head home. I didn't see the dogs coz I'm much shorter than godpa but I got a whiff of them. Godpa says the dog owner is irresponsible because she did not consider the risk it poses to other doggies. Back near the roads, I resumed my barking and pulling. Godpa tried to calm me down by stopping and using treats to get me to sit. I did try to sit which is much better than last time but still could not calm down. In the end, godpa picked me up and I was carried home like a big baby.

Eat to live

Godpa came home early today and then everyone left the house. He took time off to bring his parents out window shopping. As usual I prefer to watch the house, shopping in the city is not my cup of tea. Godpa says they enjoyed some special peanut kaya toast and tea at Kopi Roti located in the basement of The Central. Dinner was at the Soup Spoon located in Raffles City. Godpa likes the pumpkin soup there though it seems to have gotten a little thinner.

Back home, godpa's dad gave me a walk before godpa took over and gave me a brisk walk. Godpa inserted some training into the walk and I did some great "sit" outdoors. I'm moving on to learning what "down" means. He's been continuously motivating himself to communicate well with me by reading more books. The latest one is "Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living with Dogs" by Jon Katz. Godpa says it's a good read but then when he saw the reviews on the net, he has to discount the author's credibility. Here's a good snippet godpa wanted to share with me:

"Adaptability is a dog's most distinctive trait. Even mistreated dogs can be trained and retrained. I don't refer to my border collie Orson as an abused dog, first because I don't really know what happened to him, and second because it's beside the point. He needs to be trained anyway."

Three's a crowd

Godpa and Uncle Leon brought me to Bishan park dogrun on Sunday afternoon and it was really crowded. I'd say it was overcrowded for me and I stuck close by to godpa and Uncle Leon. Do I have agoraphobia? I had quite a few arguments with the doggies there, and was bullied by a bigger female Singapore special. Her owner had to come take her away and pressed her down to the ground to subdue her, poor girl. I think I'm becoming infamous for being a little chili padi.

Batteries not included

I like to swing my toys wildly. Godpa wonders if I'm at play or treating it like a prey. An old rubber barbell toy was ignored by me for over 3 months, so godpa decided to try and "charge" the toy while I was in a playful mood after meal, and then giving it as a reward for sitting down. Rubber tastes different from the rope and cloth stuff but certainly has more chomp. It happens the toy was sold as Chomp Champion or something.

After play, I helped myself to a piece of chinchilla poop that rolled in front of me. It was small, black and sort of crispy. Godpa was amused and wondered if this could mean recycling the chinchilla poop to become the latest dog treat. Afterall, how organic can it get as the boys feed on a controlled natural diet of quality timothy hay, pellets, and distilled water.

Woof woof here and a woof woof there

I was at the dogrun today with godpa and his dad. But I think I scared off many potential friends with my barking *sob* Luckily some doggies like this corgi was very patient with me, I've seen him a few times and we seem to be fine with each other. By the way, his name is Corgi.

I was whining quite a bit today, godpa says maybe I'm more fearful after the encounter with a JRT in the estate last night. Apparently the owner didn't hold the leash as she was busy chatting on the handphone, and the JRT charged up to me and we had a short tussle. Godpa was shocked and could only try to pull me away. The lady came and carried the rude girl away apologizing to godpa quite a few times. I didn't feel good after that encounter and for some time just sat around not wanting to walk further. Somehow I know sitting is safe with godpa beside me.

I did something good that pleased godpa at the dogrun today. I listened to him and sat down a few times. I also sat down when wearing my leash to go home. I'm usually very distracted outdoors but my feelings for godpa help me focus better.

Home salon

Godpa gave me a trim yesterday. It was time consuming and he got fur all over himself but it does help to build the bond between us. He used mainly a scissors for trimming body fur as I'm pretty cooperative on that. I'm still not comfortable getting trimmed around the paws, so it's pretty messy looking after the whole thing. Godpa is satisfied that the rest of my coat looks neater as you can see from my sideways lying down photo.

Bad news, good news

Bad news, I scratched the wood around godpa's bedroom door this morning. I guess I was desperate to see him. Luckily his dad sandpapered the spots and they now look alright.

Onto the good stuff. Godpa went to recce the Canberra dogrun and he says it looks nice, a bit small but the surrounding is pleasant wide open greenery and very accessible by car. The location is at Blk 486 Admiralty Link. There are even pavilions for resting. Godpa says he'll bring me there one day maybe with the rest of his family, a sort of picnic cum dogrun. Yeah!

Right after recce, godpa came home and I got a fur trim down! Look at all the fur I lost. I guess it's alright since the weather's so hot these days.

New Toy?

Looks like my new toy is no longer very new after taking it as an after-meal treat. The rope end unraveled into strings just within an hour, and the blue frilly stuff started to come off. Amazingly the old rope toy is still good, and godpa's mum even washed it for me today. It's now hanging up to dry. I guess it's 一分钱一分货.

Presents

Godpa's birthday is coming next month, I wonder what presents I should give him. I don't think he likes my surprises like pooping in the bedroom. Perhaps he'll like a story book about dogs, something like Marley & Me, though the doggy featured is a labrador retriever and no where resembles me in cuteness. I see godpa lugging a big blue bag to work everyday, he keeps many things there like his notes, planner, pencil case, library books (about dogs of course!), phone charger, umbrella. Heck, I think if it's big enough he might pack me in too :) The bag looks bulgy and uncool but I guess it's practical coz it was a free bag anyway. Godpa says the bag can't look too cool becoz of his work. Plain, simple, no big brands shouting out for attention. The current bag is a bit floppy though, a bit like my ears :) Godpa says he just wants me to be a good quiet dog when people visit the house next month. That shouldn't be too hard with ample treats.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

That's me, zooming around in the dog run yesterday! Running after me is an aggressive white guy, too bad not prince charming on white horse. He's similar to me in some ways, small in stature and barkish. But he can keep on barking even when others retreat. For me I'm just fearful and bark to ward others off. Regardless, we had plenty of running exercise yesterday.


Godpa took time to bring me out on a weekday afternoon. We spent an hour at Bishan park and it seems many dogs prefer that time and brought their owners there. Many came to greet me but I prefer to keep my distance and stick by godpa's side. Some humans found me amusing as I repeatedly sprang forward to run after others and quickly retreated back to godpa.



While at Uncle Leon's place later, I got weighed in at 4.3 kg and godpa was surprised at my growth. Looking back at my older photos you can see my face has grown rounder. I've also gotten more muscles around my legs. I still feel bony around my rump, and godpa says I'm considered lean because my ribs can be felt easily.

Let's see how much I've grown:
29 March: 3.1 kg
23 June: 3.7 kg
10 July: 4.3 kg

Vote for me!

Godpa has become my campaign manager. Vote for me and you'll get lots of treats everyday!

Happy Meal

I don't go to McDonald's for my happy meals, I just get them freshly made at home!

Animal, vegetable, flora, fauna

Godpa went to some farms in Choa Chu Kang last week to recce the place for an event. He showed me some of the interesting stuff he came across there. Life seems so interesting outside.

The photos below show frogs bred in a farm for human consumption, and a bachelor goat in a farm producing milk.



Next there's two delicious looking passion fruit, and a tiny cute pineapple.


Godpa says butterhead lettuce juice is healthy and tastes good (actually it's mixed with lime and other stuff). I think I'll prefer goat's milk than drinking meshed leaf. The Japanese rose sure looks bright and beautiful, I wonder if it smells sweet too.


The outdoors is great, but for me a good massage from godpa and chewing my new Nylabone edible bone is pretty satisfying.

My chin friends

When I first came to godpa's home, I knew I was not alone even when the humans were out. There were 2 chins to keep me company. Some dog people think chins are a breed of dogs, it happened before to godpa when he made vet appointments and they thought it was for a Japanese Chin or Chihuahua. Benji is a pink white chinchilla, and Rocky is an afro-violet. Chins have more interesting color mutations than dogs I think. Both of them are about 8 years old. Godpa says these are not his first chins, the first baby, Bobby, had died 8 years ago from diarrhea complications while on the operating table. Since then, he has been keeping 2 chins so that they can keep each other company. They get aircon treatment on hot days because they die easily from heat strokes. Rocky's predecessor, also named Rocky had died of heat stroke one hot afternoon and godpa only knew when he returned from work and found the poor boy motionless with some blood from his nose.

The 2 boys have a strict diet of distilled water, APD timothy hay, and Mazuri pellets. Sometimes I see godpa give treats like apple twigs, rose hips, and rose buds. I do get jealous and look pleadingly to try some. Fortunately godpa gives me other health treats like fresh fruits. Other than good food, I get good rest too. Occasionally getting a suntan :)

Fengshui

Godpa changed my bedroom 风水! He did a 乾坤大挪移 and shifted my crate into the living room. It's a nice corner so I didn't complain last night. It feels different sleeping further away from godpa and not being able to pace by his bedside in the morning. But I do get to greet godpa's dad first thing in the morning, and watch him prepare human breakfast. Godpa's been so nice to me and bribed me with new toys so I suppose I should let him have more sleep. Well, the living room's great coz it's a lot bigger space for me to roam, and I can still see the outdoors through the big glass windows. Furthermore, in case I cause an accident with my pee and poo, it's also a lot easier to clean up on the marble floor.

New toys!

Godpa was at Toa Payoh hub today and happened to step into a pet supplies store. He couldn't help himself and got me some new stuff to play with. The first item is the famous Nylabone chews, and the next is a squeeky toy that has a rope end (yes, I love ropes). Godpa had always been curious to know how I'd react to squeeky toys. Somehow I didn't get it to squeek yet as I get too engrossed with the rope end.

I was overwhelmed, see how I covered my eyes in joy. He also took some videos of me playing around with the unopened toys. In the last video I'm enjoying getting my hair blown after a nice shower by godpa's dad.

Sleepy, Itchy, Nikki

Godpa says my name is a special girl's name. Nikki comes from the Greek "Nicole", which means "victorious people". And he thought of the name because of 2 strong female characters on TV: Nikita in La Femme Nikita, and Niki in Heroes.