Rescue Ink

One of the days when I caught Ellen (Degeneres show), she featured a very cool group known as “Rescue Ink.”

Just check out their site and you will know what I mean:

http://www.rescueink.org/

poor mooch….

I came back from Taipei only to find moochie scared and ill from a very bad itch. I’m thinking it could be an allergy to the CESAR canned food we TRIED to feed her which caused the bad allergy= bad itchy = bloody scratching.

:\ so scared and heart so pain… i think this is how its like when your kids are ill….

The difference between meats

For home cooked food, moochie has been alternating between mutton, beef, and chicken. If these three meats, she loved mutton the most, but it also gave her a smell that I would otherwise call it “body odour”. Chicken had the least smell and beef was in between.

Not sure about other dogs but this was what we observed with moochie.

These days we are also more relaxed with disciplining her. Allowing her to jump on the bed when supervised- but that results in a more rebellious her; causing her to be more aggressive towards strangers who approach our apartment. So we’ve been doing some damage control for her behaviour.

Have been thinking about neutering for a long time but my mum says she wants moochie to be a “fully grown woman” before taking it away from her.

mmm.

A little unpersceptive..

I’ve always thought that dogs are so intuitive and smart- sometimes they know better than us when it comes to terrains and sniffing out the bad guys.

Seems like moochie has been amusing me alot in this area- she barks at the door when she thinks someone is outside, when she thinks that person is entering her territory. (most of the times there is someone there.)

Then, what amuses me the most is, moochie jumps up to chairs and then happily sits there until she realises she doesn’t know/dare to jump down. When you walk near her, her tail wags and she makes an attempt to put her paws on you so that you will take her down.

I thought she would know better than to jump up to a place that she knows she can’t/’won’t dare’ to jump back down! Obviously not! :p

Grooming

It’s an expensive affair bringing moochie to the groomers and one thing about Poodles is that they don’t shed hair (which is good for people with allegies or sensitive nose like myself. also helps convince non pet-loving parents!). They are also known to have less “dog-smells” so grooming in that aspect for moochie has been a breeze.

However since she has so much hair, bringing her to the groomers can set us back about 38-50bucks SGD. So we decided to help trim her hair! hehe.

We started with using the scissors and comb to comb out and cut near the comb so that we are sure not to cut her. Then it become sooo uneven!

So we decided to use a shaver- those that you can use for human hair too. They have the extensions that help you cut more evenly and using it for moochie, it’s really easy to use and saves us lots of dollars and keeps her fur shorter and reduces the likelihood of tangles.

Of course, for the perfect cut, we would still go back to the groomers once in a while, but we’re sticking with this home-made style for a while!

How we do it:

We put a plastic layer (obtainable from any hardware or household appliances store), over our ironing board and then put on an apron, newspapers on the floor, and viola! Our mini-hair cutting salon! wahaha!

Barking little girl

Of late, Moochie has been barking in the middle of the night. This has never happened before except for when she was a baby- and was scared to be left alone or poopoo in her playpen.*

We are adamant not to let her sleep with us in the room and never on the bed because this jeopardises our control over our little girl. I don’t mean to sound like a control freak, but for those who are unaware, dogs have a hierarchy in their natural perception of who’s who. If you allow them to be on the same ‘level’ as you are, the dogs will disobey you, and even bully you- hence, it must be enforced at all times, that you are the owner and your dog has to listen to you.

My family woke up too, in the middle of night but begin to feel if it was anything to do with the supernatural. It is not a secret belief that dogs or animals are able to ’see’ the supernatural beings.

Perhaps a little paranoid, but I placed my rosary outside and also bought a cactus as it is believed that cactus ward off evil spirits.

We found out though, whether or not, it was the sole reason for moochie to bark, was that she climbed on the table from a chair and didn’t know how to come down. Though it was always the same table… same time….

Still creepy!!

*When she was a baby, about 2 months, we put her in the playpen in the night since she was not potty trained yet and only now we let her out to the rest of the house when she has potty trained.

Dogs are friends and not items or toys

I REFER to Sunday Times, December 2, “Has Singapore gone to the dogs?”. I think, this debate is really one of understanding on both sides.

For many, dogs have brought joy and happiness in their families and a lot of them, including myself, treat our canine friends as part of the family. Although we buy them, and some adopt them, we don’t treat them like items that we can cage when we don’t need them. Do we leash up our children when they misbehave? Or do we muzzle their mouths when they make a din in public, disturbing everyone else?

When I read that some condo residents have written to put pets in trolley cages while taking them out, I was shocked at such suggestion because it show the ignorance of why dogs need to be taken for walks in the first place.

Free-runs for dogs is usually seen in parks and beaches- naturally, because it’s a bigger space. In our concrete jungle, it is rare to find such space, and as such, it is a gem to find bigger space for dogs to enjoy and run freely.

As for eateries, as it is, I hope the public can empathize with dog owners at the limited number of places we can take our pets along with us. Like I said, they are our friends, and we love to take them out. Many owners preen and take really good care of our pets and they are clean. If it’s about cleanliness, we can definitely solve this.

I suggest two things. 1. Instead of further limiting where dogs can run freely or even walk, why not impose mandatory dog training? 2. Why owners bring their pets out to eateries, it is reasonable to leash them in this case as it’s a limited area with people close by, but we can place a piece cloth on the seat before the dog is placed. I think people should start understanding why dogs are part of our lives before trying to impose restrictions that are unnecessary. Dogs don’t attack unless provoked.

Pawtobello Cafe

So I finally brought moochie to a pet cafe! To be honest, she was actually very adventurous and gutsy when we got her. However, after a bad hair dresser experience, she has turned towards a more shy and timid disposition.

I’ve been trying to socialise her more and bring her out as much as I can.

On this trip to Pawtobello’s, a pet cafe at Mohd Sultan Rd, she has been followed and roughly played by other dogs which did scare her a bit. She kept jumping up to me asking me to carry her.

I brought her back again the next day and this time, she is more familiar with the place.

On both occasions, bought her the solid foods and a drinks mixture for dogs- She didn’t really finish!!!

Waste my money moochie girl!

It’s been a long time!

Yes! It has been a long long time!!

It’s been about a month since I left for Hong Kong for work. Totaled to a 2 month period without seeing moochie.

Kruder has taken the duty to take her out for walks and also my family has taken good care of her while I was gone!

Now that I’m back, can really tell that Moochie has grown alot more and also so much more affectionate and loving.

I don’t know what my family would be now. Not as many laughter and smiles without the ever adorable and loving moochie.

She also has her first “in heat”!!! It’s really quite something!

Sometimes it can be a bit heavy and she will tend to leave stains around the house. But nothing that is like huge flow! It’s more like stains.

We actually bought her baby pampers but I think she got so uncomfortable, she just hid under the sofa the whole time the pampers was on.

It lasted for about 2 and a half weeks. Pretty long! But since it comes twice a year, mum is okay with the “in heat” period and wants Moochie to grow to a full grown woman before neutering her.

Yesterday was the first time we brought her to a relative’s house and she has been very very obedient! She was really curious and jumped up our relatives but still, she was a joy and brought joy and smiles to every one.

Moochie New Hair Cut

Moochie’s new hair cut.