New toy and new friend

This is a belated post.

Last week, HC bought us a new toy. It was a Tuffies toy.
The one she got is ranked 8/10 for toughness, especially good for aggressive chewers!

Of course I had to bring it out to show my friends the new toy.

Helios and Scuba were ecstatic with the new toy and were soon playing tug of war.

Then Helios and me having a go at it.

As you can see, Helios is very taken by this toy. He keep hogging it the whole night and try to taunt us with it.

HC decided to leave this toy at Scuba's place as all the 'aggressive' chewers are there.


We also had a new friend - Max. He was staying with Scuba for a week cos his human parents were out of town.

And of course, I had to teach him how to "play" since he had very few friends.

Throughout all this fun session, a single lone dog was lying half-dead on the floor. Herbie was nursing a bad stomache... eeeekkk... no wonder I smell poo-poo the entire night.


At the end of a fun session, we were made to pose for a 'family' portrait. Even the half-dead dog was asked to sit straight and smile.

Dreaded News

Last Friday, HC came home and told us that Toto refused to eat his food (fresh chicken and kibbles). However, he drinks alot of water - almost 1.5 litres every few hours. HC has a very bad feeling about it and hope he is not suffering from organ failure i.e. kidneys.

On Sunday, she was contemplating to visit Toto... but something tells her not to. This morning, before she could even parked her car in the office lot, a fellow colleague rushed to inform HC that Toto has been died since Saturday night.

HC saw Toto's dead body. He was very bloated (looks like a bear), and his stiff legs were up in the air. There was a lot of flies on his body as well. Of course HC didn't want to take a picture to post here as it may sadden alot of readers.

HC is sad that Toto had died at such a young age. He should be about 1 year old now cos he looked to be about 3-4 months when he first wandered into her office compound in September 2006. Even though Toto refused human touch despite HC feeding him for 10 months, HC knew Toto likes her as he always wags his tail upon seeing HC. Sometimes, he will try to follow HC for a distance. Just last month, HC bought some Bach flower essence, and there was some improvements in Toto. He allows HC to stand slightly nearer and sleeps peacefully in the open (he used to hide somewhere to sleep). HC was hoping that one day Toto will be open to her touch so that she can take better care of him (ie. showers, vet visit).

But I guess "someone up there" needs Toto more.

I am sad that Toto has never had any human touch in his entire short life, and would never know how wonderful a canine-human relationship can be. But at least, he has never gone hungry for the past 10 months - a life better than alot of strays in the streets.


Toto when he was a mere pup in September 2006.



Bigger and stronger in December 2006.

Good-bye Toto! I hope you are happy and enjoying yourself with 'someone up there'.

Sharing of Toys

My friends and I are so close that we love to share our toys (HC : hahaha... except you, Joey!).

Here's Tommy chewing on Scuba's beef bone.

After a while, he decided to make himself comfortable by chewing and sleeping at the same time.

He was enjoying himself... until Helios came along.

Helios tried to steal the bone by inching closer to Tommy...

After that, Jack and I decided that we too, wanted Tommy's (or rather Scuba's) bone.

hehe.. and I managed to steal the bone and took it to one corner to play (Jack was hovering around cos he wanted a bite too.. of course I wouldn't allow it!)

After getting sick of chewing the bone, I decided I wanted to chew Tommy's head.

(HC : I don't think Tommy will ever let another dog chew his head. So I think Joey was really lucky Tommy wasn't pissed off)

Then, I decided to chew Helios' head (with Tommy looking on)

When Helios resist my chewing, I showed him whose boss!
Ok.. that picture of me showing my teeth is just for fun! Of course I wouldn't hurt my friends!

(HC :yeah right! Joey just bit Helios' and Max's muzzle just now over some food! Note: Max is another new friend which I will post about another day)

The Beauty

This is the beauty

And this is the beast....


oh ok... Jack's not really a beast, he is just a grumpy old man. By the way, he thinks he looks suave in this 'black tie' attire! *sniggers*

We have known the beauty - Szugar when she is only a 3 months old puppy. And yes, she is a true-blue beauty queen as she has won many titles in the local dog show.

Not only is Szugar beautiful, she is also a tease with male dogs (runs away coyly but nips & growl if the male dogs tries to hump her). In fact, she has caused a few jealousy fights among male dogs.

But I can tell Szugar has a soft spot for Jack - the old grumpy man. She allows Jack to growl at her when he is in a mad mood (if it is some other dogs who growl, Szugar would have shown her displeasure immediately!)

And Jack will usually show his obvious affections like twice a year (before & after her heat)

A few nights ago, this happened:

Sniff Sniff bum... (look how happy Szugar is)


Hump hump (errr... Jack, wrong side!)

And I said earlier that I can tell Szugar likes Jack because she allows him to hump her for a while. They had a fun time a few nights ago, running together, lying down on the grass pawing each other!

HC had a video of them running and playing together but it was too dark to be posted.

Frankly, I don't know why Szugar likes Jack when she can have the pick of any male dogs at the park. Maybe she will look even more beautiful when standing next to an uglier dog?

And a belated note:

Scuba celebrated a very quiet birthday 2 weeks ago with some of us. But there are no pictures cos HC didn't bring her camera. We had a feast, and even get to bring home goody bag consisting of pumpkin pastries and dried treats!

And we had 2 lovely personalised collars from Scuba too!

And a funny story to share as told by Scuba's mum. She went to buy the collars with Huskee's mum. And when choosing the various colors, Huskee's mum pick the blue one for Jack because - "Jack is a grumpy old man! and dull color like blue is just right". And sad to say, HC agreed about this statement and she usually buy dark colored accessories for Jack. *sniggers*

Weather

The weather is crazy here! It's too hot and humid in the day for HC to bring us out, and by evening, the rain starts.

Fortunately, HC managed to rush home from work to bring us to the park, despite a dark, gloomy sky and thundering sound from afar. We managed to squeeze in about half an hour of run before dashing back to the car to avoid the huge downpour.

Hurrying (read: barking) at HC to throw ball for me

Getting really impatient

Running back to HC with my ball

We had another Sentosa outing this morning but HC forgot to bring her camera. I think Herbie's M took some, perhaps he will update it on his blog.

Breath test

Have you ever wonder how bad your own breath is?

According to HC, mine rates 4/10 (10 being really bad bad bad breath), and Jack's used to be like 8/10.

The reason is this

See the yellow tartar on Jack's front inner teeth? She has tried giving him bones, but it didn't managed to clean off the front inner part cos we don't use it to gnaw on bones. For the last few months, HC has been religiously brushing our teeth every night, and Jack's stain has gone down a little. She is contemplating sending Jack for teeth scaling later this year.

Anyway, HC found this write up about parsley :
- Parsley is rich in vitamins and minerals, including A and C, as well as calcium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, zinc, potassium, and iron.
- The boron and fluorine in parsley give strength to the bones.
- The German Commission E, an advisory panel on herbal medicines, has approved parsley for use in the prevention and treatment of kidney stones.
- Parsley's high chlorophyll content makes this beneficial herb a natural as a tasty breath freshener.

So, HC has been boiling parsley in water, and stored these boiled water in little containers in the fridge. Every day, we will get 2 tablespoon or so with our food. And it helps! HC said that Jack's breath is now 7/10 and mine 3/10! Yay!

Note : Jack has protested about me posting the above un-cool picture of his yellow teeth, and wants everyone to know that most of this teeth are WHITE! In fact the vet has seen him and said he has healthy teeth and gum given his age.

He posed this picture to prove how white his teeth are:

My Friends

This post is dedicated to my good friends. HC said we are very lucky to be able to meet and play with our friends almost daily. She said not alot of dogs get to do that.

Helios, Tommy and I. Why is Tommy sniffing my neck when I am playing tug with Helios?

Here's a funny picture of Helios getting humped (by me) , and I was distracted (along with Tommy) by a toy that a human was dangling above our heads.
While we were happily playing, Herbie is behind sniffing Tommy's butt.

Tommy and I played with our favorite game - Tug-of-Ball! (ermm... did you see someone spying on us?)

The Spy (Scuba) tried to come in-between Tommy and I.

The Spy watching us again....

And again, (see his nice pink butt? hehehe)

Spy was again caught watching us when we are taking pictures! What was he up to?

Scuba : I wasn't doing anything! I'm sleep walking! Honest!

For those of you not familiar with Scuba, he has a reputation of sleeping most of the time. He can continue to sleep on the floor when we are stepping all over him. At 9p.m, he will demand to be let into the bedroom to sleep by walking to the bedroom door and leaning his head against the door (he thinks he has to power to open the door just by meditation). And he doesn't care that his guests (us) are still around and playing noisily. If he needs to sleep, he will...

And Scuba takes power nap. He will nap for 1/2 hr, and then wakes up to try to join in the game. But sometimes, he joins in at the wrong time - such as when Tommy is tired and sleeping. Scuba aspires to be either a dentist or beautician (he cannot decide which) by licking another dog's entire head and/or mouth.

And of course Tommy is irritated sometimes and tried to push Scuba away (hehehe).

(HC : I am very glad Joey gets to meet and play with his friends daily. All of them play very well together and politely too. For example, we had a chew hoove once. And all the dogs (I think there were about 6-7 of them) took turns to chew at it. I am serious... one will be chewing while the others waited. Then the one chewing it will get distracted and walks away. Another dog will then take over the chew hoove. So far, only my other dog - Jack is a bit rude. Jack actually growled at Tommy and snatched the chew hoove right under Tommy's nose. Luckily, most of them give way to Jack:)

However, Jack still does not want to play with the rest of the dogs. He is more of a discipline master. One bark, and the dogs will stop playing)

Forget Me Not

Remember my HC's office dog - ToTo?

Well, he is actually 'illegal', as HC has not sought proper permission to keep ToTo in the office compound. HC cannot find a good excuse for the office to keep him officially, because ToTo is a scaredy dog. After feeding him for 9 months, he still runs away when HC comes near. I think HC has now called him "the useless guard dog", because ToTo will attempt to guard the office by barking at strangers and then runs away!

To help him overcome his fear, HC has bought 2 Bach remedies - Mimulus and Larch. She has been feeding him for the last 1 week. However, HC could only feed him twice a day with food which is different from the recommended instructions. So hopefully, it'll work for him.

The useless guard dog...

Remember my new door tag?


I think ToTo should get a few of these to remind his 'two' slaves: - HC will feed in the morning and another colleague during lunchtime. However, sometimes due to wet weather or workload, they'll forget and will only remember when HC and her colleague meet after the usual mealtime. (They would say, "OHH I forgot to feed ToTo!" and rushed down to feed him.)

And HC complains that ToTo is very smelly. He has never showered in his entire life! eeek!

Friends

Have you wonder how many dogs and human can a normal sedan car fits?

Answer - 3 humans, 5 dogs (3 retrievers + 2 jacks)

The other day, we were planning to go for dinner and decided all of us should try to fit into ONE car instead.

Although the car belongs to me (yes Mine, HC is my designated driver), Jack and I are good hosts and leave the good seats to my friends.

Back seat - Auntie S and the three retrievers

Did you notice Herbie fell asleep almost immediately? Or is he one of those selfish humans on the train that pretend to sleep so that they do not need to offer the seats to the needy?

Jack and I laid down on the floor board.



Also, we received a gift recently from HC's friend.

At first we were disappointed that the gift was made of wood and not edible. Then, I had a bright idea! I decided to hang this on the main door so HC has no excuse not to feed us before she leaves the house.
Don't you think all doggies should have one of these at home?

Disastrous pictures

HC was looking through our photo album, and realised she has very few pictures with us. Though she doesn't fancy taking pictures, she knows she should take more with us else she might regret in future.

So, with no other humans at home, she decided to DIY and set up the camera timer.

sigh.... it was a long session (20 mins, 100 over pictures) as we were not very co-operative dogs when it comes to picture taking. And HC was getting really angry and exasperated with us. What was supposed to be a loving photo taking session ended up in her scolding, threatening us to sit still and to look into the blardy camera!


Jack shows his obvious displeasure at taking pictures.

HC almost struggled me to death !


A more acceptable picture, but unfortunately the picture was not sharp enough.

oh well, at least HC now has some pictures with us, never mind the disastrous results!