Alone

The humans took up dancing recently. But to our dismay, dogs were not allowed to tag along! The humans said that we will distract them and they cannot concentrate on learning the steps while keeping an eye on us. (haven't they heard of multi-tasking?)

To make us feel better, we were all sent to Scuba's place where poor Auntie Sam (Scuba's caregiver) has to take care of 5 dogs for almost 2.5 hours. Though I loved Auntie Sam alot, I cannot get over the fact that HC had forsaken her evening ritual of playing fetch with me.

Every week, I will follow HC out to the lift landing whenever I see her walk out of the house, hoping to go along with her. Alas, HC said 'no' and Auntie Sam had to coaxed me back to the house.

Usually, this is what happens when we dogs get together.



But with HC gone, I am in no mood to play and sat by the front door waiting for HC to come back.

What took her so long?

And.. I found out the most annoying part - the class was supposed to be an hour, yet they were gone for 2.5 hrs! And I overheard the humans happily discussing which food places they can check out every week!

(HC : I think most responsible owners would feel the same way. We spent most of our time with our dogs, but sometimes we were happy to have a little bit of time to ourselves.)

Begging Trio

Nothing much happening these days as it was rain rain rain everywhere!

As usual, we holed up at Scuba's place and spent our evenings practicing our begging skills.

And where were we? Tommy, Jack and I decided to beg from someone else as you can see from the pic that the space is full.

Unfortunately, Jack and I were the least successful. We didn't get a single thing cos our HC wanted us to stay 'pure' (read : no preservatives, no sugar, no salt.... blah blah blah *roll eyes*).

Raw Diet - Whole Fish

We have been on a all-natural, raw diet for the longest time. But HC personally does not like raw fish so she would usually steam it lightly for us. However, she has recently started feeding us raw norwegian salmon fillet, and we seem to like it alot.

So finally, she plucked up her courage and bought us whole raw fish.

Yummylicious?

However, for the first time in our lives - we took the longest time to attempt to eat the whole fish. This is certainly new to HC since I have never ever refused ANY food.

After much coaxing and cutting the fish into tinier pieces, we ate a bit of the fish body but absolutely refused to touch the fish head.

HC left us alone as we were throwing her the look that says, " please feed me the usual raw meat". Usually, HC will not let us have our meals together without supervision (cos I may snatch Jack's food), but this time she is very sure we wouldn't fight (HC : it takes them so long to even eat the fish body!)

Jack decided to give up on eating and gives HC the pathetic look.

Please let me ouuuutttttttttt

This is the part that we refused to touch!

This meal is totally not yummylicious! Humph!!!

It's my 6th birthday...

and Tommy's 5th!

Well, my birthday was 2 days before Tommy's and the humans have always celebrated our birthdays together. They claimed it is more fun this way, but I bet it's because they wanted to save costs by having us SHARE a cake :(

CELEBRATION - DAY 1 (4th August 2007)
On the eve of my birthday (4th August), HC went to a dog bakery and bought some cookies for the goody bags for our friends. She saw a nice pink (pink!!)cake, and decided to get it for us.

HC said it is safer to get Tommy to pose with the cake first cos I might ate the cake up while posing.

A serious looking Tommy celebrating his 5th birthday.

The handsome birthday boys

Since it was an impromptu early celebration, Herbie and Helios couldn't join our group picture.

Since I am the older birthday boy, I get to have the first bite. Sorry, I was trying to stuff myself with as much cake as possible that HC couldn't get a good shot. But can you see how much I have eaten? (HC : Joey ate about 1/4 of the cake within seconds... yes.. he is amazing in a greedy way!)

Then it was Tommy's turn to have a go at the cake. Silly Tommy was so unsure that the humans have to keep 'persuading' him to eat it.

CELEBRATION DAY 2 - 5th August 2007

On my actual birthday, the humans decided to bring us to our (Tommy and mine) favorite place - the beach!

After much swimming and retrieving, we are presented with a cake (with compliments from Auntie V).

The green on the cake represented 'grass', and quail eggs - 'balls'!

As per previous reason, Tommy posed with the cake first.

Then it was my turn.

And without fail, I started to eat the cake without waiting for it to be cut.

After the 2 days of celebration, I finally get to open my presents.
Of course I had to take a picture with my presents.

The next day, a nice card was delivered to my home. It was from Girl Girl!

Thank you for all the presents and cards!

Search & Rescue - Interesting Findings

I've been in search & rescue training for a long time, 4.5 years to be exact. The civil defence officers are very attentive to us and will cater our training accordingly to our level. Since I have been here for a while, they will placed more challenging 'victims' for me to search. Nowadays, I have been given search tasks that involves victim(s) hidden behind walls / next room, underground tunnels, dark room training, height training i.e. victim on the second floor etc. As I am shorter than their usual canines, there is sometimes a limit to how high I can smell.. heehee. (sooo... it is true that taller beings have better air quality!). Nevertheless, HC urged me not to give up and I am glad that I am still very enthusiatic over the training.

Last week, the officers showed me a search task that has very puzzling results from their official working dogs. They re-enact the task for me to see how I react to it.



As you can see, I am on the second floor and the victim is on the first floor. There is a huge hole that is covered by thick glass panel, with a tiny gap to let air from first floor to travel upwards. Our vision is different from the humans, and we couldn't see that the hole was covered by the glass panel, and we avoided stepping on it as we thought it was an uncovered hole.

And the puzzling thing happen.

HC can tell from my body language that I am excited by the victim's scent and was trying desperately to locate the exact source. I even put my head into the tiny gap of the glass panel covering the hole (imagine my head in first floor, and body on second floor). Yet, in the end. I indicated (by barking) that the scent is on the ceiling of the second floor instead of the first floor. HC concluded that the scent that travels from first floor to second floor gets 'trapped' on the ceiling of second floor and that's why I indicated there. But she is puzzled how I could have put my head in the gap of first floor but not sensed the victim. The officers said that their working dogs gave very weird results too, and one of them even went to the next room (on second floor) and indicated there.


mmmmmmm.... I can't wait to see what more challenging tasks there's for me next week!

Visit to a cafe and art bazaar

After a week of raining, the sky finally cleared to a cool, breezy Sunday.

HC, seeing how cooped up we were the past week (either at home or Scuba’s place), she decided to bring us to a pet café in town. Unlike the usual pet café, this one is very nicely decorated, air-conditioned and has no doggie smell (ermm…. not that I mind doggie smell, but HC prefers not to).

Most importantly, HC ordered dog meals for us, and we don’t even have to share!

Sorry, there’s no picture cos HC didn’t bring her camera along. But I had yummy beef with milk/yogurt sauce. Jack had amb with brown rice, which turned out to be a big mistake! For some reason, the rice was very very sticky and it stuck to Jack’s palate. Poor Jack tried to use his paws to remove the sticky rice, as well as tried to gobble the food down his throat as fast as possible (cos I was staring at his food from the other end). In the end, HC had to dig the sticky rice from his palate. The floor and HC’s hand were a mess later with sticky rice all over. Darn, HC should have released me to clear up the mess!

After that, we went to a weekend art bazaar along the riverside. The walk there was fantastic with the cool breeze, and HC was excited to see lots of nice arty farty stuff for sale. And we were pleasantly surprised that most people seems happy to see us. Some even stopped to pat us and asks HC about our breed. A few of them even commented that we are very tame and well-behaved. What, do they expect us to bark and walk at the same time?

(HC : Jack and Joey can be quite barky in familiar places (home and friends’ home) because they, especially Jack, have a very protective streak, common to terriers. However, when outside, they are usually quiet and thus a lot of people think they are tame! Hahahaha)

Jack & Joey - yep, of course we are tame! We don't bite (at least not this year, me thinks!)

Falling Sky

The sky is falling!

The last few days, I heard terrible roaring sounds from the sky. When this happens, I will sit close to HC so that she can protect me from the falling sky.

Late at night, when she is asleep, I will try to snuggle as close to her for protection and comfort.

What is happening to the sky?

I'll better hide under the sheets ...
And pretend I'm asleep so that HC won't push me off


Why is Jack still sleeping so peacefully? Did he not hear the terrible sounds?

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*