this Christmas

John and I just kept it simple this year on Christmas. Didn't really go anywhere, and didn't really have anyone  over. Just the two of us, with the dogs and the cat, at home, chillin'.

We had good food and beverages, of course.

And the dogs really liked their Christmas treats, too!





And yes my dogs make funny faces when they take their treats.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season!

Teacher. Leader. Friend

I haven't blogged for over 3 months! I think I should start again NOW!

For the past couple of months I had been making a lot of coffee at the shop, baking, planning our trip to Seoul, reading, and playing with our animals... just the usual stuff and I love it.

The only sadness was that Nuki passed away. At about age 13-14 he was a trooper. To us and the other animals, he was a teacher, a leader, and a friend. We have missed him dearly.


This is a haiku John wrote on the day Nuki passed away:

Masterful disguise
Buddha wrapped in a fur cloak
Your new path begins.

You can read John's post here.

And yes I want to blog frequently again!

doggie play date with schnitzel

Shaun and Daena brought Schnitzel to visit us and our dogs yesterday.

Schnitzel is a hyper, happy, and polite dog. I was glad our dogs were nice playing with him!


Schnitzel.

Shaun and Daena, with a-gui.

Yama says, "gimme the ball. pleeeease."

And I took a little video of them playing:



Everyone had a good time! We should totally have more of these play dates!

nuki is 12

Nuki.

Nuki is "unofficially" 12 today. We adopted him 10 years ago at the Spring Super Adoption. He was listed as 2 years old at the time. We figured we would make May his birth month.

Happy happy birthday Nuki!

And as of May 2011, Yama is 6 1/2 and a-gui is 1 1/2.



Yama.


a-gui.

jasper and the cone

Jasper went under a surgery yesterday to have his glands removed. In order to prevent him from licking himself too much, the vet had us put a little cone on him.




He was not quite sure why the cone was on him, and he didn't really like it over his head, so he tried to get it off a few times.




He was still groggy in these photos (taken right after we came home from the vet's office, so his eyes were slightly "dreamy") but he's acting pretty like his usual self by the time we went to bed.

The dogs have been nice to him, especially a-gui. a-gui was really curious about Jasper wearing the cone, but he knew not to bother him too much.

Jasper will have his stitches out in two weeks.

goodbye, the tiny little love of mine.

We said goodbye to Ginger, our tiny little Siamese mix last Monday the 18th.


Ginger was really small as a kitten.

How small was she?


Really small!


She was really small as a full-grown cat, too.

I will miss her dearly, but I was glad she was not in pain when we let her go.


I will miss having her sitting by me when I surf online late at night.


I will think back at the time when she liked the bread I made.


She really liked the bread I made.


I will also remember how, the day before she said goodbye to us, she came out in the front room and enjoyed the bright sun coming through the window.

a-gui wears a t-shirt

"Huh?!"


"Oh well."

I was cooking and a-gui came by my leg, and he kept wiggling and moving next to me. I looked down and saw he was wearing a t-shirt from Best Friends.

He looks pretty cute in the shirt but he didn't seem to enjoy wearing anything, so John helped taking it off pretty soon.

At least he wore the t-shirt long enough for me to snap a couple photos of him in the t-shirt. :D

a-gui's first birthday

a-gui turned a year old on the 5th!

OK it was probably not really his birthday, but when we adopted him on November 5th last year, he was about two months old, so we decided his birthday should have been September 5th.



I happened to have made the ribbon rose cake for my decorating class, so we pretended it was his birthday cake and tried to have him pose with it.

After a few attempts I had to put the cake right next to him before I could snap a better shot of both the cake and him. a-gui just had to take a little bite on the cake... hence the above picture! :D

I love a-gui!

play

I love this fuzzy little picture. Everyone was running and playing in the backyard while I snapped the shot. It almost looks like a fuzzy painting... makes me smile when I look at it. :)

slightly elevated food bowls

We've been trying to find elevated dog food bowls for our dogs for a while. There are quite a few kinds out there, but most of them are the two-compartment ones (which would take up too much room for us since we have three dogs!) They also get a bit price-y.

John shopped around for a while, and decided to re-construct our own using easy-to-find materials, and this is what we came up with:

We use these IKEA plant pots for the elevated base:



And a simple food bowl:


(Product photos from IKEA.com)

This is how it came out:


The dogs seem to like the new creation of their "food stand!"

Another good thing about this food bowl/stand coolness is that you can stack the bowls, and the bases, for easy storage, when the dogs are finished eating. I love it!

foxtail sadness

Yama was walking on three legs the night before yesterday, so John and I checked to see if anything was caught on his foot that was not touching the ground. We didn' see anything unusual or feel any broken bone at first, but then we noticed there was a puncture wound in between two of his toes.

John tried to clean it up but it was making Yama very uncomfortable. We decided to call the vet and bring Yama in yesterday.

The vet checked Yama and realized soon that there was a Foxtail seed that burrows in his foot! Apparently this happens a lot to dogs, especially around this time of year. Poor Yama!

These Foxtail seeds will work their way up into an animal's body (usually through their feet or ears and act as barbs) and it can be fatal if the Foxtail seeds get into the animal's lungs or other organs! Scary.

The Foxtail seed almost worked its way through Yama's foot. The vet had to sedate Yama and dug out the little pieces of the seeds.


Yama is OK now but he's on antibiotics and some pain meds.


The open was on the opposite side of the red spot on his foot.

I'm sad Yama was hurt, but on the other side I'm happy we caught it in time. Here's what I found about removing a Foxtail from dogs' paws if it's still only on the surface. We've been checking out each of our dogs' paws and fur after they play outside.

behind the slightly-open kitchen door

John bought a dog nail filing trimmer and we used it on Nuki the other night.

Of course there were quite some treats (dehydrated duck tendor strips,) and me singing (!) to Nuki involved for him to lie down and stay almost still as requested by us.

I must say the nail trimmer worked quite well. At least we didn't have to worry about clipping the dogs' nail and accidentally draw a bit of their blood.

While we were trimming Nuki's nails in the kitchen, Yama and a-gui were asked to stay out of the area.

But they really wanted to come into the kitchen to see what's going on.


Yama said, "Please let me in, pleeeeeese!"


"No?"


"But I really want to see Nuki right now! Can my head fit through this?"


And a-gui said, "Oh oh oh allow me. I'm only about half your size. I may be able to go right through."

It'll be nice if they still want to come and stay in the kitchen when it's their turn to have their nails trimmed.

what has a-gui been doing?

"What has a-gui been doing?" you ask.

Some of you know a couple weeks ago he had a small puncture wound on his head that eventually made the left side of his head/face HUGE. The wound had been cured and he is all good now.

Then one night we found he might have a "cherry eye." I almost passed out when I saw him that night. John helped massage around his eyes, it went away, and we think he is OK.

Other than these couple of not-so-happy events, a-gui has been growing, playing (by himself, or with Nuki and Yama,) and being happy.

He also really likes to help around the caffe.


He likes to check out all the shelves, especially those behind cupboard doors.

He runs and sits down in front of any cupboard we open, and observes whatever was going on.


He also helps monitor John's espresso-machinese-cleaning and filter-changing process.


And most of the time he offers moral support (while lying down comfortably) when we are making coffee.

a-gui has been busy, you see.

holiday greenies

Part of the big box of Christmas presents for our pets from Joyce's sister Irene was two boxes of Greenies! One for small dogs and the other for big dogs.

I gave the box for small dogs to Joyce when Torsion was returned to her. Torsion is the only small dog after all!

I didn't open the box for big dogs until New Year's Day, and gave them to Nuki, Yama, and a-gui as a Happy New Year treat.


Keen-y on the Greenie!


"Umm... are you sure this is safe to eat?"


"Oh! A new treat! lick lick lick. nom nom nom."

The dogs loved the presents! Thanks again to Irene and Michael!

a-gui and torsion

After staying with us for about 6 months, Torsion is now home with his mom!

Almost two months ago we brought a-gui home. He was a tiny little guy, and quickly became friends with Torsion. I have been "documenting" how fast a-gui grows, and I have a few pictures of him and Torsion together to show how rapidly(!) a-gui is growing.


This was taken about a week after a-gui came to our home.

a-gui was about 3 months old, and not much "longer" than Torsion, but slightly taller.


This was taken about a month after a-gui came to our home.

a-gui was about 4 months old, and starting to show his long(er) legs.


This was taken about 10 days ago, where a-gui had been with us about a month and a half.

See how big a-gui has gotton?!

He officially doubled in size (weighted around Christmas) in less than two months!

I love puppies, and I love a-gui, even if he's going to grow into a giant, giant dog.

mystery present from Arizona

I got a mystery box from Arizona the other day. I saw the senders names and address that seemed familiar, but I just couldn't think of who exactly they were.

I thought and thought, and finally figured out: the box was from Joyce's siter and brother-in-law! It was a box filled with treats and toys for our dogs and cats! There was also a lovel box of chocolate for John and I.



That was so nice of them.

Since a-gui was at the caffe with us, we had him pose with one of the toys:


a-gui with Moosey (the Christmas toy) and his old buddy Doughy the dough boy.

Thanks Irene and Michael!

nuki wearing my scarf

Huh?!


I put a scarf on Nuki.


He looks quite handsome with it if you ask me.

I also tried to put the scarf on Yama, but he shaked it off before I could reach out for my camera; I couldn't even get it on a-gui... he wanted to chew on it the whole time.

ropey

a-gui has a toy that we call "Ropey."

Since we try to socialize a-gui as much as possible, we bring him to the caffe and hang out with us and our friends when we can.

And Ropey comes with a-gui all the time right now.


a-gui and Ropey.


"I've got you, Ropey!"


Mmmmm... Ropey legs. num num num.