Her Name was Precious

Before the last post, I remembered I wrote something about Precious last year.

Last year, when she showed signs of leaving ...

Now that I re-read what I wrote, hmm, quite the same. :P

And below is it, dated 31 July 2017.

Her name was Precious.

It was year 2002, an afternoon of Good Friday.

We drove all the way to Jurong West, to pick the little mini schnauzer.

She’s a barky lady, when we met her. And was barky for the most part of her life.

We decided to bring her home, and she was two.

She was our adopted pet.

Our first pet dog.

She was a little confused, after being re-homed to us.

She had quite spiky hair, looking a mess.

And lots of skin conditions.

We brought her to vet.

Cleaned her up, rid her of skin problems.

Trained her to sleep at her own place.

And made her do simple little paw paw trick.

Overtime, she got used to us.

She had been a precious baby.

Just barking all day when we were out for work.

Just barked a lot at night, just not to be alone in the kitchen.

A good doorbell she is.

Always ready when someone is at the door.

She had had ticks before

Being novice owner, we were confused ourselves.

We pulled and pulled something on her.

In the end, realised it’s just her tits

And not ticks. D’uh!

She had grown well.

Skin became much more silky.

Looked a lot prettier.

Always well-behaved.

Yet always the barky one.

She’s a scary dog.

One that is afraid of water.

She would scratch you all over when you put her there.

We know.

We had the fun of being scratched.

She’s a lovely one too.

When Zyan was born, she knew.

She would come peep at the baby.

Look for daddy and mommy when she thinks the baby needs help.

We can tell she’s protective of him too.

It’s been a long 15 years.

She was getting weaker, and weaker.

Her legs felt the strain. Couldn’t stand.

Her appetite was not good.

And she didn’t drink much either.

She just lied down there.

Watching things go by.

Waiting for time to pass.

When I looked at her, she still looked so pretty.

Pretty old lady.

It is year 2017

The time is near

For her to go

For her to say good bye

Her name is Precious.

Our little Precious.

Our Precious

I remember it was year 2002, somewhere in May.

Assuming my memory is superb, it’s probably a Good Friday holiday during that year.

That time, home had only Karinna and myself.

Think we were out somewhere in Bedok, while on way home, a call was received regarding re-homing a dog.

We stopped by at a bus stop along Bedok North Street 4, deciding whether to go to Jurong West to look at the dog.

And we decided to get her.

When we reached the foster home for the dog, that dog was bark non-stop at anyone who comes near the home. Essentially territorial.

Other than the barking, she is basically a scaredy dog.

And she is Precious.

We brought her home. Took her cage along as well. Can’t remember what other things.

That night, she kept barking whole night. It was a real sleepless night.

She had lots of skin problem. Brought her to vet to get necessary treatment. Fed her better nutritious dog food (so called), with lots of fish oil.

In the end, she turned out beautiful-er.

Skin problem was eventually resolved too.

I remembered once, after walking her, we thought we found ticks on her belly.

Tried to poke and tried to pull. Hmmmm.

In the end, we realised it’s her nipples. D’uh!

It was hilarious, and yet felt so sorry for the poor girl.

She is really sweet girl. Just greedy and barky.

When Zyan was born, and when Zyan started to cry, Precious would run towards us and ‘asked for help’ by barking at us. She would stand up onto the baby cot and looked at Zyan.

At that time, Sapphire, the other dog that we had a little later (died last year), was also good with Zyan. Just that, my memory says Precious is more ‘caring’ towards Zyan.

This Precious had been with us for 16 years. Born in 2000, as we were told. When we adopted her, she was 2 years old. At 18+, she is considered to have outlived most dogs of her breed. Sapphire only lived until she was 15.

Precious welcomed Sapphire home, and sent Sapphire off when she was gone.

This time, the new adopted dog Penny would see that Precious is gone.

Precious need not suffer anymore.

She had been so-called bedridden since probably early this year.

She nearly cannot make it last August, but she was a fighter. Fought against the odds and managed to walk again last September.

Old age is something that is difficult to go against. When her legs got weakened again, she basically just lied down and couldn’t do anything else.

Pee and poo became a problem, and so she had to wear diaper.

Eat and drink will need some help from us.

Actually other than that, her head is still quite strong.

Signs of old age, and of a dying dog seemed to get more obvious.

Besides, there’s no quality to her life.

We brought her to the vet.

She had wounds on her due to body contact against floor, as she couldn't walk.

Telling her the last goodbyes, and to make her suffer less.

And so she goes …

May she rest in peace

Bye bye, the first dog in our life ...

More Compassion

While having dinner, I cannot remember what context the question came about.

Zyan asked me this: Papa, can you show me more compassion?

Wow!
What have I done?

Went off a while, then came back to him, I passed him this:

Karinna and him burst out laughing.

Bus Trip

Today, Karinna had some appointment the whole day, so left Zyan having only 1 target to pester, which is me. :P

Since Suntec has Consumer Electronics Exhibition, I decided to bring him out in the afternoon.

There was some rain around lunch time. Waited for the rain to simmer down before heading out to the bus stop.

We took bus 33 to Dakota, then took the Circle Line MRT to Promenade station.

Of course this is not the first time for Zyan to take bus and MRT ride anymore. So he still wants to stand and hold the hand rails wherever possible. Cheap thrill is like that 1.

From Promenade, we took slow walk towards the Convention Centre area. Seldom go there, felt a bit suaku looking around as well.

Well, good to see Suntec is quite crowded, and the shops are generally rented out. I have some small shares with Suntec Reit, so it is good to see high occupancy for the area. LOL

Anyway, bring a kid to such exhibition is not a good idea. He is not at the age to want to look at these things yet. I am not at that age also actually. Just passing time and enjoying the afternoon with son, and perhaps see what laptops to buy for replacement for office use.

I think the choice is still similar to what I bought few weeks back. Who knows? Next week is PC Show, but I think it would be the same … …

After walking through the crowds at Suntec, very tired siah. Walked over to Marina and had afternoon snack.

Zyan picked Chic-A-Boo Fried Chicken.

Shared with him a 2-piece meal, while resting our tired legs.

snack time!

Let him played at some playground before heading home.

Took the train from Esplanade back to Dakota.

While on the way to the train station, I told Zyan there is one thing we would do before going home.

Which is: To go to his Primary School, and let him learn to take bus from school to home.

Thus, from Dakota station, we took bus 16 to go to his school compound area.

Told him to make himself be aware of the route later for the bus home.

For bus to school, I think it is a little challenging for now, as the bus stop is a little further away from the school. Well, settle the bus home first. J

Intention is for him to take the bus, recognise the roads, and tell me when we are reaching the bus stop near home.

Only one bus from the school’s bus stop will reach near home.

I let him flagged the bus when it came.

Went up, took a seat, told him to try to look out ahead, and if needed, count the number of bus stops.

At bus stop near school

But he talks a lot. Keep talking to me instead of looking out. Occasionally will blurt out info as if he is an expert with taking bus home.

Told me about the bus stop’s number. I never bother with the bus stop’s number.

Of course, I am with him, so I would control to make sure we alight at the correct place.

Had to remind him to press the bell to signal to driver we wanted to alight the bus.

He kept having impression that he was the one that pressed the bell. I knew it was me. LOL

Anyway, first try. Gotto have a second or third try some other time.

We shall see.

我那美美的小脚

我那美美的小脚

受伤了

训练师说别太有雄心

抚摸头几下就好

偏偏我屁股痒

用点力让它躺下

它也配合我几下

几厉害一下喔

顿时想站起来

它反应超快

扑一下就咬到我的手

用力给了它一拳

它再扑向我的脚

一脚把它踢开

再吼住它停止

它可能以为我想压死它？

它定下来了

坐在那儿被骂

看一下

手没事

右膝盖有点淤青

左脚流血了

没什么大碍

可是

痛啊!!!

再骂它几次

然后敷点药

我那美美的小脚

Dog Training

Penny has been with us for few days already.

With her biting incidents, we got a dog trainer to see if he can help us to overcome the issues with Penny.

Ricky came over around 7.30pm. Very punctual guy. Cool.

I was imagining that he would be bringing a parang, choke chain, or maybe a cane. :P

Just kidding. He came with just his little bag of I-dunno. C’mon, don’t expect me to peep into his bag right?

Learn quite many things from him.

His assessment of Penny is that she is of very strong character. She is also trying to get used to our home, and assessing each and every one of us at home. She is an unwilling pack leader.

He spotted a few safe havens which Penny is trying to establish at our home. Advising us to do something to remove the situation, so that she will see us as her pack leader.

There are 4 basic needs and security a dog needs to have, according to him.

Feast, Attention, Perceived danger (internal and external).

So we have to remove her safe haven in order not to let her build her empire. If not, we will become slaves to her. :P

This is part of her way in dealing with internal perceived danger.

We didn’t notice that until Ricky tells us. Seems interesting to know.

For external perceived danger, that’s her instinct to bark at people or dogs outside our house. She is so protective of us because she thinks she is the leader among us.

So we have to constantly remind her that we are her leader, and we can deal with the situation rather than let her bark to protect us from outside danger.

As for food, we have to prepare in such a way to tease her that the food is yummy. Fake-eating her food if possible (with chips or nuts on hand lah).

If she doesn’t want to eat, will have to take the food so that she will treasure her food.

Cannot do it buffet-style.

We don’t usually do it that way, as our old dogs are very greedy. They gobble the food down in a jiffy. J

That’s probably the easiest to make them feel food is important.

Attention, well, due to her unpredictable aggression, we have to slowly give her the attention she needs.

It cannot be done when she wants attention. We have to give her attention when we want to give her. This is to make her feel that we are important to her, and not the other way round.

Sounds logical too right?

If not, every time she asks for attention, and we give it to her, she will think she is the leader, as we give in to her.

Have to ignore her when she asks for it, and only to give her the attention from our part after a few minutes. That’s to show our importance to her. How cool is that?

Another thing Ricky mentioned, when we get home from outside (work or otherwise), if the dog wags her tail too much, it is not necessarily a sign to mean she is happy to see you.

It just means she is very excited, and her energy level is very high.

And dog will usually ask for attention at that time.

Thus, we have to ignore her for a few minutes. Cannot totally ignore.

After that few minutes, we have to do reunion with her, to show that we care for her.

Reminds me of parenting talks … … …

Well, it is really an eye/ear opener to learn from Ricky.

Doing it is the hard part, as usual.

Well, the Tay family has to try. No way out. LOL

Next session with Ricky will be a few weeks later.

Let’s home by then little Penny can feel more relax to relinquish her leadership role to other members in our family.

That way, she can be happier, and hopefully less bites.

New Dog

It’s Labour Day!

Time to do some labour!

Nah.

This morning, went to West Coast area. 

Went to this Estrella Condominium at Pasir Panjang.

Not to view house ok. To view a dog.

Over the weekend, we also went to some dog for adoption places. Saw one male schnauzer, but the poor little seemed to be very afraid of other dogs and human beings. Kept keeping to himself at a corner. Decided to KIV.

Yesterday, Karinna chanced upon an ad for adoption.

So arranged to see the dog at 0930hours.

A bit early right? *Yawn*

Met the owner. Foreigner from forgot-which-country. I mean I forgot, not owner herself ok? :P

She said her dog is generally good, except she does bite. Thus, have to be a little cautious on that.

Ohhh. I have to be careful with my butt when near her … …

She’s a mix from schnauzer and poodle. Wow. That would make her very intelligent.

比我还厉害。

And she’s pretty strong too. Bigger built than our Precious and beloved-Sapphire.

She knows basic commands, in English of course.

And she has a very nice sitting pose. Really nice.

Owner kept emphasizing on the dog having the potential to bite. Can tell she is very concerned on that. At least she is being honest.

Also, the dog would get very excited if she sees other dogs. Hmmmm.

Didn’t get a chance to see that part, as there were no dogs earlier.

She has a big lump at her neck area though. Was told it is just a lump, nothing malign about it.

Anyway, after some short interaction with her, Karinna decided to adopt this little dog.

Erh. Little? Hmmm.

So we got some of her toys from the owner, got her usually sleeping couch, and that’s it. Time to go to our home.

As we drove back home, it reminded me of the day when we adopted Precious. 

If I remember correctly, Precious was adopted on a Good Friday holiday.

And now, this dog, on Labour Day.

We came home, Zyan was surprised to see a new addition.

The dog didn’t bark at Precious. Precious is already 18, plus she cannot walk anymore. Precious used to be very barky, now silence is her prerogative.

At least they can get along well.

This new dog is learning to get new affection from us. Smart.

 

However, when I was cuddling her, probably accidentally cuddled near her lump area.

She bit me. *Ouch* 

Well well. Have to think of disciplinary actions for this little dog. Erh. Little? Hmmm

Let me heal my finger first.

And oh, Penny, welcome to the family.

Hope you can adjust well here.