Long lost fur

While spring-cleaning the house a few weeks ago, guess what my MM found?

Wazzat?


It's my big brother Herbie's fur, kept in a plastic bag! Now you must be wondering why is my big brother Herbie's fur kept in a bag?

It happened a long time ago, before I was born, that my big brother Herbie has an admirer. My big brother Herbie always has admirers, I wonder when I'll get my own admirer. I seem to be doing the admiring nowadays instead of the other way round.

Anyway! This admirer is a mixed breed called Buddy, and he really, really likes Herbie, so much so that he will keep whining once he sees my big brother yet cannot get close to him. So his owners came up with an idea of making him his own 'Herbie toy' and asked my M if she can give them Herbie's fur, the loose ones that she combed out.

So she agreed, and she began collecting his fur. But there wasn't a lot of fur, and my M stopped bumping into the couple at the park after some time so she stopped collecting. And later on Buddy went to the rainbow bridge and the fur was left forgotten.

Until now.

Is that you, big brother?


Since my M once thought maybe she should have kept some of Herbie's fur as remembrance after he passed away, she thought it lucky that his fur was found. So now it's put in a clear bag in my big brother's special corner.

New addition!


Anyway, I don't think buddy needs the fur now as I'm sure he's whining away at my big brother herbie over at the rainbow bridge now.

Happy Valentines!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Or rather a belated happy one.

My M says Valentine's day is a day to spend with your loved ones, and I am their loved one too, so my M and MM had valentine's day with me. And I had yummy dinner! My M doesn't like to go out on V day coz she felt the food are overpriced and the restaurants so full that service is likely to be not so good, so she decided to cook at home. And a long time ago, someone reading the blog mentioned that my M cooked similar food during the last 2 V-day, so this year she did something different. She tried french cooking.

Speaking of dinner, we have a long story about it, or rather one of the dishes.

My M decided to try cooking foie gras, but the butchery she went to sells only the whole piece of frozen liver and since it's the first time she's trying to cook it, she's not too keen on spending so much to buy one whole liver when she only needed 2 slices in case her cooking is atrocious. In the end she asked Aunty V in passing if she knows where to buy uncooked foie gras and nice Aunty V asked her friend who works in a hotel, who went to check with his chef. Aunty V oso decided she wants foie gras too, so the chef very kindly agreed to sell us a few slices as a personal favor to Aunty V's friend. What a nice chef, and nice friend, and nice Aunty V!

Here's the uncooked, and very long story foie gras.


Since it's so expensive, and so fatty, and my M is not sure if my tummy can take it, she only gave ne a very small piece to try. See my piece compared to the size of the pan? And the oil came purely from the liver, my M did not use any oil at all. And mine was just panfried with no seasoning.

Sizzling liver


Besides foie gras, I had stir fried pork with garlic and herbs.

Sizzling piggy


And my M and MM had codfish while I had salmon, grilled.

About to sizzle fishies


And here's what I had for dinner, with asparagus and baby corn. Can you find my tiny foie gras amidst all the food? Oh, and I had egg white too coz my M took the yolks to make the sauce for the veges. She said no point wasting the white and I totally agree with her.



But dinner took a long time to be ready. My M says I look so serious while waiting.

I'm hungry...


And I'm still not allowed to eat until I take peektures with my dinner.

When can I start eating?


Finally digging in


It was so yummy I licked the bowl so nice and clean that I think my M don't even have to wash it. To make sure it was truly clean, I even went back to the bowl and lick it a few more times after dinner.

Is it totally clean?


And here's what my M and MM had for dinner.



I think she spent the longest time making the orange sauce from scratch. Kinda strange that the most inconspicuous item took the most trouble. And I think the appetiser (foie gras) should be served separately but my M is too lazy to wash so many dishes so she dumped them all on the same plate.

And to be fair, they had to take peektures with their dinner as well. And I wanted to be in the peekture too so I snuck in at the corner when they weren't noticing.



The dinner was so nice that after I've had mine, I wanted theirs as well.

Can I have more?


Pretty please?????


I think my big brother herbie taught me well because I got a small slice of fish skin (which my M didn't like) right at the end of their dinner.

I wonder when is the next big cook out day.

Eye Gunk

I've been having gunky stuff around my eyes recently, and now my M has started calling me by a new name. She now calls me 'bak sai dog' and she says bak sai means 'eye gunk'.

The other aunties told her to try dropping my eyes but I say no, I still want my eyes to see. (M: Eye drops, eye drops! Not dropping eyes!)

See my gunky eyes? This is an improved version after they dropped my eyes. My M says the first few days it was think and crusty. I don't know since it's too near my own eyes for me to see and the mirrors at home are too high.



I hope my gunky eyes get better because I don't like my eyes dropping.

Chinese christmas tree

My M said it's gonna be Chinese New Year soon, so we put up a chinese christmas tree at home.

(M: It's not a chinese christmas tree! It's pussy willow!)

It's not? But it's a plant and it has things hanging on it. Isn't it a christmas tree? Anyway, apparently pussy willow in chinese is called 银柳 'Yin Liu', which literally means silver willow. In ancient China, the currency used is silver, and Yin Liu in cantonese dialect sounds like silver money. So having the plant around chinese new year means we'll get lots of luck and money! I hope we do, coz I don't mind more toys.

Here's how we decorated our plant, with fake butterflies too coz the real ones won't come in.

Do I look like a deer with HUGE antlers?

My M says I get to go visiting relatives during Chinese New Year, and I must behave myself because my big brother herbie was a very good boi when he went visiting, so I must be a good boi too. And I said, ok! It's easy coz I'm always a good boi!

I hope I get lots of treats during the new year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday today! I would have been officially 8... if I'm still around. Oh hold on, I AM still around, just that I'm now in a different place. And I'm gonna have a big party with all my new friends at the rainbow bridge. Of course the food is nowhere as good as my M's cooking (ahem, really... I am not forced by years of training to suck up to her... I mean, really! Ahem.)

Anyway! My M received a message from Scuba early this morning wishing me a happy birthday. Too bad he can't come to my awesome pawty, but I'm sure Aunty V wouldn't want him to come too soon anyway. Scuba, tell your Godpa that Muscles is with me at the pawty and he's doing well here.

Since I can't get to eat any earthly cake here and I have no camera (and an official camera-woman (read: M) to take my picture here, I'll leave you with some old pictures of me enjoying cake.

This was me last year at Tommy and Joey's birthday. Now I'll just pretend that cake is mine.

Chomp Chomp


Speaking of which, that was my last trip to the beach. And did you know what they did to me at my last trip?!!?

Bury me!


Just because they couldn't get the frisky Helios to stay still long enough to be buried, they made ME do it instead. I bet they regret torturing me on my last trip to the beach now.

Up to my neck in sand


They'd wanted to add a turtle shell or a mermaid's tail behind me, but I wouldn't hear of it and made my escape.

I'm a dog, not a sea creature!


Freedom!


Well, at least now I don't have to suffer the indignities of being buried OR dragged out to sea.

And here's my birthday pictures from the last 2 years. Unfortinately my M lost some of my older photos when her harddrive died. So everyone, remember to BACK UP your photos!

6 years old


7 years old


I hope everyone's doing well now. And come, wish me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Come to think of it, do I get extra food on my Deathday as well? I mean, since we get to party and stuff on BIRTHdays... we should do the same on DEATHdays too, right? Right? RIGHT???

Me smart! But M smarter....

The other day, I was feeling bored alone at home and missing my M, so I decided to nibble her sandal. I took one of her sandals to the room and nibbled on it, and I very cleverly put the sandal back at the same place before they came home so that they won't find out. I even nibbled on the inconspicuous areas so that it's still wearable! But I don't know how they found out I chewed her sandal.

Look at the unchewed sandal...



Now look at the chewed sandal...



Can you see the difference? There's almost none right! Except for a teeny weeny bit of detail which I was sure she won't notice.

Missing Teva Tag


So how on earth did she find out I was nibbling her shoe??!!?

(M: Well, it's true that I won't have noticed the tag... until someone left the tag in the room in the middle of the floor. ANd the giveaway? The sandal was SOGGY from your drool! It was WET when I put my feet in.

Oops... maybe next time I should start chewing earlier so that the sandal will have time to dry before they come home.

Tug of war

I love playing tug of war with Tommy. Sometimes when he's not interested, I'll take the toy and stuff it in his face so that he'll play. But sometimes he gets annoyed at me and scold me.

I wonder why he doesn't like toys stuffed in his face, they are called stuffed toys after all, right?

Here's us tugging on another toy...

And an obviously tired Tommy.... still tugging with me

Late, late, late posts

I have not posted for a long, long time, because my M was sick sick. She got the sickie bug from my MM, but I think she got it worse because she was lazing at home more but she didn't play with me. (M: I was on sick leave!)

Apparently she got stomach flu, and was having tummy aches and stuff. I wonder how did the stomach get a flu? Will it sneeze? Anyway, it got so bad that one night my M and MM left home in the middle of the night without me and only came back in the morning because my M had chest pain. I asked them where they went and they said my M got poked by needles.

Poke!


My M got so bad tummyache that she was dehydrated and they need to put water inside her.



The doctor said my M has heartburn, that's why she had chest pain. But funnily I didn't see any fire when they left the house.

Anyway, she's feeling better now so I can blog about happier things, like my presents! Here's what I got for my birthday, more toys and food!

Wrapped


Unwrapped!


And Boo Boo and Bond also gave me something, thank you guys!

From Boo Boo and Bond


Izzie also tagged me to say about 7 weird things about me.... but I don't think I'm weird, am I? But if I really, really must say something, then here it goes:

1) I like to chase my tail, like a cat.
2) I have 3 different peeing positions, squatting, 3 legged and standing. Yes, I can pee standing.
3) I eat raw apples and carrots as treats, but if it's in my dinner, it must be cooked into soft pieces.
4) My M says I have a foot fetish, I like to lick toes.
5) I like to stuff my face into another human's face. My M says I have no sense of personal space.

Shucks, I can't think of anymore. I think I shall leave it as that... until I find out more weird things about me.

Divine Me

Hey guys, I've not written here for a long, long time. I'd like to thank everyone for such nice words about me, and I want to assure you guys that I'm very happy where I am now. I manage to make contact with my M's mum and pass her some message.

(M: I'm not sure if anyone would believe this, but it brings me great comfort nonetheless. My mum, who is quite the devout buddhist, has been including Herbie in her prayers everyday when he was sick, and even after he left us, she still prayed for his soul.

She told me that on Saturday, she was at the temple doing her sesshin (simply put, it's a form of meditation between 2 people, where my mum will meditate and the other party will meditate with her and tell my mum what she sees in my mum's meditation).

The other lady started by saying, "I see something very furry, it looks like an animal." And my mum thought, could it be Herbie? The lady said that Herbie said he's very happy where he is, and he's grateful for all the prayers. He's now following the buddhist path and thanked my mum for laying the way for him.

Actually, Herbie has been very 'blessed' ever since he stayed with us. Every morning he would 'listen' to prayer tapes (actually my mum just played it, he just happens to be in the room), and when my godfather, who is a buddhist monk, came to our house to chant prayers, he'll bless Herbie too.

I have a friend who told me she always thought Herbie is a buddhist dog, because he looks so zen most of the time. I thought that was because he's just too lazy.

Some may not believe all these talk about afterlife or buddhism, but it really gives me great comfort to know, and I choose to believe that he is truly happy. Sometimes I'll be hit by a sudden pang of missing him, and I wonder if he's happy now. At least now I know.

Oh well guys, here's divine me signing off. For all those who have lost their dogs, just know that there is an afterlife for us where we're happy. Excuse me while I go back to my meditation.

ohmmmm......


(PS: On a side note, I noticed that I have passed the 100,000 readers on my blog. Thanks to all my fantastic readers who has been following my life story for the last few years. And I'll leave you to follow Helios life story from now on. I just hope he doesn't do anymore silly things that would embarass me.)

My first birthday

Wow, I'm having a lot of firsts recently! My first grroming, my first christmas, and my first birthday!

My M made 3 cakes for my birthday, 2 for me and 1 for my brother casper. Look at all the yummy stuff she put in the cake! She says it's more meatloaf than cake.

We have chicken (which she pureed later), mashed potatoes, eggs, rolled oats, pumpkin (for the words)and honey.


Since most of the food are already cooked, I thought we can start eating it already.

ready to eat?


But my M says no, we have to mix everything up, so I said ok, mix everything up THEN we eat it?



But she says no again, we have to put it in tins and bake it.



Then I ask can we eat it after it's baked?

Can we eat now?


But she says no, we have to decorate it first. So we put yogurt on it.



Then she put on my name and casper's name on the cake.





Then I ask, can we FINALLY eat it already?



But she still says no! We have to wait til the pawty to eat it. But she gave me a yummy dinner instead. I have more pumpkin and a whole piece of salmon to myself!



At least I got to eat my dinner....



That night the humans took us out to a restaurant for my pawty. Actually the humans ate while us dogs just lingered around and waited for the cake. My M says I've taken over my big brother herbie's job as a social butterfly because I was going from table to table to make friends with strangers.

That's me posing with my cake and you can see one of my new found friends in the background, the guy looking at me.



They say the birthday dog gets the first lick so I licked and licked and licked. Scuba was looking at Aunty S and asking when is his turn.



I must say it was a very yummy cake and I ate a lot of it. I also got more presents! But my M is too lazy to take the peektures, she said she'll do it later. I'd like to thank everyone for their wishes and presents and hope you all had a wonderful new year!