Coley's First Birthday! (written by Claire)

Yeahh! Coley's first birthday was January 19, 2011. Me (Claire) the usual "I was busy!" one didn't write this post until January 27, 2011 which means that I'm about 8 days late. Sorry Coley! Claire was being simpleton but she hopes that you'll forgive her.

Coley has grown HUGE and I am completely dumbfounded by the fact that he still has room to grow! He's already over 80 pounds - how much bigger could he get? I do think that Coley is the biggest dog in the neighborhood, and that's saying a lot. We have at least 3 other dogs on the street but Coley is bigger them all. The other dogs are a bichon-frise, a black lab, and a Golden-Retriever/Cocker Spaniel Mix. So the only "big' dog is the black lab. (The black lab is still afraid of Coley!)

With all of the snow that we have, my family decided to take the dogs with us while my sister and I went sledding. The snow was about 5 inches deep but everyone stacks up the snow to "move it out of their driveway" so some places have over 7ish inches at least. Poor Caitey ("the shortie") was desperately waddling in the snow while Coley just walked through the snow like it wasn't even there. I guess Coley's height and spindly legs must have helped him a lot.

When my sister Caitlin and I started sledding, Coley followed us to the end of each trail each and every time. He would sniff and sometimes lick) us to make sure that we were okay. Caitey (HUMPH) would just play in the snow and chased after the snowballs that Daddy threw. At least Coley was concerned for my and my little sister's safety!

I'm supposed to bake cheesecake for Coley's birthday. I'll do that right after I finish up this post, okay Coley? I know that you love the cheesecake with the graham cracker crust dearly.

So belated happy 1st birthday, Coley! I hope that you'll live for many years to share your joy and love with our family and God bless you!

A Long Overdue Update

So much has happened since Spring, for a moment I had to wonder where I should start.

The grandparents came and are now gone after 6 months of stay. Of course being typical Chinese they had some issues with my two 4-legged kids, but I am glad that they (more like my dad) did not make me send my dear pups away... well actually he did "hint" such an idea but I turned a very deaf ear to that. In the end, the old man gave up and learned to walk the two big ones on his own when my husband and I were not around. I don't know if they will miss my dogs at all but I do hope that they will think twice next time they have dog dish in a restaurant back in China.

Speaking of big, Coley has become oh so HUGE - actually I think I should have named him Pony! The boy is nearly 90 pounds now. When our vet first met him, he commented that the boy had "elephant feet" and warned he could be gigantic. Coley is now officially 11-month old and is even taller than Daddy when he stands up. As he grows the boy's shepherd instinct has finally kicked in. A few weeks ago Coley had his very first trick-or-treating experience, and I was surprised to see how anxious he became when the girls walked up to doors outside our cul-de-sac street to beg for candies - he whimpered, he jumped around, and he barked on top of his lungs to warn people "Don't you get ideas!"....I think.

Caitey on the other hand, is about 2-inch lower in height and many many inches shorter in length compared with her "hubby". I sometimes feel sad for her because the power has once again shifted - this time to Coley's favour. The boy is now bigger, stronger, and faster, so the girl loses to him left and right. Whenever the boy steals her toy or treat, all she can come up with is to growl. That kind of pathetic and sad look makes Mommy once again thinking - did I exactly do Caitey a favour by giving her a companion of MY choice?

The good thing is that both pups are usually very quiet, but they will jump up from their naps and give out the most vicious barks if there is something or someone at the door. The other day a UPS guy left a box at my front door, and once these two started making noise I don't think that I have seen anyone run that fast in my life!

The happy news is that both our dogs have gone thru intermediate training which prepared them for further advanced classes to be therapy dogs, although I have to say that it was a bit of struggle for Caitey to pass because she STILL jumps on people when I am not watching her. I AM glad though that she possesses that kind of crazy zest for life, and frankly I don't really wish it to change anytime soon... well so long as I don't get sued.

Their human sisters have also grown - they are now taller, smarter, and driving me to the wall! The trade off is they have also picked up mommy's quick wit so I can get amused often. Just the other day Caitlin said "Mrs. So-and-so's pupils are bigger than her eyeballs!".

The girls have also matured (somewhat) mentally. Today Claire mentioned to me on our way back home after her ballet class that she "accepts" the fact the boy(s) she has a crush on probably will never like her back. She mentioned this in a very casual yet brave "I am fine with that" kind of tone and it made me sniff. A very bright and pretty girl, Claire is not even 12 yet but already going thru adult pain!

Sometimes I feel I live just for the sake of my four kids. I hope they will grow to be wise and kind human beings and useful K9 citizens respectively.

We Chinese parents typically wish our children to excel academically, have a respectful career that pays many many many zeros after a high number, and fulfill the dreams that we could never make happen in our lives. We can't help being pushy and demanding, not just because we want to be proud of our cubs and have something to brag to our friends, it is because WE THINK we are doing the best for our kids with our relentless disciplines and demands and we THINK we have done them a huge favour and carried out our duty as parents.

After having spent most of my adult life in the corporate world, I have seen many high-IQed & well-educated people struggle, yet better-EQed & well-liked people succeed at the workplace. So in this sense, our children's sky-high scores on standard tests really aren't a guarantee of their future success in life - it is a child's positive attitude that makes him/her stand above the crowd and shine, "Attitude determines lattitude" as they say.

Here I might sound like a 女人 (woman) but I am also a 过来人 (been there done that). As I grow older (and hopefully a little wiser), I have learned that the grass over the fence really isn't that greener if you look at it from their side, and the ladder that you desperately try to climb ahead of everyone else is easier to advance up than to stay up - hence people say it is cold and lonely at the top. The things that used to matter dearly to me stopped feeling so important. Material things, fame, and vanity fair are as intangible as the air we breathe, yes they ARE as beautiful and brilliant as the rainbow up in the sky, but unfortunately they are as short-lived as well.

Finally, from this point on I shall pass this blog to my two human girls. I am getting so busy that I find it hard to devote much time to record those perky daily events of my children. A friend suggested that maybe I should ask the girls to do it instead and I think it is a brilliant idea. The Brontë sisters wrote stories for each other at very young age and that experience prepared them to be world class writers. I hope by taking over this blog, my girls will at least have the chance to learn how to organize their thoughts and put things together in an interesting and meaningful way. I will be their most loyal reader and diligent critic.

Last but not the least, I will conclude my writing here with a quote from my favorite poet Robert Frost - "You have freedom when you're easy in your harness."

May God bless all of our children.

Melancholy soaking wet day

Woke up this morning from crying and wetting my pillow. I had a terribly disturbing dream early this morning that we needed to move overseas and Caitey would have to be left behind - I remember hugging her neck while howling heartbroken......

The view outside my window is freshly green yet depressingly wet with the steady late Spring rain. Under my desk the two tired puppies are napping right next to each other (Coley leaning on Caitey's belly) contentedly. The advantage of having two dogs in such an indoor day is that they keep each other company, harass each other without bugging us, and thus wear each other out.

Hope such peaceful days continue and my dearest K9 kids stay happy and healthy with me forever.

Coley's first night in mommie's room

I bought Coley a portable crate for travel so he can sleep in my room but can't roam around the house to mess up my floor like Caitey did when she first joined us. I left him outside the crate waiting for him to nap before putting him in, but I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before he did. This morning I woke up and found both dogs sleep like angels on their doggie beds, and there was no sign of peeing or pooing after 7 straight hours. Needless to say that I am a VERY happy mom.

I soon found out that both dogs have two layers of skin and shed heavily, sometimes they will leave a trail of hair behind when they chase each other in the hallway. I have been vacuuming around the clock and the "labor of love" is getting very tiring after a while. Thank goodness we have hardwood floor throughout!

Is there a way to let the dogs "walk" by floating in the air?

Easter Sunday -- Coley's 2nd day at home

The BBW bit the boy this morning and got yelled at, by Mommy of course. Now for once the bad girl realized that her bully behavior will not be tolerated in this house.

I have to say that I was completely shocked to see Caitey's 180-degree change of attitude soon, more like in a blink, but then it gets annoying the other way round.

Like, she HAS to be around him at ALL times and she won't leave him alone even for one second. Just now she woke up first from her nap, and had to poke Coley with her paw, sort of "wake up and play with me".

We assigned each dog to his/her kibble bowl, but they will have to eat out of the other's bowl - it must tastes better that way.

It is a lot of fun observing how the two pups interact with each other and how they react to commands differently. I was pleasantly surprised that Coley acts cool, calm and collected when meeting strangers. Being a typical hyper Golden Caitey still jumps on people even after puppy training, but Coley is more reserved when meeting new people - he would just sit aside and observe calmly.

I also noticed that the boy isn't really food motivated as in the case of Caitey, but more toy activated during training.

It is SO heartening for me to see my two little K9 angels finally start to warm up to each other and get along well. They now can roam around the house together without leash or being closely supervised.

I am very relieved... looks like we did not do a terrible thing for our doggie kids after all.

Sat April 3d -- Picking up Coley

I hope I am not confusing you here, but this post is long overdue and should have been posted much earlier. I just have to squeeze this piece in to make the whole story complete.

Before we adopted Coley to be Caitey's lifetime companion, my biggest concern was that perhaps the new male dog would bully my poor girl. Who would have thought that things actually turned out to be the other way round, at least for now - Coley is the sweet agreeable angel while Caitey had turned into a mad jealous BBW (big blonde woman).

I was shocked to see Caitey's dark nasty side today.

She grabbed everything that Coley played with, but she had so many that she never played with for over 5 minutes;

she hates kibble but today she just HAD to eat Coley's food so the little boy had nothing left. At one point she hovered herself over Coley's water bowl so the younger one could not even drink water;

When I got mad at her for being so possessive, she blew her anger over Coley's ball, chewed it up and ripped it apart into pieces;

When she saw Coley get in her crate, she barked at Coley so ferociously that the little dog was frightened to death and shivering all over;

The worst moment however, was when I first brought Coley up to my bedroom - at that point Caitey had that killer looks in her eyes. I know what she was thinking - it is the room for Mommy and me, you stinky boy butt out!

I think Caitey is going thru very traumatic times. At 1st she was afraid that her family had abandoned her, now she is afraid that she is going to lose our attention to the younger one.

Coley actually has been super agreeable and sucking up to Caitey, literally by licking her all the time. The poor boy is doing everything he can trying to be accepted by his new family, especially his own kind.

Right now we just have to keep them separate when we can't watch them, with Caitey upstairs and the little one downstairs. It is a frustrating situation but I guess we will have to find ways to get them socialize with each other.

I can't help thinking - did we exactly do a good thing for Caitey by bringing in a companion for her so objectively? Maybe we should have "asked" her, somehow?

Marking territory or something wrong with Caitey?

We promptly returned home from Disney - my husband and I drove 20 hours non-stop because we were all very concerned about Caitey's situation at our friend's house.

The first day we were back, she peed altogether almost 40 times all over the yard (26 times during the 1st hour). At first I thought perhaps she was just reinforcing her territory in fear of losing her home front because she had been "abandoned" for a week?

Caitey's strange situation continued till a friend who was more experienced with dogs told me that she could be having bladder infection, which is quite common among female dogs. Her dry warm nose also confirmed such a possibility - she was having fever and constantly thirsty for water.

Since it was weekend and the vet office was closed, I started digging on the web for hours trying to get more information. Luckily I came across a tip that colloidal silver could cure Caitey's infection. Since I had used it topically in the past for things like a skin infection or sinus during the allergy season myself, I dug my old colloidal silver bottle out of the medical cabinet and gave her two table spoons a day - low and behold, she only peed a few times the next day and like a miracle she was fully back to her bad self on the 3rd day!

I was supposed to bring her to the vet's office on Monday but I guess being open-minded saved me the trip, not to mention the $$$!

Good tough girl!