This Blog About a Dog

Vicki is doing well. She does the usual things that dogs do such as barking at strange noises, peeing on rugs and chewing on shoes as a few examples.

Sometimes I miss the days of our home with carpets (we've pulled most of them up because of her need to mark her territory on them) or of our stainless couch and clothing with less fur. Aw shucks she's so gosh darn cute it just all makes up for it.

Attached Versus Detached

Our pets are like night and day. Vicky craves attention and closeness during all her waking hours while Gusty is content to snooze away all by his lonesome. Both have their own charm and character. It is these traits of cat and dog that we appreciate so well.

Vicki would be open to a friendship with Augustus but that cat wants nothing to do with this dog. Augustus sits on high hissing and batting his paws at Vicki. We know full well there will never be a reconciling of differences and so each pet lives life in our home on their own terms.

Will these two ever become best buddies? Not likely but at least more frequently now they can stand to be in the same room with each other, even if it is Vicki on Greg's leg and Gusty across the room on a chair. Now that's progress.

A lot of Dog

I read somewhere that pugs are a lot of dog for a smaller breed. Now one could argue that Vicki is not that small but she is certainly full of character. Vicki is always making some kind of noise whether it is a grunt, groan, bark or snore it is easy to find her.

Our cat Augustus can disappear for hours and only around dinner time will he make his presence known by howling for his daily dose of the wet stuff. Vicki, on the other hand, is always close by and is now in the habit of getting on my lap while I'm on the computer. Vicki is not yet a lap-sized dog although she seems to think so and my legs have paw-sized bruises on them to prove it.

No matter what her size, noise level or character though she has the most adorable face and expressive eyes. We wouldn't want her to be any other way.

Housetraining

This is one area we thought we had beat but for the last week or so we find Vicki has peed in the bathrooms, on the carpet in our bedroom and on the couch. Her schedule hasn't changed except for one day where I was an hour late in taking her for her evening walk.

It is discouraging because we do not know how to eradicate this situation. Peeing in the bathroom is partially acceptable; peeing on the couch and carpet is not acceptable. We have a spray called Urine-Off that is supposed to deter dogs from peeing in the same spot but she just chooses another one in the same vicinity.

We have even found her peeing again after taking her for a walk. She was doing so well and we really don't understand why she is doing this again now.

All Chewed Up

We bought a couple of different kinds of balls for Vicki to enjoy. She did enjoy these balls but maybe a little too much as bits of them are scattered all over the place. I think she may have even eaten some of the materials (shocking).

The lesson of the day is no form of foam or rubber balls for Vicki that can be easily chewed up. I knew the one type of ball was foam but thought it would be durable enough, not a chance. The other ball had fuzz on it and a rubber core. We knew the fuzz would disappear but so has almost half of the ball! These doggie toys are unsafe and really ought not be sold at all. We have other toys for her such as tug ropes, her red squishy ball, etc. that are great so I guess it is just a matter of buyer beware.

Vicki's Jipi

We found a new toy for Vicki. She now has a little penguin that we named Jipi Japa after a store in Causeway Bay. After doing an internet search, I discovered Jipijapa (pronounced hipihapa) is actually a city in Ecuador renowned for making panama hats from the leaves of the Jipijapa plant. Okay no connection whatsoever but interesting just the same. Anyway we shortened the penguin's name to Jipi (with the "j' sound cause we just like it better). So now we ask, "Vicki where's Jipi?" She then grabs hold of that toy proceeds to chew off an arm. After about a day and a half of carrying Jipi everywhere I notice she has hidden the penguin. When I ask her where Jipi is she just looks at me and rolls over for belly scratches.

A Warm Welcome Awaits

I have not been home very much lately so Vicki has had the place pretty much to herself. Augustus sleeps all day on either our bed or the top of his kitty condo. What does she do all day? When I come home I find she has collected several of her toys and sleeps with them on her blanket on the couch. She sleeps with her nose buried in the blanket and all that can be seen is the top of her head, no eyes, no nose and no mouth.

Vicki always warmly welcomes us home in anticipation of plenty of pets, scratches, a walk and dinner. All of this activity wipes her out and up she returns to her corner of the couch and begins once more to snore away.

Don't Tell Me She Smells

I took Vicki for her usual afternoon walk yesterday. Our area attracts loads of joggers. Sometimes it can be difficult to navigate ourselves through these people but most are considerate and make way for The Barge. Perhaps it is not so much about consideration and more about not wanting to trip over her.

Vicki had done her business and I had a little bag that I wanted to deposit in the trash can. There was a group of joggers resting by the trash can (why, I don't know). One of the joggers hesitantly gave Vicki some pets while another one said with a scrunched up face, "It smells". Now she was no where near Vicki or her little baggie but I had to elbow someone out of the way to the trash can opening and quickly shot back, "You smell!" and walked away. Her remark sparked a response in me as though someone were criticizing my child. As I write this I feel the sting again. Shrinking away from a little pug is one thing or commenting on her weight but for some reason this comment really got me. Oh well Vicki doesn't care about these things so now I'll let it go.

A Signal for Attention

I have started up my morning walk and I go anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. Each time I head out the door with keys and water bottle in hand Vicki thinks it is time for her to walk too. There's no way our girl can do a 5km walk. When we first got Vicki, she could only do about 200 feet and now she can easily walk for about 1km.

When I get back from walking, I usually go to the computer where Vicki starts pawing at my knees and grunting for pets. If she doesn't get attention right away, she flops on the floor by my chair and snores away. The moment I rise from the chair her head pops up and she follows me around until she gets some loving.

Giving Thanks for Vicki

This photograph has been imported from Photobucket.

Today, we are attending the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Thanksgiving Dinner. This is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Vicki doesn't know about this particular holiday but I'm sure she would appreciate a plate of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes all the same.

Well, she won't be getting any turkey but she did snatch a piece of gum that I had dropped on the floor today. Along with losing a few pounds she's also moving quicker these days. Hopefully, a piece of gum is not too detrimental to her health.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving and if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving I hope you can still think of a few things that make you thankful. Vicki is one of those things for us.

Time to Take a Bath

Thankfully Vicki loves to take baths. She likes getting the soap massaged into her fur. She is quite content to sit in the tub and let me rinse all of the soapy suds from her body. She doesn't move until I lift her out of the tub and begin to towel her off. She loves to play tug of war with the towel and gets very excited as she is dried off, from her big backside to her spindly paws. Of course, she loves to jump up to her favourite spot on the couch after her bath and leave a path of damp paw prints in her wake.

Red Squishy Toy

Vicky has a few different toys that create various levels of interest for her. She has a tug rope which does not keep her attention for long, a pink fuzzy ball that is now bald but her most favourite is a red squishy toy.

Something about this particular toy just winds her up she'll chew on it indefinitely and will not let anyone else near it. This toy is her precious and Greg caught it all on camera.

Regular Routines

There's really not that much new to add to the life of Vicki these days. She walks, she eats, she sleeps and she plays. We are very happy to be home and both Vicki and Augustus seem delighted to have us back. We discovered that Vicki has lost three pounds since we rescued her about seven weeks ago. For now she is snoring contentedly in her usual spot on the couch. I'll keep posting as any new developments occur.

Vicki's Back!

Yay, we're so glad to be home with Vicki and Augustus again. Our trip was exhausting and there's nothing better than snuggles with our lovelies. Today is a holiday in HK (National Day) and Vicki would not let us sleep in. She doesn't care what day it may be she wants her morning jaunt and scratches. She cannot hoist herself up to the bed so she will bark at the head of the bed until we get up.

While away, I saw three pugs - awww, so cute! I wanted to go up to the owners and ask to pet their pugs and also tell them about Vicki but instead I ogled from afar. When I turned up to get Vicki she was eager to see me and snorted her excitement. Not a day went by on our trip where we didn't say many times how much we missed our pets. It amazes us at how quickly we have become attached to Vicki and, well, Augustus is special too.