Pet Project: huey&wah @ Etsy
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Photos courtesy of my brother with his new fancy Nikon DSLR. :)
Meet Dolly. She is a 2-year-old Shih Tzu. Her previous owner decided to put her up for adoption because they are moving to a hi-rise today. Yes I know, it’s such a short notice. And they couldn’t provide any photos earlier, which makes the adopter-finding process even more difficult. If no one take here in, they intend to send her to a local shelter which practices euthanasia. So after some negotiation with mom, we took her in to foster, hopefully not long-term since we’ll be traveling soon.
She is superbly sweet. Smart, and obedient. Right now she follows Wah everywhere he goes. And she doesn’t make much noises. Having had big crazy demanding dogs for years, I actually forgot that dogs can be quiet and pretty much low maintenance too. :D
She certainly has some skin condition that need to be attended, but once it’s taken care of, I’m pretty sure she’s one gorgeous girl – I mean, check out her eyes. Each of them is as big as her nose!
If you are in Penang and would like to give Dolly a home, please leave a comment. I will get back to you ASAP. Serious adopter only, please.
UPDATE 20:00 – Bonus that we found out during dinner – she makes this ‘crying’ little noise to tell you she needs to go out and pee. :)
UPDATE 16:00, 3 November, 2011 – Thanks to everyone who has helped to spread the word, Dolly has been adopted by a loving family with 4 other doggy-mates to play with! Have a good life, Dolly. You are such a sweet little fella, you totally deserve it! ;)
Remember how and why we make beds for the dogs? It was just slightly more than a month ago. Look what I saw this morning! Look how Coco made a hole on one of the inserts and pulled the stuffing out! Look how she knew she had done something horrible and tried to stay away! Look how I lost control of my voice and went all COCO-OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
There are several reasons why the dogs never had beds. First of all, Xiao Bi isn’t a fan of bed or plushies. She doesn’t even like being on the blanket we prepared for her, except during the occasional storm. Secondly, Coco has the habit of peeing and pooping on the blanket. I don’t know if this is a territorial thing but it’s annoying. I know she loves sleeping on blanket and plushies but unless she learn how to clean up after herself – which doesn’t include eating her own poop, it’s just too much work having to clean up the bedding on an almost daily basis.
Until I came up with a great idea. Well, at least so far I thought so.
As if their allergic-thingy isn’t bad enough, Xiao Bi suddenly caught a limber tail a few days ago. She didn’t have any exercise prior to that, and her bathing session was two days ago, so I’m assuming it was because she was too excited when the monkeys came that afternoon, because there was a papaya just right in their garden territory. She wasn’t in severe pain but was definitely very uncomfortable as she couldn’t sit on the first day. I was so sad seeing her that way so I decided I’m going to make her a bed, which will hopefully help her sleep more comfortably.
Since Coco has that weird habit of peeing and pooping on her bedding, I decided to make the inserts using banner, which, of course, we have plenty. This will make the cleaning part easier. I stuffed it with plenty of old t-shirts and got Wah to sew it up for me. Then I made two covers using leftover canvas, which I believe is hemp. I’ve been making cushion covers using this and it’s unbelievably cooling. It took about 2-3 hours in total, and I’ve got two beds for the dogs.
Do they like it?
As expected, on the first day, Xiao Bi wasn’t interested in her bed at all. I kinda have the feeling that she thinks beds and plushies are for losers. Coco hasn’t peed or pooped on it yet but she tried to eat it. And she also took over Xiao Bi’s bed, which is typical since she always has to own everything, and also because I underestimated her size. LOL.
I’m just going to leave the beds with them and see how it works. I saw Xiao Bi sleeping side-by-side with her bed last night, and I considered that an improvement.
Several weeks ago, I started noticing some thinned hair on Xiao Bi’s forefeet. She wasn’t chewing or scratching, so I thought it was just a temporary thing. It’s also because just two weeks before that, I had to buy a pack of dog kibbles from a brand that I usually don’t for them, as the regular ones were out of stock. I only give them kibbles as morning snacks, not even breakfast, so I thought it shouldn’t be a problem since it’s going to be temporary until our regular brand is back in stock. We eat plenty of junk food ourselves too, right?
I was so wrong.
She only had it for like, 2 weeks, and the hair was thinning. I quickly changed the kibbles, made a complaint with the company because at that time, I also saw worms at the bottom of the pack (!) – and by the way, the salesperson still hasn’t got back to me despite stating during my second phone call that he lost my number after my first phone call. Two weeks later, she started scratching. And chewing. So we started to treat her. And then two weeks later, Coco also started scratching. So, OMG.
And then we realised it’s probably mange from Scooby the dog, the community stray at my late grandma’s that I had been treating for months (I’ll have another post dedicated to this legendary dog later). No he wasn’t staying with us, and I was very careful to clean myself when I’m done with Scooby. But who knows? That poor quality kibbles must have triggered something in Xiao Bi’s system (she used to have some skin problem when she was a puppy) and then one thing lead to another, now I have two dogs who scratch and scratch and scratch…
So as you can imagine, I was horrified. I don’t like the idea of using drugs because it will just go and come. So I went back to my pet care bible, Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, and then I decided to fast both of them, together with some lemon rinse.
Today is the second day of their liquid fast and both are doing great, hopping around like kangaroos. Xiao Bi has been happily drinking her broth and juice, but not Coco. That crazy mutt who loves to eat everything has refused to touch her broth twice since we started the liquid fast.
As expected I’m constantly worrying if they’ll be OK with the fast, and I’m checking them more regularly. So of course, Wah said I’m crazy.
One more day to go before we start including vegetables and yoghurt into the diet for 2 days, and then oatmeal for 2 days, and then tofu and eggs for another 2 days, and finally back to their regular meals. Will I survive? :D
Of course they have to pretend they were all good so they could pull the balls apart and play tug of war.
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