weliveinaflat - 21/31 - We live in a flat

Author: weliveinaflat Page 21 of 31

Rain, rain, go away!

On June 15, 2013

This year has been a year full of rain. Ever since Donna joined our family, the idea of a perfect, rainy afternoon has been turned over its head. Not one of peace, sitting clean and dry in the room listening to the pitter-patter of raindrops. No. Rainy days are days when the dog turns skittish and I try to pretend there is nothing wrong with the weather and live life as normal.

Here are some of the posts from the last few months.

Mar 29 – This is Donna worried about the thunder and refusing to leave the kitchen.

Apr 27 – The strong wind toppled the plants on our balcony. She was grinning with nervousness.

May 2 – Here am I trying to enjoy a warm coffee and a book on a rainy day while she finds some comfort using the furniture and I as the human shield.

Jun 7 – Across time, she has dealt with the rain and thunder inconsistently, sometimes better, sometimes worse. On good days, I had the leisure to contemplate the rain and the sky from the window. On bad days, I content myself with posting pointless posts on Donna’s tips for rainy days.

And after the rain which kept us in, we go out for our walk and get badgered by ants…

… and other creepy crawlies.

Such is life. It’s different, but still good ;)

Donna does not like wet wipes, no.

By weliveinaflat

On June 15, 2013

In Archive

Welcome to Singapore, a tiny dot in Asia where the denizens (especially the older generation) do not sit on the grass at any time of the day and we walk around at home barefoot.

What does that mean to a dog? We have imaginative standards of hygiene that Donna has, has to put up with. Well, not only me if you count in some friends and family who have given their advice.

Miss G, who used to have a mini schnauzer in the house, told me to ‘wash her paws and rinse her mouth after every walk.’

And our cousin said they wash their dog’s paws after they return from a walk too.

So you see, the OCD does not only apply to me.

Anyway, we’ve been religiously wiping down the dog every time we come back from outside and supposedly, we bathe the dog every week. I said supposedly, because sometimes we do miss a week or two due to illness or weekend family events, etc. Excuses, maybe. So that’s something we’ve still got to work on.

The wiping is essential. Her paws get all covered by layers of dirt and grime and on bad days, you end up wiping leftover bits of diarrhea still stuck to you know where. But lucky those days actually number just one or two days in the last 6 months. :P

We’ve been wiping down the dog with dog wipes from the pet shop, but these are actually pretty expensive, especially when our cousin informed us she made do with discount baby wipes from the neighbourhood discount stores. Either way, I never did like either the dog wipes or baby wipes we’ve bought because of the hideous scent they put on these wipes. Donna definitely agrees with me the way she snorts disgustedly at them.

So today, mundane news to you but happy news for me : P, we found some pretty affordable unscented baby wipes for Donna that are fragrance and paraben free! At S$7 for two 100 sheet packs, these are still expensive compared to the $1+ pack of 80 scented, paraben-filled sheets. But hey, fragrace and paraben-free. That’s the best deal I can find over here right now. I’ll even use that on my child if I have one.

And because we bought so much stuff at the Metro sales at the mall, we qualified for two rounds of sure-win lucky draw. Don’t you like sure-win stuff? Well, not if they are Barney, I love You towels. We need more towels for the dog anyway, but as you can see, Donna sure isn’t a fan of Barney either. :P

Unimpressed she is, but the wiping down continues! :P So does the body searching for ticks!

Run. Wildly. Crazily.

By weliveinaflat

On June 14, 2013

In Explore

Donna? She is hiding somewhere. Can you spot her? Somewhere in the grass.

Right there. No, nevermind the topless man. Look further in front. Do you see a little bit of ear and forehead poking through the green blades, two beady eyes no doubt looking this way. We visited this park again where there is a tiny dog run.

There was already a Schnauzer there and boy did he over-react. Barking and jumping and all excited. The Indian man the dog belonged to invited us into the dog run but I had my misgivings. Donna may be bigger than the Schnauzer but she has not had much success at one of the more popular dog parks particularly with the excited dogs that rush at her and I didn’t want her to start developing a fear of entering this tinier, less popular dog run too!

Lucky for us the Indian man was gracious and vacated the dog run for us. So Donna had the time of her life galloping around off-leash like a crazy horse. Meet Donna and her photoshop clone Donna-02 again! They fly like the wind.

People do yoga in the park, sometimes they sit and reflect or relax. I have not thought much about my faith, religion or spirituality. My identity card says I think everything is free but My P thinks I lean towards atheism. When I was younger, I had faith that I can do anything, now that I am older, I harbour more doubts and disbelief.

Spirituality is a concept as alien to me as it is to Donna probably. I suppose you can say neither the dog nor I are very reflective. Perhaps we live too much in the moment?

All I know is I am most carefree when we are out and about, the sun is not too bright and hot, there is a cool breeze and there is lots of time to spare with nothing harrying on my mind. You feel like you are at one with the surroundings and there is nothing that can bring you down.

See her fly.

She had a great time, until this text message beeped in my phone at 11:15am: “Hi today got lesson 11am!” from my driving instructor.

Oh crap.

Pop in… pop out…

By weliveinaflat

On June 13, 2013

In Behaviour

The fleeting taste of food she scarfed down too quickly

This was quite some time back when the dog was really finicky with her food.

For the first 4-6 weeks when we brought her home, she literally picked at her food. Treats she took with gusto but her regular meals she ate with great reluctance. And this behaviour was for canned food that she apparently love at the shelter! But no, not here at home and on top of nibbling reluctantly, she was picking out all the kibble mixed in there and throwing them on the floor outside the bowl. It was frustrating and worrying in equal parts for first time dog owners like us. We took the dog from the shelter and obviously it was not so that she could starve herself!

To some extent her picky-ness worked to her favour, the shelter gave us a can of Addiction wet food to test out on her and she gobbled it up. Addiction was more expensive, but we were fine to add it to the menu since it was one of the well rated brands and she liked it. The subsequent pack of Solid Gold chicken kibble fared just as badly against her original complimentary Pro Plan salmon kibble.

But we did want to keep to a certain monthly food budget, since we were on one person’s income and finances is always a big concern for me. So no, she’s just got to make do with a rotation of different variety of foods at different price points. We rotated the Addiction wet food with another cheaper supermarket brand Nature’s Gift. On label, the Nature’s Gift ingredients list looked OK, but the AAFCO standards were not applied to it. That said, Donna has been eating it her whole life at the shelter, so it is food that her body is used to. So we kept to it, rather than change her diet cold turkey. Meanwhile, we continue to buy different kibble brands to find something that she will actually like. Plain Canidae, Wellness and TOTW kibble did not fare well with her either.

Somewhere along the line, we instituted the timing rule. It went something like we will remove the food in half hour even if she did not finish it. Not much observable effect there.

She was, as the vet pointed out, overweight anyway, so we decided not to over-worry if she missed a meal or two when she refused to eat. Yes, we determined that she could not just erm… *cough* blackmail *cough* us into giving her expensive food all the time by refusing to eat what we felt was affordable for us.

But yes, eventually she grew hungry enough that she decided the canned food and kibble was not beneath her. She started to eat more of her food. However, her annoying habit of running in and out of the kitchen during mealtimes did not change. She just wasn’t interested in the food and quite frankly preferred the fun of running in and out to take a bite here and there when she pleased. And so of course, she didn’t finish the food as you can see in this video, where there is a fleeting glance of her.

I was waiting to catch her on video running in and out, planned to send it to Florence at the shelter, ho-ho-ho. But as you can see, she decided she didn’t want any more food.

What changed things was really the installation of the child gate at the entrance of the kitchen. Suddenly it clicked in the dog’s mind that once the child gate closes behind her, the food will be gone! Oh the horror. The effect was pretty instantaneous after the light bulb went off. Now Donna refuses to leave the kitchen until she has licked clean every scrap of food, and then she continues to clean the already empty bowl.

But she still refused plain kibble unless it was flavoured with canned food topping.

However, towards the end of May, she actually accepted a Fromm dog pork kibble that I offered to her. Usually I opened a new pack of some kibble and offer a piece to her to see if she liked it. The usual reaction will be sniff, snort and point her high and mighty nose in the air in refusal. I was pleasantly surprised. The only difference in the way I offered the Fromm kibble is that I had mixed the kibble with her canned food for several meals already before I offered the plain piece of kibble to her. Either that made a difference or the Fromm kibble was too yummy.

We bought a new pack of kibble yesterday, this time it is Acana chicken with burbank potato. By now, the dog has somehow conditioned me to think that perhaps she just has a cautiousness to anything new that I offer to her. (After all I am the person who inflict new torments on her every other day like nail cutting and soon teeth brushing! Hahaha!) Anyway, I thought I should mix it in for her breakfast before attempting to offer her a plain piece of kibble to see her reaction. She took that kibble as well.

I have to say “HALLELUIAH” at this point because finally I can give her kibble instead of treats as training reward! Can you believe her weight kept climbing through the months despite us feeding less than the recommended portions on the food packages??? Mr P accuses me of giving her too many treats. But how else do you positively reinforce a dog?

Ending this post with a picture of the dog thinking about food in front of the kitchen. She does that a lot. Make us look like villains who don’t feed her enough.

“Please, sir, I want some more.”

We live in a “fine” city – an old joke

By weliveinaflat

On June 12, 2013

In Dog & You

So the other day, I stupidly stepped on what the dog avoided because she was sniffing and looking at where she was going.

Rules? What rules?

What lies behind, what lies within the green facade

By weliveinaflat

On June 11, 2013

In Photography

On one of those random days, I was just hanging around downstairs waiting for Mr P to come by and pick me up in his car. I had just discovered iPhoneography Monday then. So I was trigger happy and adding junk shots to my camera roll.

This is a skinny young tree right by the foot path from our block of flats. You can barely see the bark behind the green stuff growing on it.

Not unlike my dog, I wrapped myself around the tree and tap, tap, tap… and before I knew it, I was at the back of the tree and this was clinging quietly right there. To tell the truth, I almost missed it because it blended with the tree so well.

I do confess my timid heart and this was as close as I dared to go for macro. :P Yes, even if I do believe it was quite dead. Mr P said otherwise and intimated that it will jump on me at any time.

And yes, I took liberties to add mysterious purple and deep green wounds to the tree to show you the potential or imaginary poison contagion left by the spider.

And then on my way home today, I found a section of the railing removed from the fencing running along the path. If I had a toy train, I would slip it inside and pretend it was a city rail tunnel.

Yup these are my close up shots for Phoneography Monday: Macro
Apps used: Camera+, HDR Art, Blendcam, Snapseed, InstaMag, HelloCamera

Headline News: Dog stages unlicensed protest action at home, owner says dog is being stupid

By weliveinaflat

On June 11, 2013

In Dog & You

Singapore – Are protests becoming the trend in Singapore, as this tiny island continues to grow its population so that any protest held can actually have the potential of visually becoming a true mass spectacle? Hot on the heels of bloggers staging protest against the government’s website licensing rules, a local rescued mongrel dog has just staged the country’s first unlicensed mongrel dog protest in her very own home.

Her cause? The right to sleep with her head on the floor… or maybe she was lobbying for a pillow… who can know what goes on in a dog’s mind?

Her owners, Mr & Mrs P, are adamant that the protest is not a result of dog abuse.

“We just upgraded her bed over the weekend,” Mrs P said in an exclusive interview with herself on her blog – weliveinaflat.wordpress.com, “Her bed is now 120 x 60 cm, so much more space to spread out compared to when it was just 65 x 65 cm! She is not like all these other 17 dogs that need bigger beds.”

Picture: Donna the local mongrel on the 65 x 65 cm cushion that her owners claim is a dog bed.

Picture: Donna the local mongrel on her new 120 x 60 cm baby cot mattress that her owners claim is a dog bed.

Mrs P had written on her blog in a previous article that the old bed was too small for the dog and the dog was often observed sleeping on the bed with the head hanging off it on the floor. The couple decided it was time to change the bed when the dog ate something bad and vomited over the bed.

When questioned if the dog may be protesting against not having a dedicated dog bed and instead having to put up with human furniture masquerading as dog beds, the couple explained that the dog preferred human furniture especially the forbidden firm foam sofa in the living room.

“Dedicated dog beds are also very expensive,” said Mrs P, “They can run up to hundreds of dollars in the local pet shops for medium to big dogs. The Ikea cushions cost us under $10, and even the cheapest baby cot mattress cost us $20. Of course, it’s the more sensible choice. The bed is easily replaceable when the dog gets sick and vomits all over the bed. Also, we now have a layer of mattress protector for the new bed. So fingers crossed, we may not even throw the bed away the next time if she vomits on the bed again. Choy! Choy! Choy!”

Despite the publicised dog protest on Mrs P’s dog blog, Mr P was keen to suggest that the unlicensed dog protest was a non-event.

“Give her big bed she still half on the ground,” he commented in a Whatsapp message from work, labeling the dog’s actions as “stupid” and a manifestation of her low intellectual capability to understand the proper usage of the bed. The couple has shared on their dog blog, what can only be described as a picture to publicly shame the dog while it was sleeping.

Picture: Donna the local mongrel shamed for bad sleeping habits, a subterfuge for the country’s first unlicensed dog protest activity?

The blog post itself sent conflicting messages with pictures that featured the dog sleeping in awkward postures in a gloomy cell-like environment but also dreamy pictures of the dog in peaceful slumber or otherwise seemingly not unhappy even on her old 65 x 65 cm bed.

Picture: Donna the local mongrel in dreamy slumber in what looks like a highly manipulated photographic image of the dog taken during its protest.

Donna the local mongrel is currently at risk of being investigated by local authorities for what is being publicised by this news report as the first unlicensed protest carried out by a dog locally.

In Singapore, unlicensed protests are restricted to be held at the Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park only. The actual event still needs to be registered with the authorities beforehand. Un-named imaginary lawyers advised that if convicted, the dog’s owners Mr & Mrs P may be liable to send the dog to counseling in two areas – (1) positive dog training for proper sleeping habits and (2) counseling for the dog so the dog understands that it does not have citizen rights to protest, being a local mongrel with no Pink identification card.

When advised of the possible punishments, Mrs P said that she would not mind if the authorities send them for free positive dog training in any area and Mr P said that counseling for the dog may not help the dog to understand anything at the end of the day because she is already “stupid”.

Both said they are glad that the possible punishments did not include community service for the dog, such as clearing other dogs’ poop around the neighbourhood.

“It would be an absolute horror if she starts eating dog poop on top of all the leaves and flowers that made her vomit on her bed in the first place!” said Mrs P.

Postnote: This is a companion article to Bored Dog Gets New Chill Out Pad. I originally submitted for the photo challenge. But the writing challenge seems fun, so I decided to repost in newspaper article format again for Daily Prompt: Ripped Into The Headline. I must be too free. Hah! Time to take dog out to pee. Bye~

Bored dog gets new chill out pad

By weliveinaflat

On June 10, 2013

In Shopping

Donna used to have a 65 x 65 cm cushion for her bed.

I absolutely love the clean, complex pattern on the Akerkulla cover that we got for it.

It just photos so well, and it hides dirt fabulously too!

But, she threw up on her bed, so we threw it away. : (

We had been thinking of getting a new bed for her anyway. The bad thing about the cushion she had? It’s perfect for her to curl up on but when she sleeps on her side, it’s too small and her head ends up on the floor! = =

So over the weekend, she got a bigger pad that she can stretch out as she pleases.

But…

I don’t understand my dog, and I miss the Akerkulla cover : (… : P

Sweet dreams anyway, little girl.

A dog’s job is to eat, sleep and play everyday…. Everyday.

By weliveinaflat

On June 9, 2013

In Behaviour

Why so happy?

Because we get to play fetch…

And then we play tug…

All with a simple $2 rope toy from Daiso. Cheap thrill, yah!

And yes, we play the same thing everyday and she looks like this. : )

I used to be apprehensive playing tug with the rope toy. She can be rather rough with her toys as you can see in this video.

But turns out Donna is quite good with the soft mouth thing… and no, not trained by us. Someone in the shelter must have done a good job playing with her. :P She did play bite me before, but she just had some part of my hand in her mouth without actually biting it.

Anyway, it took me quite a while to get the hang of taking pictures while playing with her, phew. I used Gorillacam and later switched to Camera+. The shots of her running down the corridor turn out clearer with Gorillacam though. Whoever would have thought that we would end up taking so many pictures using the corridor as a runway. The downlights here can make lighting a challenge though, depending on where the dog was relative to the downlight.