We live in a flat

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A nomination

On April 14, 2013

I’ve only started this blog very recently, so I was surprised that lifeinthedoglane nominated this blog for Versatile Blogger Award. I thank you so very much lifeinthedoglane! Please go visit her.

To spread the love, I’m suppose to list 15 blogs/bloggers that I’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. Hence here are my nominations.

Finally, part of the requirements include sharing a list of 7 things about myself.

I largely don’t do the things I said I’ll do but I’m highly productive when it comes to spontaneous projects that were never planned and not in the list. Now you understand why there is a queue.
I’m going to make a whole flask of green tea everyday and make sure Mr P drinks that rather than the chockful of sugar bottled stuff from Pokka. The next is to just see if I do do it or not.
I am pretty good at boiling and steaming things. I don’t have complicated tastebuds but I like fiction and non-fiction that talk about complicated foods like The Last Chinese Chef.
Through association by marriage I have cousins going by the rather unique names – Earth and Prime.
When my friend exclaimed how glad she was my dog Donna had a real name and not something like Pepsi or Hotdog, I conveniently forgot all about my imaginary Chihuahua who was unfortunately named Chicken Legs.
My dog has apparently trained itself to perk up and drop toys at the study door when I am late taking her downstairs during the regular walk/ loo break time slots. And no, she still does not poop on demand. She just likes to go out.
I would love to go to Norway this year but my savings is dwindling. So no.

The end.

More high density living coming our way

By weliveinaflat

On April 13, 2013

In Photography

The trees lining the open-air carpark behind our block have been labelled for their imminent removal. The plot of land was planned to be re-developed to support three new blocks of flats (a hell of a lot more people) and a multi-storey carpark.

We will miss this carpark. Its presence has after all ensured that we get an unobstructable view all the way to the city for the past year. Unfortunately, once the three 32-storey blocks are up, our wide view of the surroundings will be sliced up. :(

Other then that, I will also miss the chance to bump into Donna’s mother, Dior, and her owner infrequently, since they seem to like doing laps around the carpark.

Otherwise, the carpark is a place we pass through to get from one place to another. I was never that interested to get to know each and every tree even if we do walk Donna here occasionally for her loo breaks. But since it will be gone soon, we decided to spend more time just trying to see if there is something special in a rather ordinary carpark.

While my impressions of the carpark will be the overall spread of towering angsana tree branches and foliage overhead, Donna’s recollection of this place will likely be the sights and smells underfoot.

She will never spy the unexplainable junk left in the crock of tree branches, as surely as she will never sniff the fungus climbing up the tree trunks over her head.

Nor the parasitic ferns with their delicate fronds highlighted by the sunlight, until they fall to the ground.

Soon to be gone, to be replaced by new landscaped greenery and young saplings decorating the three new apartment blocks and attached multi-storey carpark that will slowly arise from the construction site in five years time.

Dog walking after sunset

By weliveinaflat

On April 12, 2013

In Dog & You

It is dark at 7.30pm over here. I generally do not like walks in the dark. The most we do is go down for a quick pee break on the roof garden on the second floor. But there are the few rare occasions that we do go for a walk after nightfall. And this is one of them.

Pictured left, she is impatient to go after waiting the whole day, yet patiently waiting for me to tie my laces.

Pictured right, the fitness corner on the carpark roof garden is the penultimate stop for our walks. We usually circle the area, letting her go up two stepped raised platforms, where she practices her sit-stay. The picture looks like robo-dog!

In between, we walk to a park further away, ran one round for me and inspected the grass around the perimeter of the park for her. I don’t really appreciate picking poop in the dark, but has to be done. *pouts*

Do you walk your dog at night or before sunrise when it is still dark? Do you find it boring to walk in the dark?

Silly

By weliveinaflat

On April 11, 2013

In Dog & You

Mr P: Oophf, oophf, it’s hard work chasing after a dog.

Me: It’s just lying there like a beached whale!

Mr P: You try reaching her on a stationary bike :D

A fat pigeon

By weliveinaflat

On April 10, 2013

In Dog & You

Our main door lies adjacent to the stairs, which is accessible via a fire retardant door.

As you can imagine, the stairs are seldom used since they are mainly there to function as fire escape. Or in the unfortunate case of lift breakdown, then some people may indulge in forced vertical marathons, god bless the poor souls on the the 30th floor!

Donna and I use the stair several times a week. We typically start our morning walks going down the stairs, per recommendation of the doctor to exercise the strength and flexibility my nerve paralysed toes.

I can count on one hand the staircase landings that actually get frequent use, as evidence by cigarette butts, dirty track shoes and impromptu pot gardens. My own blighted wrightia religiosa was and is still banished here after I give up on the fight against the scale insect and its various cronies. Surprisingly, the plant survives to today despite my lack of TLC for it. It must thank the heavens for the constant rainwater it gets I suppose. I left it by the window opening of the staircase.

Anyway, back to the fire retardent door that lies adjacent to my front door. I’ve heard concerns from other people before, how this is potentially a safety hazard. Perhaps robbers can hide behind the door to ambush you when you return home and are busy opening the door, etc. But I seldom look through the glass panel to check really.

The other day, we came back from our evening walk and I saw a movement from a corner of my eye so I looked and found…

A fat pigeon.

It appeared somewhat disoriented as it kept turning in circles.

Perhaps it noticed me staring, I don’t know. But I stayed long enough to assure myself that it could walk in straight lines and it could flap its wings to go up one step before Donna and I stepped into our house.

It’s too bad Donna’s short so she can’t see the pigeon (haha!) because it was gone the next morning.

All the hair

By weliveinaflat

On April 9, 2013

In Dog & You

Dog hair will always be a problem when you have a local mongrel in the house. They shed. Everyday.

For a while we got it under control, I brushed her outdoors every morning, and I sweep once or twice a day. Donna is not allowed on the sofa or the other rooms outside of the living room and common corridor. So yes, it helps that the area of free hair fall is limited.

But in the last week, if Doggy Hair Fall was a game, Donna probably hit her new high score.

Witness.

The floor of hair she leaves behind after chilling out on that spot. And this is after I have brushed and bathed her and clotted the drainage with a thick mound of hair!

And the floor of hair after just a few brushes of her coat. And I didn’t even put any effort into the brushing.

When we do it outside, you can literally see whole hair balls blowing off her and rolling merrily in the breeze!!

Perhaps, it is due to the stress of being poisoned by the hydrangea. I’m not sure. But I do hope she goes back to normal shedding levels soon!

Chihuahuas, an off leash dog, school girls and families we pass by

By weliveinaflat

On April 8, 2013

In Dog & You

Having been kept her quiet since her misadventure with a hydrangea leaf, we finally took a longer walk again once Donna has sufficiently recovered. My walks with her typically comprise me time, in which we run along the path to build strength and flexibility in my recovering foot and Donna time, where Donna gets to inspect all the grass, tree trunks and light posts, etc to her heart’s content.

Sometimes during Donna time, I play a game whereby I drop to walking a few steps behind her and see where she goes. The last two times we did this at the empty carpark behind our block, she invariably chose to drift further and further away from where we live, choosing to walk along the void deck of other blocks that we never walked before.

But this time we were at the park behind our block and so she chose to meander from one plot of grass to another, turning circles as she tracked this scent and that.

Eventually we returned to the footpath that we were accustomed to follow when we run. As we strolled leisurely along, she was in her own world and ignored the runners running past us.

By and by, an old man came up from behind and as he drew up, he asked if Donna was a local dog. I replied that yes, she was. The old man shared that his friend recently found a local dog at the nearby train station and it followed him home. I asked what colour was the dog, remembering that there was a missing tan-coloured dog by the name of Chilli in the neighbourhood. The old man replied that it was white.

The old man then told me that he used to have a chihuahua. It was given to him when the chihuahua’s family had to move. He chuckled as he recalled how the small little chihuahua would know when he or his wife were coming home to their tenth floor flat , even if they were still downstairs! He said the chihuahua would rollover in excitement. He went on to talk about how cheap it was to feed the chihuahua, only 30 cents a day. He fed it bits of chicken and papaya. (Inwardly, I reminded myself chihuahuas are small and probably ate like birds :P) But oh boy was the vet fees expensive when the chihuahua was diagnosed with cancer. And after 3-4 years together, the chihuahua passed away and cremation cost him $350.

Before we parted, the old man reminded me to not let Donna in the grassy areas since there are ticks about. I grinned sheepishly thinking that the grassy areas are exactly where Donna gets Donna time. Luckily, so far we have not encountered mites. We regularly spray her with this insect-repelling DIY spray and we do have Frontline Plus in the cupboard, even if we use it more sparingly.

We continued to meander since Donna still seemed pretty active and also because I was waiting for her to poop. By this time, we had left the park to walk along the train line before we circle back on a parallel path. It was here that I noticed an old lady with an off leash white dog in front of us. It was a small white dog with floppy ears and a fluffy white bobbing tail and amazingly, it kept to within a 1 metre radius of the old lady, who for the most part looked disinterested and just slumped along. We crossed to the other side of the road so that Donna would not disturb the old lady and the small white dog. Eventually we were strolling exactly opposite of the old lady and the white dog. The white dog saw us and for about perhaps 10 metres of the walk, it trotted on its side of the road looking at us and smiling joyfully in the cutest manner. The old lady turned a corner and for the first time, the white dog left its 1 metre radius as it trotted along still smiling at us. But the old lady soon turned and made a noise and the dog obediently ran back about two metres to her and they continued on.

We eventually came to the corner where we made our turn, just as a man was crossing the road to our side with a tiny chihuahua, only slightly bigger than a fat rat! The chihuahua all but ignored us, while I was the one staring at it. I always did find them funny with their little chicken legs and rodent size.

We continue down the path we turned into and soon encountered four schoolgirls. Two of them saw Donna and decided they desperately needed to take an alternate route to avoid us, while the other two continued towards us as they chatted. It was only when they went past us that they suddenly made a loud whoop and skipped excitedly away to join their other two friends. And all that time, my fear-inspiring dog was too distracted inspecting the grass to even cast them a glance.

A last turn took us back to the path that leads to our block. A family cycled past us and I could hear their conversation. The mother warning her child, “that dog will bite”. Meanwhile an Indian family and their toddlers strolled casually close to Inspector Grass, my grass sniffing dog and I, as they passed us. The mother on the bicycle continued as they cycled across the dog, “some dogs will bite even if you don’t touch them.”

Maybe one day, I should put a T-shirt on Donna before we start out on our walk. It could say, “The ant bit me, it hurts!” or something equally random. :D

Donna and the poisonous leaf

By weliveinaflat

On April 7, 2013

In Health

Even before the fish and the dog came along, we had the plants. My very blighted wrightia religiosa, my blighted by association dracaena frangrans on one end of the balcony and on the other end, my water sucking hydrangea.

The hydrangea is not a very common or popular houseplant in my country, I don’t think. Except over Chinese New Year, when households will buy for decorative purposes and then throw away. So it is probably not common knowledge over here at least that the hydrangea is poisonous to dogs.

Hydrangeas are one of those interesting plants with cyanogenic glycosides. Basically, this means that under times of stress, the plant can have available CYANIDE, which is extremely toxic…The plant does contain irritants that can cause Gastrointestinal irritation (GI), and most of the time mild self-limiting GI upset can be seen – mild vomiting and diarrhea. In larger ingestion, you can see more severe vomiting and diarrhea, and hyperthermia has been reported. Some cases can develop vomiting or diarrhea with blood. The treatment for hydrangea toxicity is supportive / symptomatic care. – via justanswer.com

I love the large bushels of flowers that the plant produces, so we never really considered getting rid of the plant for the dog’s safety. And Donna had scant curiosity for the plant anyway, she spent most of her time in the living room and I can count on one hand the number of times she ventured onto the balcony by herself.

And so we thought we could trust her to leave the plant alone.

Aigh… our complacency had its downfall.

I suppose it was inevitable Donna eventually decided to sample a leaf.

I was in the kitchen at the time but could hear her bell and tag clanking from the balcony. As usual, I went to check because we don’t really think the balcony is the safest place for the dog considering the posionous plant and the potential for free fall down more than 20 floors to smack on the landscape garden below.

I was too late to witness anything but the circumstantial evidence.

A quarter of a leaf torn off. Half of it spat on the floor. The other half not in her mouth, but one can smell the zesty scent of greenery hurriedly swallowed in that recalcitrant maw of hers.

I was vexed. I didn’t know what to do, or what was going to happen. Perhaps she could detect I was vexed, she gave me gentle licks on my leg as I stood watching the bit of leaf lying limply on the floor.

She was lively still, hardly dying.

Should I make her drink lots of water? Not that I know how to do that. She drank at her own time, her own discretion.

Should I still feed her her dinner that was already on the kitchen counter.

The vet’s reception was always busy. They didn’t pick up my phone call. I sent an email. I googled.

I found an answer here.

Since she seems fine now, she’s probably going to be ok, although is she’s showing any signs of respiratory distress, take her immediately to your veterinarian.

For now, I would not feed her for 12 hours to allow her GI tract to settle. You can offer her small amounts of water beginning 2 hours after her last vomiting episode – if she can hold down the water, you can slowly allow her to have more at 1 time, until you can leave the bowl down for her.

When you do feed her, I would recommend a bland diet for 1-2 days of boiled chicken and rice – fat free, and a little broth, just to be on the safe side. She could have a very irritated or even ulcerated stomach lining. No treats or human food for 3-5 days.

You can also administer 1/2 of a 10 mg pepcid (if you have one) when you begin offering water. This may help with stomach upset, and can be repeated every 12-24 hours.

If she continues to vomit, or develops other symptoms, please see your vet.

Since it didn’t seem advisable to feed her and the rain had stopped, I took her out for a slow leisurely walk, which is something that we usually do at that time of day anyway. Perhaps fifteen minutes later, Donna started to vomit. A small round pile of yellowish muck about the size of a mug. And she would continue to hurl five times more. When she ran out of yellowish muck, she puked white foam.

Apart from the times she sat down and threw up, she was still very active and spent no time wasted inspecting the grass.

But by the sixth time, we decided enough is enough and took her to the vet.

Like the last time we were there as a walk in, we were the last to see the vet. The vet tech recommended no water for Donna while we waited. A patch of hair on her neck was shaved off, a blood test was done.

The results, the levels for her liver was slightly high, about 10points higher than normal. Otherwise, she wasn’t in any pain or discomfort, being still lively and frankly recalcitrant and perhaps unaware of her misadventure.

But oh is she serving her penance now, in the form of regular doses of disgusting gut protecting pills and supplements containing milkthistle among other things. She hates the minty taste and snorts her disgust every time I shoot the liquid down her throat with a syringe. What to do? Doctor’s orders.

Another blood test two days later found her liver levels normal again.

And we are now vigilantly closing balcony doors whenever we are not in the living room with her!

Pictured left: Donna at the vet looking at the cleaner vacuuming the floor on the other end after closing time. We were still waiting to pay vet bills and to get her medication. It wasn’t too bad since we could laugh at “The Noose” which was playing on TV.

Rainy days and red ants

By weliveinaflat

On April 6, 2013

In Dog & You

Everyday is a rainy day over here, and suddenly there are insects everywhere.

The random dragonfly that landed one day on the unwashed towels in the yard.

Snails.
Small black ones.
Small neutral coloured ones.
And big cone-shell snails that could take up the entire space of my palm.
And of course the unfortunate ones that got smashed underfoot.

Ants.
Small black ones.
Small red ones.
And big red ones with long clingy limbs.
And of course the unfortunate dog that gets them all over her paws and muzzle.

Ah yes, my silly dog will persist in inspecting all the grass patches and tree trunks swarming with big red ants. Heedless, she continues on. Until you make her sit. Then she seems to finally feel their stinging bites (probably), and still she sits there as if expecting them to depart from her paws on their own. Is it just my dog that is silly?

Out comes the wet tissue. Wipe them off, wipe them off!

If you see a crazy woman jumping up and down on a pile of wet tissues trying to kill those red ants while her silly dog sits there and pants, you know who it is!