Showing posts with label Pampered pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pampered pets. Show all posts

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Alice is here for a visit.

Alice is here to board with us for a week while Alan and his wife are out of town.
This beautiful Saturday morning after sending my Baby Mobile to the garage, I got home and let the kids out for some fun in the sun!

Going for walkies with the doggies :)


Qn: Where is Maverick?
Ans: He decides we are all too slow for him and gone off w/o us. Afterall, time waits for no man dog!




Kai is very happy to have Alice over. He kept telling me "Alice, Alice!" and he generously donates his food to the 2 greedy dogs begging from under his high chair at mealtimes.

Life is good :)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Border Collies do it till the cows come home



This rug can be bought at $25.90 from IKEA if you are a member, otherwise it is $39.90. Either way, it is still way cheaper than the original $69. Good buy if you ask me!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Glimmer of hope

I have a piece of good news to share - I found someone who's willing to adopt Alice!
Last night, I called SPCA's 24-hour emergency hotline (which was meant for injured/sick/distressed animals only) and told the staff about my dog and that I want her back.
Luckily, he was very happy to assist me and told me to go back the next morning (which was today morning).

So I met Alan at SPCA. Yes, my ex-bf Alan is going to adopt her.
He recently got married, and had since stopped asking about Alice, also it was not appropriate for me to contact him since he's married. But last night, Andy urged me to give it one last shot to save Alice so I did. Thank God, Alan called me back immediately and said Ok he will adopt her and let her stay with his wife's family. They stay in a landed property in Loyang, and they are retired couple whose kids are all grown-up, therefore Alice would make a good pet for them.

After redeeming her at SPCA, we brought Alice to the vet to do the necessary, and Keith was really kind. He agreed to help me give Alice a bath & blowdry, even though his appointments are always full and it is so last minute and I have no appointment made.
So vet done, grooming done.


This photo was taken this morning at the vet. My old dame has indeed come of age. Her muzzle and face is white now, and she looks scrawny.



Alice is ready to go to her new home.
Thanks to everyone for their concern, prayers, well wishes. I'm really grateful, and relieved that at least my Alice is going to a better home than what I can offer her, and also because Alan is someone Alice knows for a long time. Therefore I know that she is in very good hands indeed.

Monday, January 3, 2011

A dog named Alice










I had a Shetland Sheepdog, her name is Alice.
I adopted her almost a decade ago. This July, she would have been 10.
She has been with me through thick and thin, through singlehood, dating, marriage and finally my starting a family of my own.
She was a pampered pooch, sleeping on my bed and going on car rides with us.
She was gentle and had a great temperament, she would make the perfect dog, except she had skin problems.
We brought her to countless vets, from ARC to Namly to All Pets. We ran a battery of tests on her, blood tests, allergy tests, skin scrapings, samples, hormone tests.... but everytime, those tests came back Normal. While other people jump at the word "normal", for us, it just meant they couldn't find the root of Alice's problems.
The vets told us there was no cure for Alice. We could only do symptomatic treatment and hope that her skin problem doesnt come back.
But we didnt stop there - for Alice, I researched and fed her BARF, we tried Homeopathy, steroids, hormone replacements, antibiotics, even a vegetarian diet at one point ..... We tried everything we could, but still nothing worked for my Alice.


Alice moved with me to my in-law's house when I got married and Adam was born. She stayed with Maverick, our other dog, and everyone stayed under the same roof.
Bless my in-laws, though they had asked me to give Alice away, they didn't force me to when I declined.
When my family knew I was pregnant with Adam, they wanted me to give her away.
I was adamant on keeping her. It wasn't easy juggling work/school/baby/dogs (esp one unwell dog), but I did [keep her].
I am a strong believer that kids who grow up with dogs end up being better people in life.
So kept Alice I did, and Adam loves our 2 dogs. He knows them by name. In fact, he knew their names even before he knew how to call anyone of us in the household.



Adam, compared to my cousins' and friends' children who didn't have dogs, was on the contrary stronger than them, as in he seldom fell sick and even if he had the occasional flu or cough, he bounced back to health very fast, fit like a horse. Frequent travelling, climate & weather changes also didn't seem a problem.
Alice's skin problems didn't seem to bother him either when he was crawling and picking everything up from the floor to eat, including balls of dog fur at 7-8mths old.
Maybe he was already immune since Day 3 of his life at home.
Now that Adam is walking, I let him walk Alice downstairs when I am around, and it's always a funny sight, one Terror Tod with one Old Dame. My son & dog are walking proof to those ignorant Aunties that not all dogs bite and children CAN have dogs and still not be retarded.
My fav retort to those Aunties when they tell their charges "Dont go near, the woh-woh will bite" is - "Yah lor go away my dog will bite one" and there Adam is, bossing my dogs around, making those Aunties look stupid.
Therefore, having Alice coexist with Adam didn't bother us. Until recently.


For 3 weeks now, Adam is having progressively worsening Bronchitis.
He's coughing so badly, every cough brings up alot of secretions and several times he nearly got choked on his own phlegm. From a normal cough mixture from our regular PD, he was "upgraded" to Augmentin from another PD whose clinic is near our home and more convenient for me at that point because I was working night shifts then and barely had enough sleep.
Still, one week of Augmentin and 2 different types of cough/runny nose meds didn't cure.
So I brought him to yet another doctor which Aunt LY recommended, Nam Seng Clinic at Bukit Timah. I brought my Baby across the island to see the doctor and he said Adam's Bronchitis has worsened to a very dangerous stage. He even did a scope on Adam and asked me to see for myself, which I did, and his nasal cavities and throat were all lined with thick secretions and were inflamed.
The doctor gave us lots of advise, one of which is to remove the dogs otherwise Adam would develop more major illnesses such as Asthma and/or need to be hospitalised.





It was a painful decision to make, but if faced with such a dilemma in life - who would you choose?


I had no choice but to let Alice go. I asked everywhere, nobody was willing to take in a 10yr old dog with skin problems. People wanted young and healthy dogs, and I don't blame them.
Dog shelters I tried calling were also unable to take her, due to "space constraints". I don't blame them either - those young healthy dogs probably had better chances of being rehomed.
Andy tried posting in VW Forum but so far only one person PMed him but didn't call.
Bringing Alice to a vet to be "put to sleep" has never been one of my options, because I am not God and I am in no position to decide whether she lives or dies, and under what circumstances she dies.
So really, I am faced with no other choice. She has already been dealt with a death sentence by societal standards.


People always say "Having kids changes everything". Sure they do, but it had never crossed my mind to give up my dogs when we have a baby. So it must be a cruel irony that right now, I am faced with such a situation that God decided to let me make a choice - my son or my dog.

Right now, I can only feel great pain and sorrow because I have never wanted Alice to think that I would abandon her one day, but I did.
Some days, I come home exhausted from work, some days I work night shifts, some days I forget to feed her till the next morning. Her bowls are always empty because Mavy is a faster eater, and Alice now has to drink from the toilet pails.
She no longer shares our bed, and no longer leads a Diva life. But no matter how badly we treat her, she always loves us and forgives us.
There is nowhere in this world where she would rather be other than in our room, and we know it because room is where she always ends up being.

It is a painful decision for me to make.
No matter what happens, I hope that Alice will go on to be a happy dog in a better place, and may she suffer no more. If I ever meet her again, I will still love her all the same and I will still want her to be my dog.

She's a great dog that deserves no suffering and no pain.
Dear Alice, I have lost the battle I fought so hard for - for you to be with us till your last breath.
I hope that you can forgive us one last time.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Photos, in no coherent sense.

Just some random photos...

Narcissist me while waiting for Hubby in the car.... isnt the white very distinct after grooming?



and reintroducing my Mum's cat - Mango.
Contrary to popular belief, I am a cat person.
Cats are independent and they are secretive. They come and go as they please. They love to enjoy life and being pampered. Sounds exactly like us women, no?


Meow~



Sunday, June 27, 2010

World Cup 2010 - the goofy series.

The boys are featured here wearing matching Man U jerseys and soaking up the WC fever.
Getting the boys together for a neat photo shot is insane. Just take a look yourself!





.
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After awhile, one is distracted by a swatting hand, the other is swatting flies.... ZZzz...


Yawn..... . . .. Can you hurry up already ??



Eeeeeekkkk.... Don't wipe my face with your tail leh!


Maverick: Don't want! Don't push me off the couch!



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.

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Finally, take 341937.. The baby finally cooperates. But. The dog is not looking! Grrrr....


Ok, that's all for now folks.
If you can't beat them, join 'em!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Hop on!



Kai's new vehicle - featured here is Alice our Silly Sheltie hitching a ride.
Cool isn't it?

Our tiny home is becoming Tiny Land, overcrowding with Kai's toys.
I need to get my act together and do some serious packing -> Stash, Trash, Donation, Sale.

By the way, Andy's mum suddenly told me she's going back to Indonesia for the weekend and coming back on Monday night. We're packing up and going back to my Mum's for the weekend. I miss my room and Kai can have the entire air-conditioned living room to play in! Woohoo!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Ball of a time

My 2 boys sweating it out on a hot summer evening.
Some photos of my Slam Dunk border collie teaching his disciple a trick or two.

Kai gets on brilliantly with the dogs, so well that I'm afraid he might approach strange animals with the same enthusiasm and end up endangering himself.




Maverick, aged 5 going on 6 this July. Still a puppy at heart.
I've stopped training & trialling him, but this hasn't stopped him from amazing us with his never-say-never antics. You go boy!


Scoring...


And it's a GOAL!



I'm no expert dog trainer, but I managed to train Maverick to do this Slam Dunk trick almost instantly!
I have the smartest dog in the world :)

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Random Sunday morning

Baby Kai is featured here with his sidekicks



Did my baby learn this trick of holding things in his mouth from the sidekicks?!


Sunday, April 11, 2010

Good times at ECP and a secret Garden

Took a short drive with my boys to East Coast for MacDonald's breakfast. Yum!

My sticky and sweaty boys


Looking intently at the breakfast. "Daddy, quick gimme already!"
Daddy: "I'm checking for roaches"


Cant resist hotcakes. Drool!


After that, we went to our secret garden - a private place with lush greenery, where the dog is free to run, and a big pond full of terrapins and fish. Just like good old times.












Mavy running and playing like a puppy. Liberty is priceless!





Good times :)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Hanging with Mavy




Here are the 2 brothers hanging together on random afternoons.
In case you don't already know, Mavy has taken up Babysitting as his new full-time job, and he's taking it rather seriously Haha.
Baby Adam loves torturing the dogs too, although Alice doesn't really reciprocate that love.

Whenever Baby Adam is in his walker, he will chase after the dogs, who will run and try to hide but Baby Adam will scream and be mighty pleased with himself, as if to say "You can run but you can't hide!"
And mind you, those wheels do hurt!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Mango is hospitalised

My mum's cat Mango is hospitalised, and the story goes like this:

My mum came home from work on a Monday morning and couldn't find Mango anywhere in the house, though he would usually come running after her once he hears her voice.
She searched everywhere and couldnt find him, so she thought he had run away from home, though it is extremely unlikely because he is a scaredy cat who has never even stepped out of the front door.

She continued searching on Tuesday morning and asked the neighbourhood cleaner whether she has seen an orange tabby cat. She said "Yes, it was on the floor but it ran away" so my Mum gave chase to the pointed direction and searched everywhere again, in vain.
When she got home, she ran into our neighbours who said they saw Mango badly injured, likely due to fall from the window, and bled profusely so they called SPCA and SPCA took Mango away.

My mum was anxious that they would euthanise Mango so she rang SPCA up and the SPCA staff said "He is Ok, you can bring a carrier down to collect him".
My mum went down with Uncle Jeffrey and Mango's carrier, happy that she could bring him home.
But when they reached SPCA, Mango was put in a plastic crate and drenched with his own bloodied urine swishing around in the crate! and he was a sorry sight!
He was bleeding from his lips and chin, his right leg and arm were fractured out of alignment and he kept yowling in a hoarse voice.
He obviously couldn't move and was definitely NOT "OK" like the SPCA said!

The SPCA staff then explained to Uncle Jeffrey that if nobody claims the cat after "a few days", they have to put it to sleep due to space constraints. A few days???? No matter how badly injured the animal is, it would be left in a plastic crate drenched in its own feces and urine to suffer for a "few days"???
At least I know now, what SPCA is about. SIGH.

So my mum paid the staff $30 for admin fees and rushed Mango to the hospital.


Today, I picked my Mum up from home after I knocked off and went to see Mango.


Mango's bandaged left hand is on a drip. His limp right hand is the fractured one.
He may look fine, but actually he isn't.


His radius and ulnar are both fractured, and the ligament connecting the paw to the forearm is dislodged.
The surgeon & vet recommended surgery, which would cost $3800, excluding the hospitalisation fees and etc, which could well amount to $5000 *gasp*


Put on Ringer's Lactate for hydration because he refused to eat and hasn't eaten/drank anything since Monday's injury partly due to his inured face.


This is the drain where my mum's neighbours put Mango on before SPCA came to take him away, with a puddle of his blood in it.



Right now, Mango is not fit for surgery yet due to his haematuria and dehydration which leads to possible electrolyte imbalances and abnormal blood chemistry.
My mum is waiting to speak to the surgeon and vet in charge of Mango tomorrow before further decisions can be made regarding his care plan.

And now with my Mum's "youngest son" hospitalised, with her sick with worry, getting busy with CNY bakings & stuff, plus my own set of insane schedule, I can't help but wonder what kind of CNY this year is gonna be.
I'm just wishing that things will go like clock work and be generally uneventful than it already is.

Whatever it is, I just hope he wont be put to sleep. Poor Mango.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Playful lil munchkin

I-only-want-my-mama Adam is very sticky to me.
Once I'm back from work, he demands my full attention to him.
he just wants to be close to me, and thou shalt not leave his sight.


he will suck my legs and arm, as if he was still BFding. Maybe he misses my milk jugs? I miss BFding him too!



he will stare at me with loving puppy eyes.


My nice ass!








he is firm friends with the dogs. You know that by now, don't you?


Being amused by .. . . a packet of cotton pads.


Baby Adam said "Mum mum" once during his dinner, and he is saying "Aiya" all the time now.
his blabbering and shouting has increased so incredulously and I'm constantly amazed at his progress.

From perfume to ru yi oil, from LV & Chanel to diaper bags, from wine bottles to milk bottles, from late nights to lullabies, and everything else in between, life is definitely worth all the sacrifices :)