I'm 2 years old!

This post is a little bit late, and the person to blame is of course, my Pops. But anyway, last Sunday was my birthday! I'm now 2 years old, and in dog years that would make me a teenager now!

I'm a big dog now!

Unfortunately, my Momma and Pops were away on a weekend getaway... but at least my grandparents and Aunt Mainey were around to keep my company. So I wasn't left alone or anything, and it gave me some time to think about the things that have changed since I was a little puppy.

I used to be afraid of The Great Outside, and would hide behind the door. I used to need Momma and Pops to carry me up and down the stairs, but now I can climb up and down by myself... and I'm even faster than they are!

In fact, I am completely independent now, and can do pretty much everything myself. The only things I need my Humans for are:

1. Taking a bath (though I think I can get by without ever taking one)
2. Filling my food bowl
3. Cleaning my food bowl
4. Filling my water bowl
5. Cleaning off my dingleberries
6. Traveling to Knuckles' place
7. Brushing my fur
8. Dabbing my paws clean after I pee-paw myself
9. Opening the Big Gate to the Great Outside
10. Going for a walk in the Great Outside
11. Getting onto my Humans' bed
12. Cleaning up my Golden Offerings
13. Buying more toys for me
14. Buying more food for me
15. Putting on or taking off my collar
16. Updating this blog
17. Switching on the TV so I can watch Bones
18. Protecting me from Dobermans and cat ambushes
19. Opening the container with all my treats
20. Fishing out my treats when they roll under the bed
21. Reaching for my toys when I toss them onto the table
22. Opening room doors
23. Pulling my bed out of my crate
24. Packing my toys away (not that I should need to)
25. Belly rubs!

But other than that, I can do everything by myself cos I'm a big dog!

What are some things you guys need help with?

Walkie to the gas station!

The other night, grandma and grandpa wanted to go for a walk, so my Humans took me out with them. We walked to a strange and distant place called the Gas Station, because Momma needed to use this machine there to pay her bills.

Yuck! These cars fart a lot!

I don't know what the Gas Station does, but judging from the name and the amount of cars there, I'm guessing that's where cars go to fart. I'm pretty sure that's what it is, because it sure was stinky over there. It was a pretty nice walk, longer than I'm used to, but I got too curious a few times and tried to sniff at the road when one of those cars drove by just inches from my nose. Momma and Pops were both really upset with me, and they held my leash even tighter after that.

Oh! And another thing: remember that Hole in the Gate that leads to the Great Outside? Well, I managed to sneak out a few times too many, and Pops got really really upset. Now I have to wear my collar ALL THE TIME! It's kinda itchy, but I guess I'm used to it now. Oh well...

I have to wear my collar even when
I'm chilling out at home now...

Random Picture Moment

Hi all! Just a quick post because my Pops has been hogging the computer to work on his animation demo-reel again. Here are some quick pics from a trip to East Coast Park a couple of weekends ago!

Knuckles drove us to the park

Pwning the lamp post

Moments later, this naughty stranger pwned Aunt Jol's foot

I don't know why Momma is so interested...
it's just a guy zooming on water...

Seriously, guys... dogs are more interesting than water sports

I'm big enough to go out by myself!

You know, I'm just not a puppy anymore. I've already celebrated a bark-day, and I've been out on enough walks so that I know my way around. I think it's time that my Humans allowed me to go out by myself.

The hole that leads outside

I don't know if you guys remember, but there are some little Holes in our gate that leads to the Great Outside. I used to just poke my head out and look out (hoping to see or sniff Missy, the Westie across the road), but now I've realized that I can use this Hole as my own little mini-door to go in and out.

Missy's home, when viewed from the Hole

The Beagle from down the road says it's ironic that as I grew bigger, instead of being too big to squeeze out the Hole I am now more empowered to go out the hole. I'm not sure exactly what the Beagle from down the road meant because he uses big words that confuse me, but he said that basically as long as something is ironic, then it's meant to be.

My Humans don't agree though, because they freaked out the first time I slipped through the Hole. In fact, they ran out, grabbed me and carried me back home. Momma was exceptionally mad at me. But why? I'm supposed to be able to use the Hole! Irony says I should!

After a few more escape attempts, Pops put up some little metal things to stop me from getting out. They're like string, but metal. What is this? Am I a prisoner in my own home??? That's not fair!

I still get to go out for walkies, but only under Human snoopervision, and with my leash on. I think it's highly unfair! I'm a big dog now! The Beagle from down the road gets to come and go as he pleases! Hiew hiew hiew!

I've got a couple of awards!

Wow! I've just received a couple of awards from Toby the Guide Dog in Training, and they're awesome!  First up is the Happy 101 Award.

The rules for this award are simple: You have to post up the image on your blog. List 10 things that make you happy. Do one of those things. Send this award to 10 of your friends that make you happy.

Well that's easy enough! Here are my 10 things:
1) Sniffing smelly socks
2) Getting some wind in my face during car rides
3) Cuddling up with my Momma
4) Chasing my Pops around the coffee table
5) Take a nap while snuggling GG the Giraffe
6) Getting a snack
7) Going for walkies in the Great Outside
8) Eating pork
9) Playing fetch and wrestling with Leo the Leopard
10) Dragging Ms Crab into my crate for some private time when my Humans aren't looking

The other award is the Sunshine Award.

This one has much easier rules. Just post it up on your blog, and then award it to 12 other bloggers. Oh, and you have to leave comments on their blogs to let them know they've got an award.

So to make things easier, I'll just do what Toby did and award these 2 awards to 12 dog bloggers. Here are my picks (though I'm sure many of them have already gotten these awards before, it never hurts to get more than one award), in no particular order:

1. The Thundering Herd
2. Dog Daze
3. Lorenza
4. Tank
5. The Army of Four
6. Twink
7. Bruschi
8. Santa & 9. Minnie
10. Patsy from Dragonfly Interiors
11. Maggie & Mitch the living plushies
12. Salinger the Pug

While I have your attention, I'd also like to congratulate Toby for reaching his goals before he has to return to school. If you guys helped out, then there's a big thank you for you!!!

Cousin Tails got mauled!

The other night, cousin Tails was out for a walk, when a big dog randomly jumped on him and bit a big chunk of flesh out from his little body!!! That's so scary! Why would anyone do that???

Aunt Cheryl said that Tails wasn't being a nuisance or anything. He was sniffing around with the other dog, and everything seemed fine and Tails was already walking away peacefully when all of a sudden the dog pounced on him and mauled him!

Tails is recovering after a trip to the vet. Luckily he doesn't have any broken bones or anything, but he's pretty scared of stuff now. I hope he gets better soon.

I was talking to the Beagle from down the road about this, and there can only be a few explanations for this crazy violence.

1. The big dog walked through a spiderweb and a spider went into his ear and mind-controlled him.
2. The big dog was bullied by a Maltese when he was a puppy.
3. The big dog is a sleeper agent working for the evil Dobermans.

Judging from the size of big dog puppies like Roy, I think it was very unlikely that the big dog was ever bullied by a Maltese. They were walking on the side of the road, so it's not very likely that there were any spiderwebs there either.

So it must be the Dobermans. I thought the destruction of the Doberman base ended their evil reign, but I guess they must have regrouped and are plotting against us again. I guess I'll have no choice but to put on the Dog Knight outfit again, and find out more about this Doberman Pharaoh that they brought back to life. Evil is apaw!

In the meantime, all of you smaller dogs like Twink and Tank should be extra careful! Any dog could be a Doberman agent! If you have Shih-Tzu friends, then ask them to wear goggles. I overheard the vet tell my Pops once that Shih-Tzus always end up at the vet's with a missing eye!

Random Photo Moment

I've been going on nice long walks lately, and it's been pretty cool. I got to leave pee-mail all over the neighborhood! There was also a walk over to the Police Post because Pops' friend had to report a stolen wallet. I really wanted to leave a Golden Offering there and mark a symbol of authority, but Pops wouldn't let me. I had to settle for a nearby bush instead.

My trip to town

Check out the bright lights of the city

So like I promised yesterday, here are a bunch of photos of my trip to town. Khyra mentioned that it was weird to see shorts in Christmas, but snow and cold weather are two things I've never seen before in Singapore. Not even during Christmas! It's always hot hot hot and hot over here, and a big furry dog like Khyra (a husky) will MELT here! Good thing there are those freezy cold air boxes all around!

So here we are in Orchard Road, Singapore's busiest shopping area. Aunt Mainey was working the closing shift at her book store, so my Momma and Pops decided to take me to town for a walk and surprise Aunt Mainey. The lights were so pretty! It was like, daytime, except at night. And in the city, the fruits in the trees can glow! That's so awesome. I wonder if I'll glow too if I eat them.

Speaking of trees, there was one mega-huge tree in front of a mall. It was like the size of a hundred St Bernards! That's really massive! And it was covered in sparkly fruits too, though these ones didn't glow.





I also learnt something about a guy called "Santa Paws" who visits all the good little puppies and brings them gifts during Christmas. I hope I get to meet him, because he sounds like a really cool guy. I did meet his friend Rudolph though, who is Santa's favorite reindeer (reindeers are animals that can fly and pull shopping carts). Pops told me before that Rudolph is a guy, but when I met Rudolph he was putting red stuff on his lips, just like what Momma does! Isn't that a girly thing?



I got to do lots of other cool stuff too, like watching a band perform music, and sniffing garbage cans in town. Even the garbage in the city smells more exciting than the bins near our home.

Listening to some live music

Smells exciting!

Oh, and it was so crowded in the city. You couldn't walk a few steps without bumping into some random human's ankles. I was afraid some of the bigger humans were going to step on me and squish my tail or something! Everyone was rushing around like they were really excited about something. The pretty lights, I guess.

And there were a lot of human puppies too! The human puppies all thought I was really cute, and all of them wanted to pet and hug me. Ah well, I guess I am pretty cute, you know? After that we finally met up with Aunt Mainey, who was pleasantly surprised to see me after a long day at work.

Me and a human puppy fan

Together with Aunt Mainey, we went to visit some of Momma's favorite shops. I wasn't allowed inside the malls because I'm too cute and I'd cause a human puppy stampede or something, so we could only look at the windows outside.





But what trip to the Great Outside would be complete without some Golden Offering pwnage? The first city-thing I got to pwn was a bush outside a bookstore (but not Aunt Mainey's bookstore). From there I got to pwn a big metal pole with bright lights, and lots of other bushes. I wasn't allowed to pwn any human puppies, bins, or shop windows, unfortunately.

My first town pwnage

The metal pole with the bright lights

One more before I head home!

So that's my big exciting outing! I'm going to find out more about this whole Christmas thing, and I'll let you guys know what I find out.

Where's Pops?

Last night, my humans went out with Aunt Mainey to Uncle DX's birthday bash. That's nothing new, as my humans go out together all the time. But then Momma and Aunt Mainey came back together, and I was happy for a while until I realized that - gasp!- Pops wasn't with them! That's never happened before; they always come back together. I looked up and down, and in and out our home, looking for Pops. I thought he was playing Hide and Seek with me again, but he wasn't... he was really missing!

I got so sad for a while, but then he finally came back a couple of hours later. He smelled funny and was acting pretty funny though... Momma said that he was drinking, but I drink all the time and it doesn't make me act or smell funny.

Anyway, I've got a busy day of napping and chewing lined up today so I can't write a big post, but here's a preview of tomorrow's post - my trip to town! Yes, on Friday night my humans took me to Orchard Road (the largest shopping place in Singapore) to see all the pretty Christmas lights and decorations! Check it out!

Wow! Look at all the pretty lights!

I'll post up more pics tomorrow when I have more time. I'm off to my chewing and napping!

Walkie walkie with Aunt Mainey

YAY!

Last night, for the first time in like, forever, I got to go out for a walk! Momma and Pops were like "Sonic, tonight we're going to take you for a walk, no matter what!" And they did! Aunt Mainey came along too, and it was so awesome to run around in the Great Outside again.

But maybe I was the only lucky dog last night or something, because none of my friends were out for walks. Even the notorious Hill-Bottom Twins were really quiet last night. The only dog I even heard was Small-Fart, and that's because he's always whining and whinging. Ah well... I left them some peemail to say hi anyway.

Immediately after the walk, Momma lured me into the Torture Chamber! The walk was a trick! Oh no! I got bathed and cleaned up, and I didn't like it. A small bonus is that Momma lets me snuggle up to her in her bed after a shower, but still... the humiliation of being soaked is kinda bad. And this time, Aunt Mainey was watching and giggling too!

Oh well... at least I got to go out for a walk.

No more rain, please

It's been raining and raining and raining. I hate the rain. I don't get to go out for my walks when it's raining. It's been a very long time since I got to go for my evening walk!

The other night, I almost got a proper one because my Pops took me out. But after turning the corner, he started feeling a slight drizzle and he panicked. Humans don't know this, but dogs can smell rain... and I didn't smell any rain. I tried to convince him that it wasn't going to rain and that it was just a passing drizzle, but my Pops wouldn't listen.

After we got home and got settled in... guess what? It didn't rain at all.

Hiew hiew hiew!!!

Tooky makes a run for it!

I think Tooky the Turtle is getting jealous that I get taken for walks all the time and get to meet other dogs and stuff. This morning, I caught him trying to climb out of his home! What a brave little turtle! If I was his size, I'd probably just sit and hide somewhere all day.

My trip to the Botanic Gardens

Today, Aunt Jol came over to visit after lunch. She had some exam or something, which she passed, so that's pretty cool. We played a bit, and I got a little bit too rough and messed up her hair. But what's really awesome is that my humans decided to take me out to the Botanic Gardens, which is this mega huge park where I can run all around and stuff.

It's like chewing on stringy bathroom mats.

So we all got into the car together, and took off to the park. I usually ride in the front with Momma, but today I got to sit with Aunt Jol in the back seat. It's roomier in the back seat, and I have more space to shift and move around... but I guess it's not really as comforting as snuggling up to Momma... although she did look a bit glad to have more space to herself.

What?

When we parked the car, I was so excited and couldn't wait any longer, so I peed on the nearest pillar. They took me into the big grassy field, and I ran around and around and around. I also saw a squirrel in a tree. I swear I've seen that squirrel before! Sometimes when I'm sitting around at home, I can see him staring at me through the window. When I look around at him, he scurries away. Omigod... it's a Stalker Squirrel!

The Stalker Squirrel!

You know what's the main difference between running in the park and running at home? The ground! When I run at home, the floor is all slippery and smooth, so I always end up sliding around and I can't excellerate accelerate much at all. But in the park, I can really kick it into hyper speed and just zoom all over! It's so awesome, I peed into a flower while thinking about it on the way to the field.

There were a bunch of other people there too, including a bunch of little human puppies on some sorta school trip. They were all wearing uniforms that made them all look the same... you know, like poodles and their ridiculous fur. A couple of them came up to me, but they smelled funny and I ran away from them.

Speaking of running, I'm like so totally fast. Like, really fast. Faster than a chihuahua falling out of a handbag. My Pops and Aunt Jol tried to keep up with me while I was running around, but they couldn't catch up with me at all.



After a while though, I must've run through a patch of ants or something, because those little bugs started crawling around in my paws and my fur. It was really really irritating! I tried to bite them off, but those tiny little jerks were really good at hiding in all the hard to reach places. Luckily, Momma and Aunt Jol noticed how uncomfortable I was, so they helped me pick out all those nasty ants. Honestly... you can't trust anything with more than four legs.

Momma and Aunt Jol gets rid of those nasty ants.

After the whole ant thing, Momma didn't want me running around so much anymore, just in case my fur gets invaded by bugs again. So they started lazing around on the picnic blanket to soak up the fresh air... leaving me with nothing to do! I wanted to go running around again, but Momma just wanted me to snuggle with her and chill. So I followed my puppy instincts and sulked in the corner.

Big dogs don't cry. They just sulk.

No seriously... what?

After sulking for a while, I finally relented and went over to play with Momma and Aunt Jol. But I think that sitting under the sun kinda fried their brains a bit, because they went really nuts. They were just acting really weird, and snapping photos of themselves doing weird poses and laughing like crazy people. I tried to get away, but I got swooped up by their craziness.

Help! My humans have gone crazy!

At the end of the day, we packed up and went home. This post is getting insanely long, so I'll just dump the other photos after the jump.

Staying home with Momma

For the last few weeks, Momma's been able to stay at home a lot to play with me. I LOVE IT! Normally, she has to go to work in the morning, and then only play with me when Pops and I pick her up from the train station in the evening, but this routine has changed lately. It's great!

We get to chill at home, watch TV, practice my new tricks (I know how to stand by her side and run around her now!) and nap! Not only that, but she's been taking me out for walks almost every day. It's so awesome!

Lemme take you through an average walk. First, we head out to the gate, and Momma makes me sit and wait patiently first (I'm not allowed to run outside without permission). Then when I behave myself, she opens the little gate and I can go outside.

Waiting for Momma to open the gate.

The start of a new adventure!

Usually we go for a little round, but since I've started going on regular walks I've been getting stronger so we can walk further around the block. I get to sniff stuff, meet other dogs (there are so many dogs in this neighborhood... including this big dog named Parker that's ten times my weight!). My favorite part is when I sniff some messages and notes that other dogs leave in the grass and trees, and then if I'm well-behaved, Momma will let me leave a reply. It's like emailing, except liquid!

Walking around the Great Outside is such an exciting time. I get to feel the wind in my face, breathe in the fresh air, and I get to poop anywhere I want! I mean, if I see a patch of grass that I don't like, I can just hop onto it and leave a few hot nuggets, or when I have more time, I can even squeeze out a hot sausage. I feel so libral libeara liberat free to do anything!

There's one big problem with walking though: the big hill at the end of the journey. Because our home is near the top of a hill, the end of a walk usually involves going up that big hill. And if Momma thinks that its tough for her long legs to climb that hill... imagine what it takes for my little legs to climb it!

The view from the bottom of the hill

But I still love my walks though. I hope Momma will keep taking me out everyday. I love my Momma soooooo much!

Walky Walkies and Scooby Snacks

Last night my Momma and Pops took me out for a walk again! That makes two walks on conse conexecu convex two nights in a row! That's just so awesome! I love the Great Outside!

Time to go to school, but I'm so sleepy though...

Oh, before I forget... Momma got me Scooby snacks! The same ones from the TV show! Hoolie doolie! That's really really awesome!