Sisterly love

Mia keeps Kess active in her old age. She loves to pick a fight with Kess, usually after walks or meals. You can see her thinking about picking a fight, go on the predatory stance and then pounce on Kess, nipping her to get Kess to join in the fight. They'll chase each other, Kess will usually drop on the ground as her hind leg is not as strong and they'll roll about like sumo wrestlers. Then when both have had enough, Mia kisses Kess to make up. Aahh...sisters!

 

 

We are back! Curious Mia

Hi everyone! As always, absence from the blogging world is always the human's fault. Now that our human has caught a break, we figured it's time to update our blog.

Would you believe that Mia has been with us for more than a year? She joined our family last summer and now it seems like she has been with us forever. Mia is one curious beagle. She is always checking things out. Check it out...

 

Mia checks out her reflection on our bookshelf mirror. "Hmm...I really am quite a cute beagle"

 

 Checking out the flower pot...

 
Sticking her head into our friend's bag...As it turns out, she had a bar of chocolates in her bag meant for my humans. Thankfully, little Mia didn't get her teeth into those chocs.

 

Checking out the view on our walks.

Checking out dinner before it's served.

 

 

Watching the world go by from our front window...

 

Checking out the camera taking her picture.

Checking out the other doggies at the park

 

Last but not least, something we both love to do- checking out the ground for any food bits!

 

This ol' beagle turns 12

What a journey! I turn 12 today. This was me six years ago:

This is me today!

Back then, whilst I had started showing white fur on my face and ears, I still had a deep black and brown coat. Now, I have turned very fair as the whites have overtaken the brown and black. My humans think that I have aged gracefully.

One thing that hasn't changed over the years is my love for food! From chewy bone treats to my regular kibbles - I love them all. My humans always make an effort to give me something special on my birthday. So today, Mia and I got a Zuke's Clean Apple Crisp Z-Bone for tea (which is a treat as we don't usually get tea).

Then for dinner, in addition to our regular kibbles, we had a lovely addition of thinly sliced beef on a bed of rice topped with some carrots. Naturally, we both gobbled dinner down in record time.

But that was not all. My humans had one more trick up their sleeve. We don't usually get dessert either but today we did, thanks to my humans' Japanese friend who had bought us a pack of dog pudding. My humans had kept that away for a special occasion and today was that special occasion! Woo hoo!

Unlike me, Mia is usually hesitant in trying unfamiliar food. She will taste the texture, spit it out and try to figure out if she should eat it.

Mia looking at me finishing my dessert in one bite.

 

Since she still couldn't make up her mind if she should eat her pudding, I decided to help her eat it. But, typical beagle, she defends her pudding and quickly pops it into her mouth and move away from me. It took her another minute or so to finally eat it, but she definitely wasn't going to let me eat it for her. Silly Mia!

As far as birthdays go, today was a good one! 

Mia and Her Funny Bed Habits

Mia and I each have our own beds although it's no longer clear which bed belongs to which beagle. Why? Well, Mia, who has a more dominant nature, has a bad habit of taking whichever bed she feels like, even if I'm on it! Sometimes she tries to sneak into my bed whilst I'm asleep.

Other times, she just blatantly plonks her butt on the bed to get me to move out. Since I have a more easy-going nature, I end up vacating my bed and moving to the other bed.

The other funny habit that Mia has is that she loves to un-make her bed. My humans always place a rug over our beds. That way, they can remove the rug for washing since our beds can't go into the washing machine. In winter, we get a fleece blanket as well. Mia does not like having the rug or the fleece blanket on the bed and she would start looking for the edges to pull it away, leaving a scrunched up rug and/or blanket somewhere on the bed or around the bed. What is worse is that she would un-make one bed, decides that she doesn't like that bed and takes my bed and un-makes that one too!

 

Mia is one!

Mia turned one on Sunday. The weather was foggy and wet but that didn't stop us for going for a long birthday walk in the morning. Needless to say, at the end of the walk, both of us were muddy and wet. It took my humans a while to get us cleaned up.

 

As always, the highlight of any birthdays in our household is the birthday meal. The nice thing about having a little sister is that I get to benefit from her birthday too! Mia's birthday meal was doggie shepherd pie. My humans made that for my birthday treat last year and it was yummy.



As you can see, this year's shepherd pie was just as good. Pity there weren't any second helpings offered... Happy Birthday Mia!

 

Bleary-Eyed and All Chewed Up

My humans have forgotten what it's like to have a puppy at home. After all, it's been more than 11 years since they've had a puppy in their home! So, the title of this blog post talks about two of challenges of having a puppy.

1) Bleary-Eyed - You can kiss sleeping in goodbye!

"When a puppy takes fifty catnaps in the course of the day, he cannot always be expected to sleep the night through." Albert Payson Terhune

 

Since Mia became part of our family last August, my humans have not been able to indulge in sleeping in. It's actually a lot better now as Mia does sleep through the night, compared to when she first came. Back then, she used to wake at around 2 to 4 am and my humans, worried that she might need to pee (puppies do have small bladders), have to wake up and take her out to relieve herself. They used to do the same for me too when I was a pup!

 

However, Mia is an early riser, and so anytime between 5.30-6.30 am, there will be sounds of pitter patter on the floor as Mia wakes (which means our whole household wakes up too). Personally, I don't mind because that means I get to eat breakfast early, which in my books, is a good thing. But for my humans, that rules out any hope of sleeping in at home on weekends.

 

2) All Chewed Up - This described the state of Mia's toys, our furniture, our shoes, our bags, etc, etc

 

It's a fact of life - you can't have a dog and a perfect house. My humans acknowledge that fact, having gone through that experience with me. Back when I was a pup, I used to love my human's high heel shoes. The heels fit perfectly in my mouth and makes for a good chew. The thing is though, I never chewed on a pair of shoes, instead, I like the variety and would pick a side of two different pairs of shoes, which to my human's chagrin, means two pairs of ruined shoes! I've also chewed through quite a few of my beds - woven basket, plastic beds, you name it, I've chewed it!

 

I'm pleased to say that Mia is following in my footsteps. She has chewed through numerous pairs of slippers, quite a few doggie toys, her bed (and mine), any sharp angle bits on furniture and floor trims, end bits of floor mats and my human's precious Longchamp bag. Here are some of Mia's chew "victims":

 

Victim #1:

One of Mia's first toys, a fluffy duckie from her original home. The duckie has since been put to rest - headless and stuffingless.

 Victim #2:

The Kong tennis ball with rope is now without its fluff covering and rope.

 Victim #3:

My humans carelessly left the remote on the coffee table. The picture speaks for itself.

 Victim #4:

A selection of Mia's chewed up toys. Note the fluffy cow which was bought to replace the fluffy duckie. In this picture, Mr. Fluffy Cow is still intact.

 

 

 

 Victim #5:

Headless Mr. Fluffy Cow.

 Mia has moved on to Ms Japanese Fish, which unfortunately did not survive for more than 5 minutes once Mia got started!

 Victim #6:

My human's bag (she is still trying to figure out if the bag can be saved with some creative patching!)

 Victim #7:

My other human's slipper

 

This is probably one of the only toys that my humans bought for Mia that still survives! Meanwhile, my humans are patiently waiting for the chewing phase to pass. Meanwhile, bags are kept away in cupboards and TV remotes are kept away from the coffee table!

 

  
 

Time to Share My Blog

For five years, this blog has been about me, Kess, the Malaysian beagle. It started off as a way for my human to pass time and has evolved to a journal of my life - the daily stuff, the adventures and outings, the challenges of growing older, the big move from Malaysia to Hong Kong, and  a new addition to our family, Mia. Now that there are two beagles in the household, I thought it is timely to share my blog with my 10-month old beagle sister and what better way to kick off the new year with a new blog header picture of the two of us.

Friends say we look like sisters because we have similar faces. We've even had old friends who haven't seen me in years and never met Mia before confused. They were still expecting a deep tri-colour beagle and thought that Mia was me! Over the years, I have aged gracefully, turning a lovely gradual white. For a 11 turning 12 year old beagle, I am still going strong. I can still manage long walks in the lovely cool weather we've been having over the past couple of months even though stairs remain a challenge.

Since Mia came to our family, we share a lot of things. Apart from the fact that we're both beagles, we...

1) Strike the same pose

 

 2) Explore HK together - old Peak tram at the Galleria

3) Sometimes sleep together (although I prefer to have my own bed)

 4) Share the same buster cone (Mia had her surgery in September and I had mine in October)

 

 

5) Play together

 

So, all in all, having a beagle little sis (although Mia is not so little anymore - she is the same size as me and slightly taller) is not too bad after all.