Happy Belated Christmas and a Happy 2013!

Happy Belated Christmas and a Happy 2013!

December has been a crazy busy month for me and my humans. We've had friends and visitors staying with us throughout the month, which explains my absence from blogging. It's been great fun catching up with family and friends. Inevitably, they come bearing gifts for this canine and her humans. My gifts include doggie treats from Australia - kangaroo jerky and pigs ears, whilst my humans enjoy chocolates and other yummy goodies. Unfortunately my humans have decided to ration how often I get to eat my treats, so they're in the pantry, away from reach of this beagle :-(

Treats aside, I've also enjoyed lots of attention from our friends and family - both old and young. After all, you're never too old to enjoy a game of tug of war...

And which dog doesn't enjoy some TLC?

To top it off, I had an unexpected gift from Santa. Santa knows that Kess has been a good doggie and this beagle made it on his "nice" list. Dear ol' Santa must have been so busy delivering gifts that he got lost and delivered my treat to my neighbour downstairs instead. Our kind neighbour delivered it to me. Thanks MM! These heart-shaped treats are not only yummy but healthy too.

 

 

Goodbye 2012! To my human friends, may 2013 bring you love, peace and joy. To my canine friends, may 2013 bring you lots of treats!

 

With love from Kess & Her Mama

 

Goodbye 2011...Hello 2012

2011...What a year this has been! My humans have been so busy this past few months that this blog has been neglected. Still, we're finally making some time to reflect on this momentous year.

January - Kicked off the year with an outing to BU Park with fellow beagle blogger Sapphire and her humans.


February and March - Nothing terribly exciting in the life of this beagle...the usual walks, barking at squirrels, cats, monkeys, postman...you get the picture.


April - This beagle turns 9! For my birthday treat, I had a lip-smacking yummy meal of liver on rice (hey...I'm a "Chinese" dog, so rice is one of my favourite food.) My humans torture me by making me sit whilst they photograph me...


May - My humans prepare me for our move to HK and start getting me used to the crate which I will travel from Malaysia to HK.

Meanwhile, this beagle continues to get into trouble when left home alone. Shredded paper bag...dead plants...


June - The big move to HK. My humans go first to settle things. Meanwhile, this beagle was spoilt to bits by gramps. I join my humans two weeks later. Happy reunion with my humans!

This was a month of many firsts...My first:
- Plane ride - can't say I liked it very much. Hated being crated and separated from my humans.
- Lift ride (my humans live in an apartment and are very thankful that this beagle loves the lifts. Otherwise, it would be a very long walk on the stairs as we live above 20 storeys high.)
- Stay in an apartment- we've always lived in a house with a garden so it was quite an adjustment figuring out pee schedules and the like. This beagle misses barking at the creatures that visit our garden back in Malaysia. Without these stimulus, I spend my days snoozing more than I used to back in Malaysia. To make up for it, my humans take me for longer walks where I get to socialize with fellow canines, like fellow beagle, Molly.

- Taxi ride...to the vet, of all places!
- Bath in a tub - my humans had to get me a bath mat to prevent me from slipping. Back in Malaysia, I used to have a bath on the front porch - a much bigger, non-slippery floor. I miss the space!



July - Still adjusting to living in an apartment...Couple of misses with pee accidents at home and a bad case of separation anxiety whenever I'm left at home. On the positive side, this beagle had her first outing to Sai Kung, a lovely fishing village in the New Territories as we check out DBDogsDayz for a future stay.


August - Still suffering from separation anxiety. My humans are at their wits end trying to figure out a solution for this problem. Unlike back home, we don't have any family here, so we're on our own...To make things worse, a nasty tabby attacked us as my humans and I were walking through a narrow path to go home after a walk. The cat actually scratched my ear and my human had to clean up the wound. Thankfully it wasn't too deep. As a result, I try to avoid the cat whenever I meet it on the walks, preferring to stay as far away as possible.

September - This was a good month. My human's families came to visit and there was a happy reunion. My humans also got me my own patch of grass at our balcony so I can happily go pee anytime. Aah...the simple pleasures of life.

October - My humans hire a helper so that I won't be left home alone when my humans go out or go to boarding when they travel. Everyone is happy! My humans have started travelling for work and they are relieved that I am well taken care of at home. The weather starts getting cooler and this beagle experiences her first autumn.

November - We get a car finally and this beagle gets to go on more outings. My first trip on our car was to the Aberdeen Country Park, which is now our favourite hiking spot when my humans are not travelling for work.


December - The cold of winter arrives early this year in HK. For a beagle who has lived her entire life in sunny Malaysia, it's a big change. My humans notice that I have more fur on my belly as my body adapts to the cold. I get fleece blankets on my bed and get to sleep in my human's room at night as it's warmer :-). My human's family spends Christmas here and we all have a festive time! Merry Christmas everyone (a little belated, but better than late than never, right?). Hope you had a wonderful 2011 and here's wishing everyone a terrific 2012!

A taxi ride and a visit to the vet...already???

First, the ride...
This beagle had my first taxi ride in Hong Kong yesterday. Now, in Malaysia, dogs are not allowed in taxis. Not so in HK. Animals are allowed in taxis with a surcharge payment of 5 HKD (around 60 US cents). I suppose in a country where most of its residents rely on public transportation, it makes sense that taxis carry canine passengers as well. However, not all taxi drivers like to carry canine passengers as mum and I found out when we tried to hail a taxi. Although the taxis had the "For Hire" sign, some did not stop for us. However, the fourth taxi driver that did not stop for us was a really nice chap. Mum and him were happily chatting about the plant on his dashboard in the limited Malaysian cantonese that mum could speak.

Meanwhile, I wasn't pleased that mum didn't allow me to get on the seat. She said that it's not our car and other passengers may not appreciate sitting on dog fur. So, she made me sit on the floor. Naturally, I tried to get onto the seat. So mum gave me the sit command and as reward for good behavior, I got to eat doggie treats. So that kept me happy throughout the journey.

Then, the vet...
Which brings me to the purpose of this beagle's taxi ride in the first place. My humans decided that a visit to the vet is required due to a couple of pee incidents. The first happened whilst I was staying with gramps before I joined my humans. Gramps had given me a wonderful bath that evening and this beagle was so comfortable that I fell into a deep sleep. The next morning, gramps discovered that I had wet my bed during sleep. The second incident happened in HK. I was sitting in the kitchen watching my humans eat dinner. When I got up, my humans discovered a small pee puddle where I was sitting.

Their conclusion - possible case of incontinence. After all, this beagle is 9 years old. So, that's how we ended up visiting the vet at the HK SPCA. My vet, Dr. Laurie is a very nice German gentleman and immediately put me to ease. Mum told him that I did not like going on the steel table so he examined me on the floor instead. He gave me a clean bill of health on the physical examination. Then he went away to test my urine sample. Fortunately, it was clear too. No case of infection. So, he concluded as my humans did that it was urinary incontinence. He said it was a common issue among female dogs that were spayed when young. So, I'm now on Propalin syrup which mum injects into my food twice a day. I 'm supposed to take it for two weeks to see if that helps me. Chances are I may have to take it for life. Unfortunately, one of the side effects is loose stool. So my humans have been monitoring me to see if I need to "go". They are getting a lot better at reading my body language. When they see me pacing around, they now know that I need to pee/poo.

By the way, thanks for the suggestions and prayers about our situation. My humans is seriously considering gettting a patch of real grass in a box to put on our balcony. They now have to do some research on where to source for that in Hong Kong. Until then, my humans will have to take me down often to relieve myself. Meanwhile they are relying on Urine Off to get rid of the pee odor when I do have accidents (which apart from the Typhoon 3 incident, has been kept to a minimal).

The Bone from Christmas

My humans got me a two-in-one Christmas gift - A Chew N Kleen Knot Bone. You can tell from its name that it serves dual purpose - not only is it for a beagle's enjoyment, it cleans my teeth at the same time!


Naturally, before I was able to indulge in my doggie treat, I had to sit and wait until my humans gave the "OK" command.


So on Christmas evening, whilst my humans were pigging out on mum's homemade chinese barbeque pork (char siu) and Aunty Pat's fried calamari...




...this beagle was busy trying to "unknot" my bone.


This continued to Boxing Day...


On December 27th...At this stage, this beagle was not making a lot of progress. I hate to admit it but my mouth just isn't big enough for this bone. My human took pity on me and decided to "unknot" one end to help me out. My goal was to get to the yummy chicken strip sandwiched between the hide.


On December 28th... I was only halfway through.


On December 29th... I was still at it.


On December 31st... Gnawing this knotted bone sure is tiring!


I hope your Christmas treats kept you as busy as mine did! Happy 2011 everyone!

Pre-Christmas bath

"Kess girl, you need a bath. You need to look good for your Christmas photo..." This beagle's reaction's to my human's dreaded "BATH" word was...

That's right...Crawl underneath the car to escape bath time.


Unfortunately my humans are wise to this beagle's trick and has their own trick up their sleeve. They lure me out with a yummy liver treat. Now you tell me, which beagle, actually let me rephrase that...which canine can resist a liver treat?


Once I was out from under the car, I trodded slowly towards the bath area. Sigh...Outwitted again.


Once I'm in the bath area, I'm a model of good behavior as my humans thoroughly clean me.


Towel time is my favourite part of bath time coz I get to play tug of war with my humans. For some strange reason, my humans think it's funny to drape the towel over me me so that I look like Emperor Nero!


Anyway, after I was nice and clean, it was Christmas photo time. Oh well, a bath is a small price to pay. After all, it's the season for giving, right? Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!Save some turkey for me.

Love Me, Love My Dog

The year sure has flown by! I started the year with the Dog Series and it's been so much fun discovering the various dog phrases and idioms. I thought it would be fitting to end the year with an uplifting dog phrase - "Love Me, Love My Dog". This is one of the rare phrases that actually derives its meaning from the words that make up the phrase. It simply means this - if you love somebody, you should accept everything and everyone that person loves. Simple yet powerful! All our humans can understand that coz we all know that's how they feel about us, their beloved canines.



And so, this Christmas, here's spreading the message of true love - "Love Me, Love My Dog"! Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Thanks to you...

It was a terrific Christmas...thanks to you... Ever since we've started blogging, my humans & I have really learnt from our blogger friends. We've had the chance to see how each of you live, your experiences and culture. It's a great learning experience. But best of all, at least from my point of view (you'll see why in a jiffy), my humans have learnt how to cook for me. Hurray! As a Christmas treat, my humans roasted special meatballs for my dinner. Since they were cooking meatballs for their dinner, they set aside some minced meat for my doggie version. Theirs had ingredients like onions and garlic and seasoning, which supposedly aren't good for dogs.

Human version

You can pop by mama's blog for the simple baked meatball recipe.
Naked aka doggie version

So, I had the "naked" version with breadcrumb and egg. My special meatballs were served in a bed of fragrant Jasmine rice, sprinkled liberally with my Innova kibbles.

My regular meal time routine. Sit and wait until the go ahead is given...

First, there were three meatballs.

Then, there were two...

Burp...


What a terrific treat. And with that, we think that it's appropriate for us to share this wonderful award which we received from Dughallmor Beagles with eight of our pals.


The award, which was started in Portugal states that "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!" In other clearer words, "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I really believe that blogs have brought us closer despite the distances that separate us. We have learnt so much from everyone. Thank you!

1. Amber Mae and her cool sistas from Malaysia - The champions of great food.
2. Lorenza from Mexico - The prettiest and sweetest Daschund we know.
3. Oorvi from India - Master philosopher and creator of cool doggie gadgets.
4. Ari- The Maine canine naturalist aka teacher
5. River from Georgia - who is blessed to belong to a wonderful human who loves and rescues dogs.
6. Happy from Malaysia - who really is a happy doggie and spreads happiness to all her friends.
7. Maggie & Mitch - the Conneticut brother and sister Airedales who are so well loved by everyone
8. Guiness & Shiloh from PA, the 2 big cuties!

I am I because my little dog loves me

From the desk of Kess' Mama:

It's the week of Christmas - what better time to share this quote with you.
"I am I because my little dog knows me"
Gertrude Stein

Note: Without realising it, I actually misquoted Gertrude earlier until Key West Collies pointed it out to me. Thanks Collies. I like my accidental version better too.
"I am I because my little dog loves me"
Eliza Ong

J & I came across this quote on a bench in Central Park, New York City when we were there in summer and couldn't resist taking this picture. All dog lovers can relate to this saying. Since Kess came into our lives 6 years ago, she has brought us such joy. We never fail to be amused by her idiosyncracies, laugh at her antics, sigh at her trail of destruction (only when we are away), and blessed by her unconditional love.

Kess - 4 months


Kess - 6 years


Blessed Christmas to our fellow dog lovers!

Early Christmas presents

The Christmas countdown continues with great cheer! I'm still receiving e-cards from our DWB friends. In contrast to my tons of cards, mum has only received one snail mail card (you can see who has more friends....) from her good pal, Ai. Of course, since Ai knows us well, she has also addressed the card to me since I am such an important family member! Thank you my dear Ai.

But it's not just cards that I've been receiving. I've been given two early Christmas presents in the form of these 2 special awards:




The above award came from Mona & the Mommy too. It is an honour for my blog to be considered a "Dog Blog Worth Begging For". Actually, I would have preferred if the doggie biscuit was edible...but hey, I'll just have to beg mum for the real thing. After all, I deserve it, don't you think?

And to continue the tradition, I would like to pass this award on to:
1. Thor
2. Boo Casonova
3. Agatha & Archie
4. Penny, Poppy & Patches




Next, my Scottish pals, Dughallmor Beagles have given an "I Love Your Blog" award to me. Christmas keeps getting better!

And this award goes out to:
1. King King
2. Cayman
3. Mino
4. Erin, Bubbles & Texas

These awards comes with a poem too (it seems we're on the roll with poem writing...)
To our blogger friends
We bestow this award
Your fabulous blogs
Deserves this reward

Christmas greetings

I have to say, the Dogs with Blogs Christmas Exchange Card has really spurred us to an early start to our Christmas preparation. The Christmas wreath is hanging on the door. Our table Christmas tree is up. Christmas presents are wrapped (the only present missing is mine). My humans have yet to go shopping for me - can you beat that?

We've started sending out our e-cards but have yet to keep pace with the rate of Christmas cards coming in, simply because we want to visit the blogs of our new friends, whom we've never met on-line before we reply. So, please be patient with us. Meanwhile, we also realise that some of our pals are not on the DWB card exchange program or for some who are, have opted for snail mail only. We've decided to post our Christmas card on our blog to wish all you a blessed Christmas.



And finally, a little Christmas poem we made up for all our friends:

It is Christmas time
Let's spread the cheer
We wish you all joy
and a blessed new year

With love,
Kess & Her Mama

Chrismas Mission Accomplished

Thanks to dad's photography prowess, mum's feeding techniques and my modelling skills,we have successfully completed our Christmas card mission over the weekend. My humans used 2 fool-proof techniques for dog photography:

1) Get the dog in a calm state by reducing excess energy. How? Easy...Walk the dog first
2) Use treats. For this session, I had beef bacon jerky...

Notice how both techniques are actually to my advantage? I trained them well :-)

Since outdoor photos work best, we did the photography session on our porch on a beautiful sunny evening. Out came the prop (i.e. mini Christmas tree) and the all important beef jerky treat. Dad is grateful for digital photography as he had to take tons of shots before getting the "perfect Christmas photo". After all, I can't make it too easy for them or they'll be wanting me to pose for all kinds of funny stuff all the time!

After selecting "the" shot, dad had to do some editing to get it "card-ready". We couldn't figure out how to add the fancy shmancy Christmas trimmings (would love to hear from the card experts on how to do this), so this year, you'll be getting the simple version. Mum is now in the process of emailing the cards out. She's decided to personalise the Christmas messages, so it'll take her some time to email it out. Apart from our existing pals, we've also decided that we'll be sending cards out to some "yet-to-meet" friends as well as visiting their blogs. After all, that's the whole point of the card exchange, right? So, look out for our Christmas card and our visit!

P.S. Last night, we witnessed an incredible phenomenon - A smiling moon (we kid you not!). Check out the picture on mum's blog.

Christmas Comes Early

Boy oh boy, I am so excited. Christmas is early this year. Despite it still being November, I've been receiving e-Christmas cards left, right and centre from my Dogs with Blogs pals (some whom I don't even know). And that's really the spirit of Christmas - sharing joy with loved ones and strangers. Thank you so much!

Mine is coming...soon...I promise...before Christmas. So, that gives me exactly 26 days to get it out. The first batch of Christmas photos mum took were duds. Hah...hah...I recall reading about the same experience in some of your blogs. Who said dog photography was easy??? So, she's going to attempt it again this weekend. She may even get dad to do the honours. He's the camera geek! If the weekend pics turn out well, I should be able to get my card out next week. Yay!