Mia is two!

Time sure flies. Before we know it, Mia turned two this month. What does it mean for her and our household? She is taller and has overtaken me, Kess in height. But more importantly, she has started to mellow. My humans used to wonder at her incredible amount of energy. They always said that Mia doesn't gradually grow tired. She used to be hyper, hyper and then she knocks out...zzz... But now, Mia is so much calmer. She still loves to play (aka doggie sumo wrestling) and chase me or our other doggie pals. She is still as affectionate as ever. But she doesn't have that crazy high level of trouble-finding energy, for which my humans are thankful.

Happy Birthday Mia!

This is how we celebrated Mia's birthday:

A walk at our favourite country park

Playing with Ms. D, Mia's Jack Russell pal

Chilling under the sun

A steak birthday dinner

Kess and Mia - best buddies

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!

 

 

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!

 

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!

 

  
 

Kess and Mia - Doggie sumo or play?

 

 Kess & Mia's Mama:

It's been four months since Mia joined our family. Kess and her have found their rhythm. Mia rejuvenates Kess with play, and Kess teaches Mia by leading by example. A good partnership indeed! One of the things that both dogs love to do is doggie sumo. Now that Kess's lump on her head has been removed (and no cancer!), there is no more risk of bleeding on her head,We let them have a play and when it gets out of hand, we call for time out. Both beagles tired by then have a snooze!

 

First Mia, then Kess

From the desk of Kess' mama:

In the last 2 months, both our beagles have undergone surgery. Mia went first as we had decided to get her spayed after we took her to the vet for a check-up. We are aware of the benefits of spaying a female dog - reduction of risk of breast, ovarian and uterine cancer, as well as reduction of risk of unwanted pregnancy. Kess was also spayed, so it made sense to spay Mia too.

Mia was rather disoriented post-surgery, which is normal.

 

She did not like her buster collar, which was normal too as it got in the way of walking, sniffing, eating and playing. Plus she kept bumping into Kess each time she tried to play with her big sis, which Kess did not like...Thankfully, it did not stop her from enjoying a lie in the sun.

After a week, Mia was recovering beautifully and we we were able to remove her buster collar, which was a great relief to Mia (and us) and life was back to normal again for our happy-go-lucky beagle pup.

 

Next, it was Kess' turn. As Kess grew older, she started having lumps. A few years back, she had a wart-like lump on her left hip. We had it checked out by Kess' vet in Malaysia and at that time, it was not deemed to be a concern. It did however grow larger over the years. Earlier this year, we noticed two lumps, one near her left eye and one on the top of her head. Again, we got it checked out by Kess' vet in Hong Kong and at that time it was still quite small and not deemed to be a risk. However, the lump on her head got aggravated as Kess and Mia had their doggie sumo wrestling, as I like to call it. Mia would usually initiate their play/fight/wrestle and both dogs would head-butt, nip and chase each other around.

This sometimes result in bleeding, and then it would scab as the wound healed but it would occur again when they played next. Since the lump had increased in size, we consulted the vet again and decided to go for surgery to remove all 3 lumps. It was a tough decision due to Kess' age, and let's face it, nobody likes putting their dog through surgery. But it was the right thing to do.

I have to admit I was shocked when I picked up Kess post-surgery yesterday. Unlike Mia's spaying procedure which is on the belly, Kess' stitches were very visible as they were on her head, face and hip area. The cuts and stiches were also longer than I had anticipated, which looked worse because her fur was shaved around those areas. She looked like a patch up doll - my poor Kess. The upside was that she was full of energy, grabbing onto her leash, eager to go home. In the car, she knocked out and pretty much slept the entire journey home. Once home, she was hungry and wanted her dinner - she had to fast before the surgery and missed out on her breakfast. We were only supposed to feed her half her normal meal at 8pm but she was so hungry that we relented and gave her meal at 6 pm. She was still hungry after her half portion, that we gave her the other half since she did not seem to have any problem with keeping her food down. Anyway, the fact that she had her appetite was a good sign.

 This morning, Kess woke up early - because she was hungry! Typical beagle. She seems to be back to normal and is able to go for walks. We try to keep Mia from disturbing Kess too much. Mia misses her play mate! Kess' stitches looks less red today. Similar to Mia, we take pictures of Kess' stitches each day so that we can compare the recovery progress daily. Kess' lumps have been sent to be tested for cancer and we will know the results in about 4 weeks time. We pray that all will be well with our dear old beagle.