My name is Baloo!

Hello everyone! My name is Baloo! I know this is Cooks' blog, but *heh-heh* I sneaked in to say "hi". According to Mum and Dad, I'm about 1.5 years old (nearly two) and was found on a construction site with my brothers and sisters. My doggie parents are "jungle dogs" - maybe that's why my name is Baloo! You know...Jungle Book, Baloo bear...me, my parents, jungle...geddit, geddit? *heh-heh*

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I LLLUUURRRVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE my Cooks. And Mum. And Dad. I think they are the BEST people in the whole wide world! I get a whole house to myself - and Cooks of course. I mean, I get the whole house to Cooks and me. Not Cooks all to myself. Mum and Dad gave me a BIG bed to sleep in, it's the exactly the same bed as the one Cooks has! We have matching pillows too, although I've chewed the corner of mine. *heh-heh*

Cooks and I share a bed downstairs, sometimes he sleeps in it, sometimes I sleep in it. My favourite places in the house is between the chair and the window in the living room. There's a small space there, and I like to lie there when I've had a looong tiring day, and I just want to be sleep. My other favourite place is in front of that same chair, with my back tucked into the chair - this is when I'm just chilling, not when I'm super tired. Sometimes the bed gets too warm, so I need to lie on the floor. And then, there's another spot behind another chair, but this space is a lot bigger. *heh-heh* I have a lot of favourite spots! Usually behind chairs.

Sometimes I feel like being alone, and then I go to my small bed in the dining room - Mum nearly threw that bed out when I grew too big. But she brought it downstairs from the bedroom and then didn't throw it out, so I dragged it to a corner, climbed into it with my bone, and there's been no more talk of throwing out ever since. She keeps saying that it stinks though.

I like eating and playing, but I don't like too much physical contact. Mum and Dad always asks me for a "cuddle", and that usually means getting up close with them. But I'm not sure I like that yet - I've slowly gotten used to it, and maybe one day I will crawl onto their laps. For now, I'm just happiest when they are scratching my back. I like to scoot up close with my bum tucked against them, so that I don't slip and slide around, and then they will scratch my back and my chest. It's very relaxing and makes me want to go to sleep.

Cooks and I play together a lot. Well, *heh-heh* I try to get him to play and sometimes he does, but when he doesn't feel like it, he just bats me away. But I will keep pestering him until he gets up and plays with me. We play chase (he chases me but only when I have a rawhide bone in my mouth) and we play erm...we call it "attack" (that's when we pretend to attack each other - but he gets all worked up and starts barking at me, and I just paw at him to tell him to stop it).

He's very patient with me. He's the best brother in the whole wide...oh-oh! I better go, I hear my name being called...I'll come back again another time.

My new sister

Ok, so it's been more than a year since I last wrote about this new black dog. To be honest, I didn't like her much for a while. She was small and got under my feet all the time. And she smelt funny. On top of that, I didn't want her taking all my food! I mean, I've had to live with Venus the Rottweiler for a long time, like 20 million years, and now that I've got my own routine and space sorted out, this new black dog comes in! Mum and Dad spent one whole afternoon playing with her and me when we got back to the house, but she stayed mostly under the dining table. Silly thing. And then they tried to find a name for her - but of course, they can't name her Cookie, coz that's my name. They tried all sorts of names, a lot of them sounded like Cookie, which Mum kept rejecting. Good on her, because it would only get confusing!

In the end, they decided on Baloo, like the Jungle Book bear. I don't know why they would name a dog after a bear, and look at her! She's tiny! She'd never grow into bear size! That's just a silly name. Baloo. Baloo. Well, I guess it grows on you. I guess.

Anyway, it was then time for dinner, and trust me, I was NOT happy that there is another dog in the house. I warned her away from me with a growl, just so she knows that she's not getting MY food! And anyway, Mum and Dad gave her some biscuits while I got my usual wet food. And mine smells better than hers!

And when it was time to go to bed...oh what a racket she made! Mum and Dad had given her a mat to lie on in the kitchen, and Mum left a small light on in the kitchen. And then we all went upstairs. But less than a minute after we got upstairs, I hear a high-pitched yelp and a whine. So I started barking coz I didn't know where it was coming from! Dad shushed me, and Mum went downstairs to look at Baloo...oh yeah, it was coming from her. Mum was downstairs for a bit, and then she came back upstairs. And wouldn't you know it, Baloo starts yelping and whining again! I told her to shut up, coz we are all going to bed, but she wouldn't stop. So Mum went downstairs again and next thing you know, both of them come back up into the room! Mum had brought up this wire thing and put Baloo in the corridor near the toilet and left the wire thing to keep her in the corridor. So she could see all of us and smell all of us. And was she happy? NOOOO! She whined again! What does she want now?!!

Mum removed the wire thing and put her mat in a corner of the room. And guess what? She's now gone to sleep! Yawn...what a racket. Just because she wanted to be in the same room as us. Grumble, grumble...

But over the next few months, Baloo grew on me. She's quite a sweet young thing really. Mad as a hatter when she wants to play. Mum and Dad have brought us to a few places together, and we quite enjoy each other's company. She disturbs me when I want to sleep, she barks at nothing (and gets me worked up, coz I don't know what I'm barking at), she steals rawhide bones from me when I'm not looking, she jumps at me when we're at the dog park (when all I want to do is chase after the ball), and she keeps making phone calls to me! But that's another blog entry...

Here are some photos of us.

This is a picture of Baloo when she first got home. Look at that rat tail!

This is us at the park

This is the wire thing that Mum bought. She put us 'behind bars' coz we trekked wet paw prints all over the floor.

A new thing

Two weekends ago, mum and dad brought me on a looooong drive outside of our house to an area I'm not familiar with. I didn't recognise everything around me and was not really happy about this trip, but since I was with mum and dad, I didn't complain. Finally, we reached wherever it was that we were going. Dad stopped the car, and we got out in the middle of nowhere! I saw a lot of empty land with piles of rocks, stones and wood but only one building. There were also some plants but they didn't look like the ones in the Botanic Gardens, where we usually walk. I walked up to the one building - it looked like a shop, and I LOVE shops. But mum won't let me go in. She said that there was nothing there...but she doesn't realise that there are SMELLS! She really does have an inferior nose to mine...tsk, tsk.

Oh, and I can hear lots and lots of dogs barking in the background, but there were so many voices that I can't hear what they're saying. I can only catch bits and pieces of their barks. Some were complaining about where they were, some were shouting at me, some were saying that they miss their mums and dads, some were asking for food and walks. What a mess it was! I didn't pay any attention to them though. They were too far for me to take any notice of them.

Then this lady walks out with a black thing in her arms. Mum and dad follow her to a spot just outside of the shop and then the lady put the black thing down on the floor. It turns out that it's a small dog! It's black like me, but doesn't have my handsome ears sticking out. Her ears just flopped over. She seems very nervous when I walked over to sniff at her. Mum picks her up and I walk over to both of them to sniff further. Pfft...nothing interesting. I want to go the shop, that's what I want to do. But mum and dad keep telling me to go play with this small dog. She doesn't seem interested in playing to begin with! She's just sitting there with mum! It's not my fault that she doesn't want to play with me. Now dad has her on his lap, and they keep watching me to see what I'm going to do. I keep pulling at the lead to go into the shop.

I hear them talking to each other - the lady with mum and dad. The lady says that I'm very calm and don't seem jealous of the black dog, and that's a 'good sign'. Why should I be jealous? She's not wanting to go into the shop and she doesn't have any food on her! Besides, I'm sure we're leaving soon - I've just had a big walk in the Gardens and I'm actually quite tired. Don't know why mum and dad have dragged me out to this place! Gran (that's dad's mum) and Aunty (that's the woman who's with Gran - but I don't think she's anyone's mum) are sitting on a bench. Aunty says that the black dog is lovely. Gran doesn't pay the other dog any attention, but she does make a big fuss of me.

A man walks up and shakes hands with mum and dad. And he kneels down to let me sniff his hand. He smells of a lot of dogs, but I figured that this means he's a good man. Then next thing I know, I smell doggie treats! I can smell them in his hand. Dad says to sit, and so I sat. And yes! I get a piece of treat. Then dad takes a bit of the treat in his mouth and told me to take it from him, so I did. The man seemed impressed. So this man takes out more treats and tells me to lie down and roll over - easy peasy! I get more treats from him. This is good! He talks a lot to mum and dad, but he's very friendly and I can tell that he likes dogs. He does all the right things and doesn't jump back or run away, like so many silly people do in the Gardens.

Then mum and dad tell me to go to the car, and made me jump up into my seat at the back of the car. So I jumped up, and mum gave me a drink. Dad put the black dog in my seat with me, but I didn't pay her any attention. She can sit there all she wants. Doesn't bother me. But just as I was getting settled, mum and dad made me jump out again! Sigh. I wish they'd make up their minds. So we go back to the building and I try to go into the shop again but mum told me no. Again. Then we sat around some more, and by this time, I'm getting tired, so I lay down on the floor. The black dog came up to me and sniffed at me, then went away. Mum and dad nodded at each other, Aunty nodded at them, Gran looked away. Then the lady who brought the dog out went away to get some papers, which mum signed. It all seems funny to me, but then again, humans do funny things all the time, so I didn't bother.

Then mum and dad say that it's time to go and I jump up. Finally! We walked to the car, and I get in. This time without the other dog. Get a drink of water and finally, we're off. I jump up with my paws on the back seat and see that mum has the small dog on her lap. I wonder why she's coming with us. But I'm too tired to think, so I'm going to have a short nap before I get back home.

A place called Singapore

After a long time in the small place, we are now in a proper big house. I didn't like the small place anyway, so I won't talk about it. I'll tell you about my new big house...it's much bigger than the other house that I left behind. It's different. More steps, no jungle in front, no wood deck in front or at the back, and no water thing in front. But there is more space for me to run around in.

My other house only had one big floor to run around and there wasn't that much floor either. But in this new house, I got a proper kitchen where I eat my breakfast and dinner. And then there is two different floors - one just outside the kitchen and then another up a few steps. We usually spend a lot of time there - I have all my beds in that room, and that's where we all sit down at night to watch the telly. Here's a picture of me standing up at the place with my beds and telly. Everything else that we had in the other house is now in this big house, so I'm very happy because now I have so much more room to play catch and tug with Dad and Mum.

As for walkies, Dad and Mum bring me to a BIG garden every day. We meet lots and lots of dogs there - big ones like Huskies (I LOVE Huskies!), medium ones like Beagles, small ones like those dogs I left behind (they're called Joey and Cleo). But all of us are always on leads, we don't get to run around free because there are so many people and children walking around. Here we are at the gardens. There's plenty of smells there, and sometimes if there are not so many people in there at night, Dad lets me off the lead and I can run around as much as I want. Dad told me that as long as I listen to him and Mum when they tell me to 'Come', then I can be let off the lead. So now I mostly go to them when they say 'Come'. Unless I'm investigating a very interesting smell of course. Then I have to finish my investigation first, before I go over.

But you know what is new? I've learnt how to swim! Yes! All those times that Mum and Dad tried to get me to go into the water when we were in the other place and I refused? Well, who would go into the water there? It's always so cold! But now that the water we go to is much warmer, I realised that I really like swimming! Dad and Mum take turn to throw my toy - the Frisbee - into the water, then I swim out to get it and bring it back. I also like wallowing in the sand. Here are photos of me swimming and wallowing in the sand. I could go in and out of the water for quite a long time.

We were going to this 'beach' first, and there weren't so many dogs there. Dad would sometimes to into the water with me, but then one day, the water was very dirty and there were all these black things that stuck to my fur, and got all over Mum and Dad's feet. They had to cut out a few tufts of my hair because the black things were all sticky and wouldn't wash off. So we stopped going to that beach. We now go to another beach, where there are more dogs. Not that I'm really that interested in them, because I'm only there to go swimming, not to make friends, really.

But in this new beach, Mum and Dad go into the water with me. That is quite nice, because Dad and I race each other to get the Frisbee first. Sometimes he wins, but most times I win. If he gets to the Frisbee first, he'll hide it under the water and won't show me. He thinks that I don't know that he's hidden it, but I actually do. I just pretend that I don't. It's more fun that way. I just circle him in the water "like a shark" Mum says, until he shows me the Frisbee. Sometimes he throws it even further out, sometimes I steal it from his mouth and sometimes I just sneak it out from his hands. I LOVE going to the beach. It's one of my favourite things to do EVER. I could spend hours and hours (I think that means a long time) on the beach. Well, in the water.

Recently, Mum and Dad threw out my old bed. Mum said that it was was starting to smell more like a dog than I do! Then they bought me a new bed. It's a HUGE bed, I have so much room in there. I also got a new pillow and a new blanket. Here's a picture of me in my new bed. I like this new bed because it's much bigger, but the pillow doesn't scrunch up into a ball, and no matter how much I try to scratch and scrunch the pillow, it keeps going back into the flat shape. Fortunately the blanket scrunches up, so I have to scrunch that up into a kind of prop to lie on.

There's a dog that lives next door to us, and I just don't like her. She was unfriendly to me the first time we met, and always growls at me even when I tried to be friends with her. So I decided that I wasn't going to be friendly with her anymore. I'm always on the watchout for her. I lie in front of the window at the telly area to see if I can see her walking around. Sometimes I see a cat or two, sometimes a stranger or two. Either way, I don't like anyone walking near my house, so I always warn them to stay away.

So, this is my new house. The best thing is just that Mum and Dad and I are together. We like to watch the telly together, even though I usually fall asleep. Sometimes Mum falls asleep too! But I'm a very lucky dog. I get my three walks in the morning, I get good biscuits in the morning and dinners at night. I've got a good bed - actually, I have a bed, a blanket on the settee and a blanket on the floor. I get plenty of sunshine and exercise. I do quite like this new place called Singapore.

My First Day at School

I knew that something was up this morning. I came back from my walk and Mum was downstairs, which is strange as she doesn't usually come downstairs until she is in her 'going to work' clothes. Both Mum and Dad were acting strange and wouldn't settle down into their routine. Usually they would be in the shower and getting dressed in their 'going to work' clothes, and I prepare to settle down for my morning and afternoon naps.

I was getting a bit worried. Something is not right.

Then finally, a big car pulls up in front of the house and a stranger walks up to the door. I don't like strangers, so I start telling him not to come close to the house. Mum and Dad put my lead on, which is strange as I had already finished my walk for the morning. I pull Dad down the stairs to look at the stranger, and when we get to the front door, I see that the car has a LOT of other dogs in there! There were big dogs and medium dogs...and even a small one in front that's a Joey and Cleo.

I was so surprised that I forgot all about the stranger. The other dogs are all talking to me at the same time, so I can't really make out what they're saying. I could make out a few words like "new dog" and "who is that" and "welcome". Just to be safe, I checked out the big car for strange smells, but it's mostly doggy smells, so I calmed down a bit. I also decided that the stranger was okay, so I've stopped barking at him.

Then Dad and Mum bring me to the back of the car and told me to jump up. The stranger was already at the back of the car, and when I jumped up, he took my lead from Dad. I saw a big black dog with curly fur, a noisy black Lab puppy, a small Beagle who seemed a bit shy, a small-ish German Shepherd who was at the back of the lot and two Retrievers. Again, I could hear a few words because they were all talking at the same time.

But then the stranger closed the door, and Dad and Mum didn't come into the car with me! I jumped up at the window and stared at Dad. Why wasn't he following me into the car? Are they sending me away? Why is Mum waving at me? Where am I going? I'm worried now, and I hope I've not done anything wrong! The big car drives me away...where am I going now?

We go round to pick up a few more dogs. I'm now friends with a few of them. They are okay I suppose...but it's noisy. I wonder where we are going? The rest of the dogs don't seem worried, and a few of them seemed to be excited, so I suppose it isn't a bad place.

Finally, we stop at the place that Mum and Dad brought me to a few days ago. There are even more dogs in there! We're now being brought to a big compound and let off our leads to get to know each other. I think there are one or two new dogs like me, who are quite tentative about being around all the other dogs. It's been okay so far...I wonder what else is going to happen?

A couple of dogs came up to me to say 'Hi'. They're nice and friendly. Remind me of Ricky at home - they're Spaniels and full of energy. So we chase each other around a bit, jump at each other a bit, then chase each other again. This is quite fun! But before we got too carried away with the running and jumping, we were then rounded up and put back on our leads. I think it means that we're going for walks. That's good...walks are good!

I'm walked by a guy that I don't know, but it's okay. I think he takes care of us. So we go around the area, close by to where I first hopped off. Then after a while, we were being lead to another area. I sniff the air...hmm, that smells like wet dogs! Lots of wet dogs! Wet dogs mean that there is water. Wet dogs mean that dogs are allowed in the water! Ooooh! Swimming!!! I'm so excited that I lunged at the swimming pool. That caught my guy by surprised, coz I'm very strong, you see (not that I'm trying to boast about my strength, but Dad has always said that I'm very strong for my size). So he didn't expect me to be able to pull him off his feet. Well, not literally off his feet, but he wasn't prepared for my lunge. My friends told me later that they saw him scramble to hold me back on the lead, but I didn't even notice. I was too focused on the water. There was already a bunch of dogs scrambling out from the pool. Is it my turn next, I wonder.

My guy has now gotten control over me and he leads me to the pool, but I don't think he was happy with my lunge. The main guy - he's the one who seems to be in charge - noticed me lunging at my pool and was surprised that his own guy couldn't keep hold of me. Anyway, I'm now allowed into the water. This is so much fun! We are allowed to swim up and down the pool for a while, and all too soon, it was time for me to get out. There is already another bunch of dogs waiting to go in. A few of them look just as excited as I do...I totally understand how they feel! But time's up. Now I'm being towelled dry and then led back to the big area with the rest of the dogs. I tell my friends that I really like swimming. One of them doesn't seem too interested in swimming, but the general feeling is that swimming is fun.

We get to walk around and play for a while. Then the main guy (I think he's the teacher) comes into the area and we're being taught Obedience lessons! He brings his own dog in to show us what he wants us to do. He shows us how to 'Sit' and 'Lie down'...easy peasy. I know that already. So I show him that I can do them. But he doesn't give me a treat. Humph! Mum and Dad always give me a treat when I do what they say! Then he shows us a new trick. It's called 'Heel'...basically, what he wants us to do is to follow him at his legs and stay close to him. The moment he stops, we have to sit down and wait for his next command. Hmm...I'm not sure I like this. Why do I have to sit down when he stops? I can just follow him round and stop when he stops. Do I have to sit? He tries to convince me, so I give it a go, but I'm bored after a while. He told me that I'll have to 'work on it' - the 'Heel' position. But he did tell me that I'm very smart.

Now it's lunch time! I don't usually have lunch at home. Just breakfast and dinner. But now they're serving up chicken with some vegetables (I know this because I'm an expert on food. I know chicken is the white meat, and vegetables is some green stuff that I don't usually like). Yummy! After lunch, it's too hot to do anything, so it's nap time for all of us. My friends and I curl up in one corner to go to sleep.

Yawn...they're making us get up and do some exercise. The small to medium sized dogs (that's me) are being let out to another green patch of grass, with some strange stuff. I'm not worried though, coz Mum and Dad have already shown me those things and I've done a few of them already. There's this round thing with a hole in the middle and you're supposed to jump through the hole. Then there's another thing with a pole across and you're supposed to jump over it. And then here's my favourite - they stick these poles in the ground and you're supposed to go through them one way and then another. Dad tried me out on it the last time we were there. He waved a very nice-smelling biscuit in front of my nose and then he led me through the poles. I think it's called a 'Weave'. We didn't do the jumps, but when the teacher showed me the Weave, I showed him that I already knew what to do. I did miss one or two poles, but he seemed impressed anyway. He's quite easy to please eh?

After spending some time with all the dogs in that area, the teacher and his guys then led us all back to the chill-out area (that's what I call it anyway). We were allowed to play and romp around, then some of the other dogs were put back into the van. I say bye to a couple of my friends. They say that the van is going to send them back to their house. I wonder why I'm not being put in the van. My friends say that some dogs have their Mums and Dads come and pick them up, so they don't go in the van. Oh, that's okay then. I guess I'm waiting for Mum and Dad to pick me up. Only one of my new friends is left, so we snooze a bit.

Then suddenly the teacher came in and put me on my lead. Mum and Dad must be here! That's me just as soon as I catch sight of Mum and Dad at the window. I quickly follow him through the door, and then I see Dad standing outside! Yay! We're going home! Oh, I have so many stories to tell them. I'll tell them about my new friends, my Obedience lessons, my swimming time and my nap time and my activity time.

change again

Just when I had gotten used to my new house and new life, the whole thing happens again. First there were a few strange men that came to my house, and they started putting everything into boxes. Dad and Mum brought me upstairs to the small room while the men were downstairs, although I don't understand why! Then they too started putting things into boxes and bags. It was all very confusing and stressful for me. Which made me really tired...Dad must have been tired too, coz we both fell asleep in the small room upstairs while Mum was still rushing around. She took this photo - see! I'm not the only one who's sleeping!

Then the next day, some strange man came to the house with a van that smelt of hundreds of dogs who have all been in there. Mum and Dad allowed this man to put me into a small wooden cage at the back of the van! What is going on?!! I'm very worried...are they sending me away again? Have I done something wrong? Why are they putting me into this small cage? I don't like it, and why aren't they coming with me?

Mum and Dad waved goodbye to me from outside the van...oh no! Where am I going???

The strange man drives away and takes me to another place with lots of dogs in small houses. I at least get out of the small cage for a while. Next thing I know, I'm put back into the cage and then brought to the noisy thing again. I don't like it but there's nothing I can do. I don't know what's going to happen to me.

I don't know how long I was in this noisy thing, but I'm finally moved out of the cold place and then into a big open room, but I'm still in the small cage. Where are Dad and Mum? Where are they? Where are they? Oh I feel like crying...

Suddenly, two strange men come and move me to another van. And then next thing you know, I smell a familiar smell...no, make that two familiar smells! And then...Dad and Mum are here again! They're here! They're here! We drive around this place for a while, and finally get into a car...but it's not our usual car. And someone else is driving this small car...I don't like it.

Finally, we stop again and Dad and Mum get me out of the car and into this small place. I think it's yet another new house for me. They tell me that it is...and we're now in Singapore. My new adventure begins!

my house

Now, I talked about my little house before right? Well, I've now got a BIG house...I share it with mum and dad. They live up the stairs and I live on the ground floor.

I have lots of my things in my house - I've got a blue bed with a blue cushion (told you my favourite colour is blue!), I've got a blue blanket for when it's cold at night, I've got a paw-print cushion (not blue) that gets put on top of the blue cushion (coz the blue cushion is getting thin), I've got the leopard-print blanket that gets put on top of the chair, and I've got a white blanket with a cushion around it (goes on the chair as well, but then I get to put my head on the cushion, which is very comfortable).

Here's my cushion+blanket thing with my dad. I got this all wrapped up in paper and dad tried to get me to open it but my nails weren't sharp enough, so dad and then mum helped me open it. I wasn't sure what it was at first - was it a cushion or was it a blanket? Then they laid it out on the chair and I could see what it was.

You can see a bit of my blue bed, my pawprint cushion and blue blanket at the bottom right hand corner of the picture.

I also got new bowls - one big one for my water and a small one for my food. I love my food, but you know what I love even more? I love mum and dad's food! Theirs always smell better than mine does - I'm always staring at them when they're eating, in case they feel like sharing some of their food. Sometimes they do, which is great for me. And sometimes they tell me 'No'...then I just stare at them some more, and then I huff and turn away.

Mum told me that I'm not allowed 'upstairs' - that's where they sleep. Sometimes when they're not in the house, I sneak upstairs and lie on the bed coz that's where it's warm and sunny. But I don't know how mum knows that I've been on that bed, even though I don't tell her and she's not in the house...She must be spying on me or something!

We have a back deck at my new house - it's a really great place to stand and see what's going on around me. I can see into other people houses, I can see kids playing, sometimes I see a few cats wandering around. Here's dad and me at the back deck. See the gap in between the two white blocks? I can see into the back garden if I squeeze my head through the gap. And see the small area behind my head? If I put my front paws on that, I can stretch my head round so that I can see what's going on at the neighbour's deck. Dad thinks it's rude, but I'm just curious what they are doing.

There's also a front deck, with a water thing. Dad lies out there sometimes to get the sun, but mum prefers to sit inside. She says that dad's already taken the nice chair. Next to the deck is my private jungle...it's really fun to go in there. There's tall grass and plants...and that's where I hide all my balls and bones. Sometimes when it's too hot inside the house at night, I go out to the jungle and gnaw at one of my bones that I've hidden. This is me in my jungle. Doesn't it look like the coolest place to lie around?

We took a few photos - me, dad and mum - outside on the front deck. I've asked mum to find those photos so that I can put them up here. And since it's my blog, here are more photos of me in my jungle and my walk. There's another one of my with my orange thing (it's called a frisbee), with dad standing off to the side. Mum's finally found those pictures that I asked, so here's the one of the three of us in the front deck. You can see the water thing near us, and a small corner of our car.

Oh, sometimes we get visitors in the house, and sometimes we visit them. Most of the time we visit them, as they have a huge house and garden for me to run around in. There's also a dog called Eddy - she's fun. We look quite similar actually, but she's grey and brown. There are two adults and two small kids. I love kids! The first time the kids came into the house, I was very worried that they don't know their way around, so I followed them all over the house to make sure that they were alright. The bigger kid is a girl - her name is Vittoria, and the smaller one is a boy - his name is Sean. Sean doesn't speak yet, but Vittoria chats away to mum when she visits.

Here's what they look like. That's me in front (mum took the photo before I was ready!), then there's dad. And then there's Vittoria with her mum, and Sean with his dad, and then that's their granddad, trying to get Sean to look at the camera. I like them - they're really nice to me. Yes, I know...it's all about me! And why not???

water! water everywhere!

since i got here, i've discovered a new thing!

it's called a beach! it's made up of sand - which is the ground under your feet. it's strange. sometimes it's dry and difficult to walk on, as it keeps running in between your toes. then sometimes it's wet and very firm. then it doesn't run in between your toes. it feels like any normal ground surface.

then there's water! now as far as i know, water either comes from a pipe or tap like when i was at my little house, or it comes from the skies. i've never seen water that just stays there...and it's a lot of water! it's called the sea, dad says. here's a picture of the sea just before we get to one of my favourite beaches.

when it's not that much water, it's called a river. but there's no sand at the river. it's just very sticky stuff that gets my feet all black. mum doesn't like it when my feet are black. she calls me 'mucky' when that happens.

i'm not sure i like the sea...it's fun when it's hot and i get myself halfway into the water to cool down. but the sea doesn't taste like the river. the sea water is salty while the river water is like the water i get at home. i've been to a few different beaches.

we usually go to mission bay - that's where i get the cold, sweet stuff called ice-cream! at first, dad and mum would give me bits of it with a kind of biscuit, but lately, they've been putting the ice-cream into a tub and i get the whole tub to myself! they really spoil me, but dad says that i'm worth it. i don't go onto the beach that often when we're at mission bay, i usually walk on the path or on a wall. here's a picture of me on the wall.

i've been to kakamatua beach - this was actually my first experience of a beach. i wasn't impressed, as there were no smells to explore. and i didn't know that i was supposed to go into the sea, so it was quite boring for me. there were other dogs at this beach, but they weren't that friendly, so i kept to myself. we've only been there once, and haven't been back there since.

there's muriwai beach - it was quite a drive away and when we got there, we didn't even see any other dogs! it was a BIG sea, and very different from the other beaches. there was a lot of white stuff that came in with the sea and actually, it was quite scary. the wind was blowing so strongly that i couldn't even hear dad call me. i didn't go into the sea, but the sea came out at me! it was far away from me, so i thought it was safe, then all of a sudden, it came rushing up to me and it came up to my chest! got a fright there, so i kept safely out of the sea after that.

here's a picture of me and dad at mission bay beach.

my weekend routine

my favourite times are weekends...because it means that mum and dad spend their whole day with me at home!

and i get to go on my BIG walk in a huge park. here's me at my big park. that's where there are a lot of dogs as well as different smells from the other park. i've made a few friends at the park.

first of all, there's jackson. he's a border collie, black and brown. he's fun and obviously friends with EVERYBODY! everyone tells me that he's Top Dog at the park. i like chasing him round the park...so do the other dogs actually. i've seen his mum and dad too, and they both seem very nice.
i also like rosie, who's a small white and brown jack russell. she only has a dad, and no mum. she's much smaller than me and we like to run around together. she's really bossy, and tells other dogs what to do.

benji looks very similar to me - he's a basenji, a dog of egyptian origins. he's light brown and has a tail that's all curled up on his back, instead of sticking straight up in the air like mine. he tells me that he can't bark - i wonder how he speaks to his owner! he said that he used to have a mum, but she's gone away and now he only has a dad.

i've seen a number of huskies - i like them. it's those eyeeeeeesss....they're very hypnotic aren't they?! there's also an older jack russell that goes to the park with her dad...who smells funny and talks funny. but she's friendly.

what i don't like is other dogs running up to me. it makes me feel threatened, so as soon as they run up, i snipe at them to warn them to stay away. i also don't like are pit bulls and most labs - most of them are unfriendly (although there are one or two lab puppies that i don't mind) and think that they can bully me just because i'm smaller than them. i tell them not to come near me or my mum and dad. they're the gangsters of the dog world...and there are so many of them, they're a dime a dozen. boring!

now me...i'm interesting. at least that's what dad tells me all the time. he says that other dads and mums stop to ask him about me. they tell me that i'm a lovely dog. dad says that i'm handsome! i don't know what those words mean, but i think they're good words. we're still trying to work out what i am, although dad thinks that i've got border collie in me because of my colouring. but mum says that there are no border collies back in malaysia, so i can't be a mix of border collie.


a few weeks ago, we found this orange thing that flies. dad or mum throws it in the air and then it flies for a bit before landing on the ground. i chase it, pick it up and run away with it before they can get it back. sometimes they beat me to it and then they throw it again. i try to catch it in the air before it lands, but it's quite difficult and very tiring.

i also like to roll around on the ground to cool myself on the grass. or if there's an itch on my back that needs scratching. here's a picture of my rolling around with my orange flying thing next to me. mum and dad think that it's funny when i do that.

we went to another park once, but it was quite boring. there were no other dogs there, and mum and dad said that they didn't want to go back there. mum made me take this picture with her - it looks like she's strangling me, but she's not, really. we took this picture at the boring park. dad and mum kept throwing the orange thing for me to run after, while they sat down! how lazy.