Blackout!!

I sleep in the living room with my animals...that are...3 dogs, 2 cats and 2 fish...well, the fish don't really sleep with me but their tank is in the living room and they are right next to the couch I sleep on.

Millaii sleeps on her favorite couch. Ginger and Anko somewhere on the carpet, depending on the temperature of the room.
One of the cats sleeps on the couch with me - as they don't get along, or rather, my older female cat doesn't like Toby - on a first come first served basis.
I deserted my bedroom when I started fostering Millaii and Anko, it would have been too crowded with this kind of population.
My couch is pretty big and I'm tiny so I have no problem sleeping there. In fact, it has become pretty comfortable now I sleep well on the couch.

Early this morning, probably around 5 am, the power went out.
We were all asleep but things went silent with a little clicking sound, and that woke me up.
There is usually a street light coming in through the glass door ....now there was no light.

It was totally silent after the filtering system in the fish tank had stopped working, and the TV, phone, and the DVD player....they were dead, too.
The kitchen went silent, too - the fridge, the microwave....

I didn't realize that all those electric devices were making sounds. The noises they make are usually unnoticeable with human ears.
But once they are gone, everything gets so quiet and still, you will notice how much noise (or vibration) they create even when they are in the sleep mode.

I liked the stillness.
I knew sooner of later somebody would fix the problem so other than the food and drinks in the fridge, I didn't have much to worry about, and I was sitting there in the dark and silence determined to enjoy this serenity.
Yes, there were cars in the street but so early on Saturday morning, there weren't many.
It was nice.

I checked the animals and surprisingly, they didn't react to the blackout at all.
Well, when you think about it, there was no reason why they should panic.
It's darker and quieter - they must like it better.

Anyway, eventually I went back into sleep on the couch and when I woke up again at about 7am, the power was back.
It's a good thing to have dogs, at a time like this. You will know if you should worry about it or not by looking at them.

If your dogs look relaxed and sleepy, why should you worry about anything??

Speaking of relaxed and sleepy
Millaii - a skilled pillow user napping on my couch

=================================================

ANKO and MILLAII are up for adoption. They need new homes.

I am fostering them until they can find nice new owners.

They are current with their shots.

Millaii will be spayed on 10/13. Anko will be spayed sometime in November.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in either Millaii or Anko (or both), or if you have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in them. We live in Cypress, California. 15 mins from Disneyland.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of "Millaii"

PLEASE also see the profile of "Anko"

Pig for a snack!

Every day after the morning park and walk, I give the girls little treats at home.

And the treat has been

the "Pig Ears"

OOOOoooooooo~
Spooky, huh.

When I saw this at COSTCO, I couldn't believe my eyes. Pig ears...
We must be in China or something to see this kind of treat.
It says on the bag "All natural 100%, Naturally smoked", etc.
Sounding very healthy and like a high quality treat.

I bought it. Just couldn't resist it. I wanted to see what a "pig ear" looks like when it becomes a doggy treat.

Here we are.

The Pig Ear!!

It does look like a pig ear the way anybody would imagine it, only, it's HUGE!!

These ears must have come from giant pigs.

And are those purple lines their veins???

It is really gross indeed.

Do the dogs like them?

YES.



The dogs seem to like them, and as they are huge and hard, it takes a while before they can finish them.

They are nice treats that way. The fun time lasts quite a long time.

They are very crunchy so I think they may be good for their teeth too.

Who likes the pig ear the best?

Millaii!!

She holds the ear between her paws and takes it down from the top to bottom in an organized motion. She even cleans up a little mess of crumbs so diligently, after she is done, there is no evidence of the pig ear. The carpet looks spotless! 

Who likes them the least?

Anko. She has a hard time breaking them into pieces.

Who wishes he was a dog so he could eat the pig ear too?

Toby

Toby keeps making holes in this bag. He can at least get a little flavor on his teeth?

=================================================

ANKO and MILLAII are up for adoption. They need new homes.

I am fostering them until they can find nice new owners.

They are current with their shots.

Millaii will be spayed on 10/13. Anko will be spayed sometime in November.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in either Millaii or Anko (or both), or if you have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in them. We live in Cypress, California. 15 mins from Disneyland.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of "Millaii"

PLEASE also see the profile of "Anko"

 

Wet, Wet, Wet!!

Last week we hit the record-high temperature of 113 degrees.
Now it's COLD!!!
And WET!!!

It seems like every morning we wake up to the gray sky.
Well, actually overcast if fine with me. It's much easier to walk dogs when it's cool than when it's hot.
But, WET is totally another story. It is never appreciated if you have a dog to walk, or if the dog has to go outside to go to the bathroom.

This morning it rained again and I, as a leader of the pack of 3 dogs, had to take them out at some point.
I put on my hoodie, on top of my long sleeved sweat shirt, jeans, thick socks, and got the very excited girls out.

We drove to the dog park first

It started out as a walk in a gentle drizzle. 15 mins into the walk, it started raining. Officially, again.
We kept going as always.

The dogs seemed fine although their coats were getting wet of course.
My hoodie was absorbing moisture by the minute and I started feeling cold underneath.

By the time we finished an hour-long walk, we were all wet.
Head to toe.
I was happy though. The walk itself was good.
The dogs walked very well together and it was harmonious. I enjoyed watching them trying to sniff on wet surfaces so enthusiastically.  Very cute.

Soaked head to toe

When we got back in the car, we were again, very tired.
I turned on the heat and we tried to warm up and dry. The dogs gradually collapsed on the car seat and closed their eyes.
I closed my eyes too.
After about 10 mins in the car that was filled with the wet-dog smell, I finally felt warm to the core again, and started driving.

Anko and Millaii in the back. Inside of the car was steamy!



Ginger still alert after the walk



=================================================

ANKO and MILLAII are up for adoption. They need new homes.

I am fostering them until they can find nice new owners.

They are current with their shots.

Millaii will be spayed on 10/13. Anko will be spayed sometime in November.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in either Millaii or Anko (or both), or if you have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in them. We live in Cypress, California. 15 mins from Disneyland.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of "Millaii"

PLEASE also see the profile of "Anko"

Dog Park Debut!

Am I pushing it?

The last 2 days we were at the dog beach.
Today we went to the dog park!
For Millaii and Anko, it was their first time to be at the dog park!!.....only.....well, it was raining. And there was nobody in the park....

We have just had the record high temperature of 113 degrees here in SoCal. That was only last week.
And now it is COLD!
Today it was already heavily overcast in the morning.
I was very easy about it thinking "Great! It's going to be a cool day! Maybe we can play at the dog park"

As the morning progressed and by the time I had finished dropping the kids off at school, it had started drizzling.
Well....drizzle is fine. We can still play.
We took off to the park. Excited and happy to just think about the fun time we can have there.

By the time we got there, it had started RAINING. Officially.
There was nobody in the dog park, or even in the whole park.
We only saw some cleaning workers who looked at us in a strange way as if they were thinking "What is that crazy woman doing in the park with 3 dogs... in the rain???"
I won't blame them.

I pushed ahead. We entered the dog park area and tried to play in the wet and empty grassed area.
The dogs seemed interested at first, then gradually realized everything was wet, and wanted to get out of there, out of the rain.
I won't blame them.

Although the rain had gotten lighter by then, it didn't seem like we could have any fun even if we had stayed there longer.
I decided to walk around the park instead. 3 dogs at once - something I had never done before.
They are all good walkers. Millaii and Anko, who had never been walked before they came to me, have learned how to walk with a person very quickly, and they both look forward to the walk every day.

But walking 3 at once is another story. They get excited and competitive. They may pull in different directions.
So I had been reluctant or not brave enough to do that before.

Well, if it doesn't work we'll go home, and walk separately...I thought.
We started walking together.

Amazingly, they are doing very well!
Keeping a slow pace, and very calm.
I was very happy to see them that way.

We walked around the park for about 40 mins, then got back in the car.
We were all wet and tired, especially me....but hey, we've proved they can walk together! Beautiful!
Worth the wet and dirty car seats!

I will definitely bring them back to the park when it's a better weather.
It's much quieter in this area than our neighborhood. Maybe I will make this a routine and come here everyday.

=================================================

ANKO and MILLAII are up for adoption. They need new homes.

I am fostering them until they can find nice new owners.

They are current with their shots.

Millaii will be spayed on 10/13. Anko will be spayed sometime in November.

ANKO (7-8 months old, Female)

Millaii (about 2 years old, Female)

Please e-mail me if you are interested in either Millaii or Anko (or both), or if you have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in them. We live in Cypress, California. 15 mins from Disneyland.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of "Millaii"

PLEASE also see the profile of "Anko"

Day 2 - Dog Beach!!

Well, I didn't have any plan for the day so I decided to take the dogs to the beach again.

The same beach as yesterday, the one in Long Beach.
Today my kids wanted to go to the park, and my husband was going to do that.
I asked my neighbor's daughter, Jodie, who is 12 years old, if she wanted to come and she said YES!, so 2 people and 3 dogs. Much more room in the car than there was yesterday when we had 4 people and 3 dogs.

It seemed it was much windier on the beach today than yesterday, but still nice and warm enough.
We had a good time again.

Anko got surrounded by a few guys. Nothing happened but today, she seemed to me as if she was on the man-hunt.
She kept chasing after boys, big and small, dark and light, and she kept barking at them constantly - Maybe her hormones were driving her crazy.

Tension between Anko and a beautiful stranger

Millaii had fun chasing Ginger while Ginger chased the ball.
Millaii would run with Ginger after the ball but it was really Ginger that she was chasing and not the ball.
I didn't understand why Millaii was doing that but that's what Millaii did most of the time we were there today - Chase Ginger.

Millaii enjoyed chasing Ginger

We saw a few people and their dogs whom we saw there yesterday.
Some said they lived close to the beach they went there a few times a week.
I wish we lived closer to a dog beach so we could go there more often.

Well, I guess a 30-min drive isn't bad at all I shouldn't be complaining.

All in all, was another great trip to the beach.

We all had fun.

Look at Anko's happy face! 

And Millaii's smile!

Ginger and her orange ball are inseparable!

=================================================

ANKO and MILLAII are up for adoption. They need new homes.

I am fostering them until they can find nice new owners.

They are current with their shots.

Millaii will be spayed on 10/13. Anko will be spayed sometime in November.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in either Millaii or Anko (or both), or if you have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in them. We live in Cypress, California. 15 mins from Disneyland.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of "Millaii"

PLEASE also see the profile of "Anko"

 

Dog Beach!!!!!!

Now that Millaii and Anko are current with the shots, they can go to public places like dog parks and dog beaches, except Anko is in heat I have to watch out for her.

Today was Saturday, and we didn't have any plan. Naturally we decided to go to the beach as we always do when we don't have anything to do. Beach is always a great idea. Never a disappointment.

Just get there, be on the sand, soak up the sun, smell the ocean air, and you feel better.

Since Ginger came into my life in December 2009, every time I go to the beach, I go to a dog beach with her.
No leash. Ginger loves it. She loves finding a fast runner who can keep up with her (she runs like the wind!), and racing with him.
I love watching the dogs at the beach having fun. They are all happy, it clearly shows on their faces.

I decided to take Ginger, Anko and Millaii to the dog beach in Long Beach.
I would be Anko and Millaii's very first time at the beach!

My only concern was that they may get hostile towards other dogs out of fear, and with Anko being in heat, all of the "unfixed" male dogs would get turned on by whatever she is doing, and chase her.
I had never seen how female dogs in heat and unfixed males dogs would act with each other, I wasn't sure if Anko would be safe there with other dogs, or if I should even take her to the beach.

Well, I went anyway. I took my kids, and I had asked a friend of mine, Michiko, to come along and help me, so she came too.
2 grown-ups, 2 kids and 3 dogs in my 1996 Camry - wasn't exactly what I would call a fun ride, but we got there safely.

To my surprise, the beach wasn't crowded. In fact, it seemed like there were much fewer people (and dogs, of course) than I would expect on a Saturday.

Good!

I first let Ginger off the leash. Then Millaii, and lastly Anko.
We watched them look around, walk, run, smell and ......smile.
Anko and Millaii was just fine. They looked very happy and excited.
Millaii ran with Ginger chasing each other for a long time.
Anko enjoyed sniffing small dogs that passed us by.

Millaii looks very happy!

  Anko and Ginger stroll on the sand

Sure, a few "unfixed" male dogs visited us, or rather, Anko. They persistently followed Anko, or rather, Anko's butt.
Sniffing so excitedly....one of them got his paw on her back and wanted to get on her. She screamed "NO!!!" and the poor guy's owner had to pull him away by his collar.
Over all, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, and Anko had stayed intact.
But my, my, my...sniffing one in heat out of all the dogs on the beach...Those doggy noses are really something!

We threw some balls and Ginger and Millaii had so much fun chasing and catching them.
Anko was busy watching other dogs and going over to say hello.
Both Anko and Millaii were very good with the others. No aggression, only a little bow-wows and woof-woofs.
Beautiful!

Fun! Fun! Fun!!!

Anko watching other dogs

These girls are social, well-behaved, gentle and fun loving. Good dogs!

It was worth going to the beach. Just finding out what great dogs Millaii and Anko were was so worth the efforts and worries.
I'm so happy they are alive.
That's all that counts today because they are still here in this world.

=================================================

ANKO and MILLAII are up for adoption. They need new homes.

I am fostering them until they can find nice new owners.

They are current with their shots.

Millaii will be spayed on 10/13. Anko will be spayed sometime in November.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in either Millaii or Anko (or both), or if you have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in them. We live in Cypress, California. 15 mins from Disneyland.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of "Millaii"

PLEASE also see the profile of "Anko"

  
 

Anko - Female German Shepherd Mix - 7 months old

Anko is about 7 months old. She came from the same house where Millaii was.
Millaii and Anko are adopted/ sisters. Millaii plays more of a mom's role to Anko than a sister's though.

Anko is also sweet and affectionate, but in a more reserved way than Milllaii.
Anko is always at the back of the line when she waits for a treat with the other dogs, or when she is called, she hesitates a little bit before she comes running. She is dying for love though. She is always watching me and follows me everywhere while keeping a modest distance behind me. 

Anko had never been walked before she came to me. She was confined in the backyard of her former owner all her life, with the other dogs he kept there.
I started walking them as soon as I got them. Both Anko and Millaii liked walking very much right from the beginning.
They tried hard just to keep up with me walking - they didn't stop, sniff or even look around, they just kept walking. They were so cute!

Anko is also extremely cat friendly. I have two cats, Maj and Toby.
Toby is a fearless one who grew up with Ginger, and he plays with Anko and Millaii too. Maj is a much older unfriendly cat and she doesn't like anybody. Anko leaves Maj alone when she growls at her. Anko simply backs away quietly.

Anko was first very scared of my children, 7 & 5 year-old boys. She was sensitive with the sounds they made and sometimes was bothered by them. But she got used to them during this month, and she is perfectly fine with them now.

Anko is a medium size female and weighs about 40 lbs.
I got her shots so she is up-to-date with them.
Anko went into heat around 9/17. So the whole cycle should be over around mid December, I guess.
Obviously she is not fixed yet.
I was originally going to spay her in October but because she is in heat I have postponed it until probably mid-late November, to be on the safe side.

Anko is current with her shots.
She will be spayed sometime in November.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in Millaii, or have questions, or if you know of anybody who may be interested in her.

You can foster her for a few days to see if she is a good fit for your family. I will always take her back if you decided she is not the right pet for you.

PLEASE also see the profile of Anko's sister dog "Millaii"