Azuki and Puppy-Still-With-No-Name

On Sunday we paid a visit to Travis' new pup, a shiba puppy that unforunately still has no name. A naming contest went around their office, and although more than a few dozen names were suggested, nothing has yet been decided. We all felt strongly that since it is a Japanese breed dog born in Japan, he should have a Japanese name. I suggested names from Japanese anime, such as Totoro (a gray forest creature), Haku (boy from Spirited Away), or perhaps something totally unconventional, like Mo-fo. I mean, can you imagine telling other people your dog's name if he had a name like Mo-Fo? This would come in extremely handy when your dog does something naughty: "Where is that mo-fo?" or "Get over here you mo-fo you!" I don't think I would ever be able to stop snickering.

But since the shiba puppy still has no name, we resorted to calling him "puppy," "dog," "inu," or just, "boy."

Because Travis had warned me that "inu" doesn't seem to like other dogs, I was expecting him to perhaps bark and growl, or at least act a little aloof, when we introduced him to Azuki. However, he actually turned out to be quite the socialite. The pups were a little uncertain with each other first, but after performing the greeting ritual (i.e. butt-smelling), they broke into endless play fighting, pro-wrestiling, and lots of chasing each other around. The Shiba pup was also very friendly and happy to see us humans, although it is teething big time so a couple of times when I tried to pet him, he made semi-permanent indents on my hands. This guy might still be tiny (not even a quarter of the size of Azuki, as you can see from the photo), but what he lacked in size, he made up in fiestiness. He was a bundle of unbridled energy, and if he did't want to let go of a toy or be held, he didn't hesitate to let you know--mostly with his VERY SHARP TEETH. In fact, when we gave him a pig ear to chew on, he liked it so much that when Travis, his master, went over to pet him, he barked and walked away from him. A MAJOR DISS, I would say.

The pups played so hard, that, combined with Azuki's long walks that day, she was utterly exhausted when we got home. I didn't think much of it since she habitually rips around the room until she uses up the last ounce of her energy and falls into a sudden heap unto the floor in a big, loud, thud. But this morning, She was acting lethargic, and I thought perhaps she just needed more sleep, until I realized that she wasn't eating. She had left her biscuit untouched from when Matt left early in the morning, and then refused her breakfast at 9:30am. Now, this is VERY uncharacteristic of our dog, as Azuki usually devours her food in several large, chewless gulps. Although she could be finicky about her treats, she NEVER refuses a single kibble of her dog food.

So with such a food-oriented dog, you can imagine how worried I was when she skipped a meal. But the real panick ensued when I came home and realized that she hadn't touched her cream-cheese filled kong. She also hasn't drank much water all day and was unusually quiet. It was then that I truly believed my dog was going to die.

The possible causes of her inevitable and impending death that went through my mind included:
1. puppy-no-name transmitted some rare and incurable disease because he was a pet store bought dog and of course they all carry the canine equivalent of ebola. (This of course, was not rational because Azuki had all her shots, and if anyone was in danger of contrasting some virus, it was the young pup from Azuki, and not the other way around).
2. Azuki contracted some weird, incurable disease from the poop that she licked on our walk the previous week, or from one of the 1,4937484383 dirt/garbage/leave that she nibbled on from the streets of Tokyo.
3. She caught the canine equivalent of the bird flu from infected pigeon droppings, which she probably also licked.
4. She has bloat, a condition that afflicts many large breed, deep chested dogs like the Dalmatian and German Sheperds, and is extremely rare in small breeds. My dog, of course, would be the unfortunate exception and her stomach has been filled with air which made it twist 360%. She will die of a painful, slow death, suffering until her last breath.

I then thought of what I would do if I lost my dog--the creature that has changed my life forever (or at least for the next 10-15 years), the animal that I love and treat like my first-born.
Much of this blog is devoted to talking about what a bad dog Azuki is, but that simply isn't true, at least not all the time. Sure, there are times that I want to drop-kick her off of our 4th story apartment, like when she is full on ATTACKING ME and my shorts out of excitement when she senses that I am changing to take her out for a walk. But most of the time, I am convinced that she is the cutest pup with four extra long legs that ever walked on this planet. I love her just the way she is.

And besides, if I had a goody-two-shoes pup, she would be totally boring and I would have no materials to work with and no doggie blog. WOULDN'T THAT BE A TOTAL SHAME??

Back to our day: when she still hasn't eaten anything by 5pm, I promptly took her to the vet. The vet poked around, took her temperature (normal), and couldn't find anything wrong with her. She certainly seemed well enough at the hospital, hopping on every person that walked by, wagging her tail, licking their hands and in general just showing everyone how happy she was to be there. They tried offering her some delectable meat-flavored canned dog food, which she showed some interest by sniffing but still would not eat. But because there seemed to be nothing else wrong with her, the vet force-fed her some crushed medication (don't know what it is) mixed with sugar syrup and some high-caloric gel to give her energy.

I don't know what the medication was, but when we went home Azuki seemed more active and then became really gasy. Besides the constant gurgling sounds coming from her stomach, which sounded exactly like how humans sound when they are hungry and their stomach is empty, she also let out a few lound, explosive farts. They were so loud, I heard them while I was on the computer and she was halfway across the room. And for once, this wasn't me trying to blame it on the dog. The dog was passing gas in my livingroom!

After a brief walk outside, at about 9m, all of a sudden Azuki decided that she was hungry and was ready to eat. She ate all her kibbles that I had dropped in her cage, and then a whole bowl of food, plus some. She also took large slurps of water. Azuki was back!

Later on I looked at her medical bill, and apparently, I paid US$20+ for a whole week of medication that she now no longer needs. It seems plausible that the whole episode was a simple case of gas. She was probably just ALL STUFFED UP. I can't imagine how much better the pup must have felt after she let them rip.

Azuki and I had a quiet night, and this morning I woke up to the pup completely back to her former, genki self. Demanding her breakfast at 8am, Azuki engaged in her usual scheme to prevent me from sleeping in--she clicked her toenails all over our hardwood floors, attemped to knock the lamp off of my bedside table, thumped her forelegs at the side of my bed, and ran around in the livingroom banging into furniture.

When the workers came to deliver our dinning table, she subsequently terrorized them by stealing their gloves, digging at their equipment, jumping and licking their faces while they are handling our table made of GLASS, and just generally getting in everyone's way and staying there.

Someone please remind me why I wanted the pup to feel better.

Puppy No Name

Our friend just got a puppy. A Shiba puppy, which is perhaps one of THE MOST ADORABLE dogs as puppies out there because they look more like baby foxes.
When our friend emailed me to inquire about pet shops, I sternly warned him AGAINST having a dog. Azuki is my first dog and prior to having her, my image of my life with a dog would be like us taking leisurely walks, with her trotting in perfect heel position, and stopping to have lunch at outdoor cafes with her sitting serenly and patiently by my feet.

Instead, I have a dog that hops like a kangaroo, squirms in utter excitement when we are in restaurants so I can never eat in peace (always one hand trying to untangle her leash and holding her back from hopping into the lap of the person sitting in the next table, while the other hand trying to shove in as much food as possible in the least amount of time so I can get the hell out of there). Let's just say it hasn't turned out exactly like how I imagined things to be.

But when Travis told me that he agreed with my point--having a demanding full-time job probably means that it is not the best time to have a dog, but that he and his friend would pop in a few pet shops just to "look around," I already knew what was going to happen.

Yesterday, I received an email from Travis that had an attachment of the picture above with only these words:

"dah dah dah DUM.... guess what.heh."

And of course, the only thing to do now is for me to get SUPER PSYCHED because I GET TO PLAY WITH A SHIBA INU PUPPY!!!!!!!!! Matt and I have fallen in love with shiba puppies ever since seeing one tied outside of a convenient store. It was the cutest thing, just like the puppy in the picture above, and was very friendly. Gave us lots of puppy kisses and it was enough for us to decide that they are the cutest puppies in the whole wide world.

Congratulations to Travis on becoming a new dad! Man, you have no idea how your life is about to change :)

The Other Woman

Matt loves Azuki and Azuki loves her pa. In fact, when we both come home from somewhere, and I open the cage door, Azuki barely gives me a glance and runs straight up to her pa, wiggling her tail, hopping, and then flipping into an automatic belly-up position to receive her belly rubs. She MIGHT come to me for about 2 seconds, lick me in the hand and then runs back to her pa, showering him with kisses and squeals of joy. This is rather offensive because as I am basically a SAHMTP (Stay At Home Mom To Pup), I am the one who takes care of her most of the time--I feed her, train her, take her for walks or romps in the park or BOTH, as well as wipe her butt after she poops. Her pa's primary job, on the other hand, is PLAYING with her. On rare weekend mornings when Matt gets up first to entertain her, I often find a dog scratching at my bedroom door 10 minutes later. When I come out, I will inevitably find Matt on the computer reading the latest news on football, while the pup roams around bored to death trying to find her ma. One time, when I heard that scratching noise at my door, I came out and found our pup slung innocently over Matt's shoulders, her eyes still fixated on my bedroom door, while her pa is reading sports online. That is apparently Matt's idea of pup-sitting.

But to be fair, Matt loves Azuki very much, and spends much of of his free time babying her and playing with her. Last night, he spent at least 15 minutes before bed saying good night to the pup, and trying to make sure that the portable dehumidifier/cooler is at a good distance from her crate so she is comfortable.

One reason that he is so smittened by our pup is that unlike the other woman in his life, Azuki doesn't complain when he has to go on a long business trip and she is always estatic when he comes home. A casual 'conversation' with Azuki will never lead to something much bigger and more serious, like "How much longer are we going to be living in Japan?" (which, by the way, the answer has gone from 12 months to 18 months, and the answer now remains 18 months no matter how many months actually passed. So it is always 18 months away). The pup is already spayed, so she will never get cranky during certain periods of the months when hormones rage, and starts to ponder outloud on the meaning of her life, demand to know how much he really loves her (and if he indeed loves her as much as he claims, then why are they still in Japan?) and acts totally annoying and pretentious while quoting lines about how her life is standing still from highschool-required readings(Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird). In other words, Matt appreciates Azuki's utter devotion and enthusiasm, which comes without the complicated baggage that is human emotions.

This blog entry is dedicated to pup pup's pa--thank you for putting up with your two females and shall we say, our quirks ;)

Papa Teaches Azuki New Tricks

Matt is in the middle of teaching her new tricks too, like the one in the picture where he is trying to teach her to stand on her hind legs. Azuki has incredibly strong hind legs, and we believe that one day she can learn to twirl in circles on her hind legs, like a circus dog. He is also playing a game with her where he hides in another room in the apartment with a treat, and then whistle for her to come. Azuki very quickly learned that finding pa pa means getting a treat, so it is really funny to watch her whip her head around, running from room to room, trying to find her pa. We have realized that her hearing is good, but she is not very good at figuring out which direction the whisle is coming from. So you see her panicking, running in the opposite direction, desperate to get that treat.

This exercise actually explains a lot of Azuki's barking behavior at home. Azuki is not a nuisance barker, and she hardly ever barks outside of our home. However, she is very protective of the home and she will bark at even the slightest little noise which she thinks is coming from outside of our door. The problem is, because she can't tell which direction the noise is coming from, EVERY NOISE to her is coming from outside our door. This can be very annoying, and we try to curb it with a stern "quiet!" command. She will eventually settle down, although I don't actually think she is learning to stop barking on command yet.

Look at how long her body is in the photo!

Rainy Days

Although the official rainy season is over in Tokyo, it has been raining heavily every day for the past few days, and will continue to rain all next week. Both Azuki and I detest rainy days. For Azuki, she is stuck at home and cannot go out to play. For me, I am stuck at home with a bored, hyperactive puppy.

I bought Azuki a rain coat so we can still go out for short walks when the rain isn't so bad. She is not a big fan of the rain coat, but I am even less a fan of walking her in the rain with an umbrella in my hand, leash and bag in another, bending down and trying to pick up her poop, all at the same time.

The other day when it rained HARD and we couldn't go out during the day, I had to come up with innovative ways to entertain her. One thing I have always wanted to do was to teach her how to play dead. But Azuki is a strong-willed pup and she does not like to roll on her side or roll over on command--she only does it ON HER TERMS, like when she wants a belly rub. Even with treats, it was really really hard to convince her why she should roll to her side. So the whole exercise basically went like this:

1. I have her do a "down"
2. I use my hand to make the gesture of a gun, and yell: "Bang bang!" Except I do it in the way Japanese people imitate gun shots, which sounds almost French: "Biang Biang!"
2. Then, I hold the food close to her nose so she can smell it, then tries to manipulate her head so her body rolls over to the side
3. That technique doesn't work because she keeps trying to get up and get the treat, so I give up and just manually roll her over to her side, hold her down, and give her the treat and a very very enthusiastic "Good girl, Biang Biang, Good girl!"
4. I repeat the idiotic exercise over and over again.

When I showed Matt this new trick at home later that night, he almost died of laughter, "She is not doing it! You are just turning her over!"

"Yeah but this is the only way to show her what I want her to do!" I said defensively.

Azuki turned out to be a bright student, and after a few more times, she started to do it on her own. Except when she rolls to her side, she doesn't stay still like she is suppose to, but wiggles all 4 legs in the air because she is trying to get at the treat. So instead of "play dead", it's more like "play half dead injured struggling to stay alive."

But either way, I am already proud of what we were able to accomplish.

I think Azuki is well on her way to becoming a movie star ;)

Mosquitos Galore

There are many things that I sacrifice for my dog. For one, I wake up at the crack of dawn, when I hear her scratching at her crate door in the livingroom, itching to get out to either pee or just to be a spoiled brat and continue sleeping by our bed in our air-conditioned bedroom. I am also very dedicated to her exercise regime, rousing myself in the DEAD HEAT of Tokyo summer to go for long walks twice a day, once during mid-morning and once during early evening. When I come home from our walks in the mornings, I am usually soaked in sweat and dirt, exahusted by the heat, and must take a shower before going on with the rest of my day. Anyone who knows me well knows that I DETEST hot, humid weather, but I put myself out there because I understand that dogs, especially hyperactive ones like Azuki, needs to get out regularly to walk and explore new smells. It's a major commitment of my time and energy, but I prefer to suck it up and do it as oppose to have her bounce off the walls at home. A tired dog, as the saying goes, is a well-behaved dog. I cannot agree with that more.

But the one sacrifice that I did not expect to make is TO HAVE MY FLESH EATEN ALIVE BY MOSQUITOS while I am out there. I have taken to cover myself completely with insect repellent, but I ususally still manage to get at least 2 bites per day. That means at any given time, I am itchy and uncomfortable with big, red, FLAMMING bites on my body. Not only is supremely uncomfortable, it is also very unattractive.

Whenever I complain to Matt about this, he smugly reminds me that he never gets bitten. Why he would tell me that while my body suffers through bouts of itch mania is beyond me, but I think there must be a little footnote in that marriage contract (it was in Japanese, so who the heck knows what it actually said) which denotes "When the spouse suffers, smirk and make a sarcastic remark about her suffering." This is in stark contrast to when we were merely dating, when if I ever pouted about anything (and I pout a lot), I surely would have gotten a "awww...poor baby!" and a few pats on the head. Okay, I didn't mean to overshare to induce vomit, but people often ask me if married life is different from just dating or living in sin. I would say that your everyday life does not change, but one major difference is the lost of sympathy from and for your partner. If your partner suffers from something totally embarassing, like passing gas loudly in public, instead of pretending that you didn't hear anything and go on to make meaningless conversation to save the other person from utter humiliation, you would just roll over onto the ground, laughing, pointing, and stating the obvious. Hyperventilating at the same time. Ah, the joy of holy matrimony.

Anyhoo, it is actually true that Matt never gets mosquito trouble. Even when he gets that rare bite, it disappears by the end of the day, as if his body ABSORBS it because he has some sort of special anti-bug immune system going on. He attributes his special mutant X-like ability to fend off bugs that suck your blood to growing up and constantly outside playing in the outbacks of Hawaii, which I guess would make him more in tune with mother nature.

Well, I am not so lucky to have THE FORCE be with me. One day I took Azuki out to the park at 11am, not protecting myself thinking that it is still too early for mosquitos to be out. Boy, was I wrong. While I was outside, one mosquito came at me with a vengence, a hatred so deep that left me wondering if I had perhaps squashed its mother in the previous day. I felt uncontrollable urges to scratch both of my entire legs. When I looked down, I saw that the mosquito had bitten me several times, and was in the process of working on aother. I tried swapping away, but it always evaded my hand and ended up on another part of my body.

When I came home, I counted, and ended up with 10 mosquito bites in total. Not 1, not 5, but 10. Each one was scarlet red, swelling, and all in the process of expansion. The itch was so bad, I momentarily believed that I need to either amputate my legs or get rid of the dog, because 1) I am dramatic and 2)of course, it was all the dog's fault. Well, when I came to my senses, I did neither, but decided to apply some old-fashioned tiger balm that I bought in China town combined with some aloe vera to relieve the symptons.

My little East meets West concoction worked well, but it was still not a pretty sight. I took a photo of my leg just to prove that IT REALLY WAS THAT BAD. The picture doesn't do the actual condition justice because it only shows one leg.

Go ahead, say it with me. DAMN.

Making Friends

Azuki has made lots of friends at the nearby square which I take her to romp around off-lead. Almost every day at sunset, dog owners with dogs of all breeds and sizes congregate there to chat while their dogs sniff each other, play with each other, or just sit around quietly and enjoying the scenery.

Azuki has become quite popular there, because she is friendly with every human and canine alike. She has so much energy that she can usually wear out a few dogs before she gets tired, so they appreciate the fact that Azuki helps them exercise their dogs. They also find it incredible that I let her run around like a wild animal, running through bushes, rolling in mud, eating grass and dirt...and calling her back to get treats only when she strays too far. I am, in fact, only letting Azuki be who she really is--although I do dress her in ridiculous outfits, I never forget that she is a dog and needs to be fulfilled in a primal way. In one of her previous lives, she must have been a cheetah, because she certainly runs fast enough. No dogs so far has been able to catch up with the elusive Azuki, who darts in and out of bushes and dashes off, flirting with the boy dogs who tries to pounce on her.

The above pictures are two of her poodles friends. The red one's name I cannot remember, but the gray one is called Junior-chan. They are both friendly dogs who love to play with Azuki. Well, the female red poodle likes to play, but Junior is more interested in just humping Azuki. Mind you, he is only about half of her size, but is extremely bold and frisky. EVERY SINGLE CHANCE he gets, he tries to hump her. His owner and I have to peel him off of my poor pup. Azuki always looks a bit confused when this happens.

I know in the dog world this is probably a dominant gesture more than anything, but I simply do not like to see a boy dog hump my girl dog. She is still a teenage pup, which would be equivalent to statutory rap in human legal terms! And although she is a bit wild, she certainly isn't an easy gal. Well, at least I wouldn't think so. We will never find out since I had her spayed at 6 months, so the poor thing will never quite experience true womanhood.

Believe it or not, mainly due to Azuki's influence, the owner of the two poodles are sending her dogs to the same puppy kindergarden! I never thought Azuki would actually pose as a GOOD role model...certainly not as advertisement for good training. But I guess it's more of her sunny disposition that attracts people. All in all, she is a high-maintenace, at times exasperating, but very good-natured pup with lots and lots of love to give.

The Real McCoy

I bought this adorable little doggie beanie baby for myself, because I thought it was shoooo cute. With its wiry, shaggy brown hair, it looked just so slightly like our own pup. In fact, when Azuki was 8 weeks old, she was only slightly bigger than the stuffed toy.

When I got home, I made the mistake of putting the shopping bag on the ground, and before I knew it, Azuki had dug it out, wrestled with it, and was in a very serious attemtp to gnaw its little button nose off. Basically, she had claimed it her own. Now that she had slubbered all over it and made it smell like a real dog, I wasn't about to take the stuff animal as my bed buddy. So I whipped out the camera and did the next best thing. With some treats, I was able to convince her to pose with her new best friend and mini-me.

Meet Azuki the Red Bean, and Beanie, the beaniebaby!

Azuki meets grandma

My mom was in town for a week, and Azuki finally got to meet grandma.

It was also the first time that my mom saw our new apartment, the one which we moved to, for the dog. Our previous apartment was not dog friendly, and it simply got too stressful to try to hide a fast growing puppy.

The first thing that came out of grandma's mouth when she walked into our place was to comment on how messy it was. Now, I may not have cleaned especially for my mom's arrival, but I certainly didn't think it warranted the "how can you live like this??" kind of look on her face. I guess I had just gotten so used to all of Azuki's stuff laying around on the floor that it didn't seem strange to me that a casual survey of our small livingroom rendered at least 3 raw hide chews, 4 different stuffed squeaky toys, 2 cages, a snuggle puppy, and a doggie pillow. Not to mention that I had just mailed ordered these "piece rugs"for dogs that were suppose to compile into one large rug. Well, I never figured out how to make the pieces into one whole, so they also just laid around all over the livingroom floor.

My mom also couldn't undertand why we gave up our previous apartment in prime prime location, with air-conditioned, covered skywalkway to the station, nice department store with posh supermarket in the basement, litearlly connected to our building. Well, it is true that our old apartment really had its share of perks. On days when it rained, was hot, or when I simply felt lazy, I could shop (both for groceries and for clothes) in the adjacent department store, browse through fashion magazines at its bookstore, or get food, coffee, or dessert in one of the 12384837 restaurants/cafes that were either in some way connected to our building or within 5 minutes walking distance. Although it was convenient, for some reason it was amazingly quiet.

Apart from location, the service in the apartment was impeccable. There was a trash room on every floor. Our downstairs reception was not a crocikly retired old man, but a group of young Japanese women wearing UNIFORMS, which varies with season (gray for fall and winter, and pink for the spring and summer). They signed for our packages, took our oversized trash, let in our guests, and even would take dry cleaning if we wished. They were especially nice to us after I bribed them with goodies from our travels, like chocolate and honey covered macademia nuts from Hawaii and mooncakes from Hong Kong. Living there made things seriously way too easy on us.

We gave it all up for a crazy dog that play bites the hand which feeds it.


Back to the initial meeting: When my mom first walked in, Azuki ran away for a bit in fear. For some reason, she is always a little wary of strangers entering our house. But that usually lasts only about 5 seconds, because she doesn't take long to warm up, and she will usually start to jump on the guest and attempt to lick them right and deep inside their nostrils. In this case, I quickly gave my mom a few kibbles to feed her, and Azuki took about 3 seconds before deciding that grandma shall become her new best friend.

For the next three days, Azuki would follow my mom around, sleep by her (while I am in another room), and generally act like a big baby around my mom, prompting grandma to conclude that, Azuki is pretty adorable after all, and concede that I didn't permanently ruin my life for getting that damn dog.

The morning of my mom departure, she got up at 5am and Azuki followed her aorund, standing and lying around quietly, looking up at my mom with puppy eyes and half flipped back ears (one ear is always flipped out for some reason).

"Do you think Azuki knows that grandma is leaving? She has been really calm and quiet and just looking at me this morning."

"Um, " I replied, still rubbing my eyes at 6:30am, "I think she is just tired." In fact, inside her pea brain, instead of predicting my mom's imminently departure, she is probably thinking, 'Why you gotta get up so early, woman!??'

My mom called the next day after she got back home, to tell me that she misses.... the dog. Not me, her human daughter, but her canine grandchild.

That dog.

Weird Proportions

One of the first things that people say to me when they first see her, or seeing her for the first time after a long time, is to exclaim in disbelief: "She has such LOOOONG legs!"

And it's true. For some reason, after about 6 months or so Azuki's legs and body started to grow disproportionately with the rest of her body, namely, her strangely small head. In fact, Azuki grew in stages, and not all body parts at the same time. When she was a very small pup, she had this seemingly enormous head because she had a small body. Then, her body grew LONGER, but her legs remains short and stubbly.

We thought she had stopped growing at around 6 months, but we were wrong. After she was spayed, her legs and body suddenly grew another few inches! I had read that spaying/neutering before the growth plates closed would result in a slightly taller dog, but I didn't expect Azuki to have ALL LEGS. Now, this would be very desirable if you were human...but in a dog this means that instead of a round and cuddly dog, I have a skinny, gangly pet with a tiny head. She is like a dog on a stick figure. Sometimes when she is just standing there I swear she is almost SLOUCHING over, acting like an awkward teenage girl who is trying to make herself look shorter than she really is.

As much as I love my dog, I can also be very objective and say that Azuki looks kinda weird. Still cute of course, but in kinda a funny-looking sense. There are definitely many toy poodles who are so much cuter--smaller, rounder, NORMAL LOOKING poodles, and I can't help but wish that my dog would look like them. Not that dogs actually realize or care what they look like, I guess it's just me projecting my own vanities on my dog--just like I can't help but wish my boobs were bigger.

Her pa, however, insists that Azuki is the cutest, and loves her all the same. He thinks from the way people react to Azuki (always stopping her and telling her how cute she is--and it is true, she is a babe magnet), Azuki should be a inu (dog) model despite the fact that her body is so long she has to wear clothes made for the long-bodied Dockson sausage dogs. In many sense that is enormously comforting--I married a man who can accept imperfections in the creatures that he loves.

Now, if my boobs were only bigger...