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.