The Suitcase is Just Another Big Toy

The pictures above were actually taken before Azuki's surgery, although this might well have been last night when Matt was packing for a trip to Hong Kong.

Azuki has a weird fascination with luggauge of all sizes. It is probably because she generally just like to get in the way when we do stuff that does not involve her, because God forbid we are not paying attention to her, and also there is just much joy to be had jumping in and out of a big bag while digging furiously at pa's carefully organized, counted, and placed socks and undies.

This is in stark contrast to my packing style, where I am always trying to just shove in that extra pair of shoes and skirt, "just in case we go to a nice dinner." My philosophy is that since your stuff will get strewned around all over the place anyways when they handle your lugguage, there really is no point trying to make everything neat. It is the reason that I try to never buy any clothes that need to be ironed--or just wear heavily wrinkled skirts/pants--hey when you sit, they get wrinkled anyways, so what is the point?

Matt, however, packs much in the way that he approaches life: disciplined, organized, and always well-thought out. He has his shirts dry-cleaned so they would be neatly folded and packed in pastic wrappings, perfect size and shape for ease of travel. He is also able to somehow pack in a whole week's worth of work shirts, a suit or sometimes two, and everything else in just in a medium-sized suitcase. This means that he must be extremely selective about what he takes and also very exact about each item's placement. Everything in his bag is placed with much forethought, in neat little piles where they meant to be. And somehow, harmony is restored in the universe.

So you can imagine his frustration when The Pup begins her frolick by jumping in and out, digging at his socks, and messing everything up.

I must admit that I like to be a bystander and watch such episodes unfold, NOT lending a helping hand untile Matt screeches, "Can I get some help here?" while fighting off the pup from chewing his suit jacket and trying to close the suitcase as fast as possible.

The reason is that I don't like it when Matt has to travel for business, which he does a lot. However, I have been in the business of being wife-to-international-finance-type for long enough to know that I have no actual say in the matter. Matt likes to create the ILLUSION that I have some chioce in his business plans, but when he asks if it is okay for him to travel on thanksgiving(that's right!), two weeks in NY, I know what he is really saying is that "I am going no matter what, WOMAN, I am just doing this so I come off as gentlemanly and thoughtful and not a total ass to leave you in a foreign country to attend thanksgiving party by yourself with my co-workers." (okay, actually, I am going with Julie, whose fiance also abandoned her because he is going to Hong Kong with Matt on thanksgiving. Can you just IMAGINE all the complaining that will be done when we have a few sips of wine?)

Hey, I like to complain, but I know very well that Matt's job is also the reason why I can buy stroller and birthday cake for our dog. But that doesn't mean that I can't be perversely amused why I see Azuki making a playground out of Matt's carefully-arranged suitcase.


Good job to naughty Azuki! ;)

Azuki Finds Solace in the Cold

One of my loyal, u-hum, readers, emailed to ask if Azuki is doing okay, since I haven't updated the blog.

Actually, I have just been a little busy with work, and being lazy in general. There hasn't been anything dramatic (no new injuries, no diarrhea or puking), and although she does have a really annoying habit of barking a lot in the evenings, generally Azuki is just enjoying her life with use of all 4 legs.

Although she still hops a little bit when she is tired, or when her muscles are stiff in the early mornings, most of the time she uses her bad leg very well. Her new trick, now that she can use her leg again, is to rush to her pa when he comes home, barking like a mad dog, and then stand up on her hind legs while her front legs furiously paws at his pants. She will keep doing this until he acknowledges her and picks her up or give her a few pats, and then which she will starts to run around the room in excitement, in hopes that he would chase after her and start a hide and chase game (by far her favorite thing in the whole wide world, ranked in conjunction with chicken jerky on a editable tendon stick).

We have decided that Azuki is, well, there isn't a less crude way to put it, a total attention whore.

As autumn winds down, the weather sometimes gets very cold in the evenings. Because she is a little spoiled brat and her ma and pa dote on her like she is a baby, of course we are all prepared for the cold weather.

She has a doggie blanket that is very warm. But, how do you teach a dog to sleep UNDER, not ABOVE the blanket??

The funny thing is, although we have discovered that it isn't natural for dogs to eat cake, Azuki makes it clear that it is perfectly natural for dogs to be tucked in under a warm blanket at night and ACTUALLY STAY THERE. When the temperature is low, the pup doesn't move at all and stay under the blanket until the morning. She doesn't even bother to get up when her pa gets up at 6:00am to get ready. She only hops out of her warm, comfy bed when he is about to leave, because she knows that he always gives her little dried fish snacks when he leaves the house. It's their morning ritual.

But then after she eats and pees, she will come right back to bed. Until the sun properly comes out and shines into our kitchen door, in which case she will move to the door and sunbathes until I get up (she lets me sleep in more now! yippeee!)

Here is some evidence just how comfortable she is being tucked in, human style:






Matt also came back from NY with a present for our pup--a Texas Longhorns football fleece! It is totally stylish, black with a little orange longhorns sign. Now pa and pup can match during football weekends. How cute is that??

Happy Birthday to Azuki!

Azuki turned 1 year old on 11/4. This is indeed a milestone, because 1. when she came to us at 8 weeks, she was so unruly that I wanted to return her, and 2. After she was diagnosed with her leg condition I thought she would be a handicapped dog forever.

It turns out that we have decided to keep her, and her surgery was a success and she is now as good as new. Better than new. Azuki now lives everyday as if it is her last.

At 1 year old, she has technically reached adulthood which should mean that she should be calming down quite a bit. But we know how those technicalities work. It's called, I DON'T THINK SO. On the contrary, I think Azuki is really as crazy as before, except she needs less sleep now so she spends more time driving us crazy.

Her pa babysat her for an entire day on her birthday because I had to work, and afterwards he admitted that the pup is certainly a lot of work. Basically, she woke him up in the morning, and then proceeded to disrupt his afternoon nap by running around the room, pawing at him on his couch, and playing with her toys REALLY LOUDLY. When he finally decided to get up and take her out for a walk, she did what she usually does with me EVERY SINGLE DAY, twice a day---she attacked his pant legs, stole his socks and ripped them around in her mouth, then tried to bite his hands when he went to get them back.

But you see, the tale doesn't just end here. When he got ready, he decided to use the bathroom first. Well, that just wouldn't do for our pup, so she does what she always does to me WHEN I DON'T CHANGE FAST ENOUGH---she paced around, looking pathetic, and whined while her poor pa sat helplessly on the toilet.

Matt usually has the patience of a samurai conducting tea ceremonies (it takes 30 years for a Japanese person to perfect the art of serving tea. I am not kidding), but even he totally lost it and told me that he got really pissed at her. Instead of feeling sorry for him, I actually thought it was really funny. He is always telling me that I need to be more patient and there he is losing it with a 6 pound puppy. hehehe

Despite her crazy antics, we celebrated her birthday in style. I went to the Three Dog Bakery, a bakery just for dogs, in Daikayama to get her fancy dog biscuits to hand out to her pup pals at the park. She also got a birthday cake, which looked and smelled soooo good.

Unfortunately, no one seemed to be very interested in these fancy biscuits. Azuki didn't even seem that interested in the cake. I guess all that natural, wholesome ingredients just means that it doesn't taste as good as a good old, supermarket-bought liver treat or chicken jerky. It was disappointing that the dogs didn't take to the treats as i had hoped, but I comfort myself by thinking that it is not a complete waste of money because AT LEAST I CAN POST PICTURES ON HER BLOG and have them laugh at me. Heck, the world we live in might be marred by war, corporate scandals, and global warming, but I can at least contribute my little part in providing a bit of distraction and amusement to my loyal readers (hi mom, hi matt's mom!) , with pictures of a dog turning her nose up at a birthday cake.

So here it goes, her birthday goodies!

(I ended up giving the left-over cake to the obasan living downstairs, since she has given me so much stuff, and also her dog seemed to like anything that is edible. The dog loved it!)

The biscuits that no one seemed to like....but look how yummy that looks!!!



Azuki's b/d cake. Isn't it amazing?? It's got the personalized bone too!


Azuki was more interested in the camera than the cake:



So her pa had to point out that, hey, here is your birthday cake, you silly dog. LIKE IT ISN'T NATURAL FOR A DOG TO EAT CAKE!?!?


It even came with a candle:



Finally takes a few slurps of the icing. She only liked the icing!


Afterwards she gets a bit of birthday cuddles: