Life with Azuki, the crazy puppy: 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!!!