FUR-rocious

Azuki is a belligerent pup. When we play with her, she will express her enthusiasm by play growling and play biting us.

I suppose her out-of-control playing style is partially egged on by me and Matt, who routinely whips our pup into a frenzy by playing rough with her. Matt will get her all riled up and then body slame her on the ground, rubbing his smelly hair on her belly, which he says is his way of "showing his dominance". Although I think it really teaches her nothing, except it makes our dog smell like his hair grease.

As for me, I am no innocent bystander either. One of my favorite games with our pup (which probably only I find it so darn amusing), is to use my shirt sleeve or her large snuggle puppy stuffed animal, and whip her back and forth (LIGHTLY of course!) across her face, screaming, "BITCH SLAP! WHO IS THE BITCH? WHO IS THE BITH?" and then I would follow that by a very animated: "FOREHAND! BACKHAND!" All the while, I would be making sideline commentary to Matt, like "hey hey, isn't that really funny? Get it get it? She is a BITCH, a female dog? Get it?"

Matt would always roll his eyes and give me this look like, yeah soooo funny, obviously there is only one crazy bitch in the room but it aint' our pup, woman.

Pictorial Part Duex

After I rescued my DVD, Azuki turned her attention to her toys. First, it was her little innocent bunny:



Then, she thought it would be fun to rip her soccer player stuffed toy around:


grrrr........


Ears flapping, now she is getting really into it! GRRRRRRR....GROWWWWLLLL I WILL SHAKE AND SHAKE UNTIL YOU SPILL YOUR GUTS OUT!

Azuki has the attention span of a 3 week old baby. So she quickly moved on to her next victim. The football:

Can you actually see her hopping in the air? She kind of blends into our brown door and brown hardwood floor:



MINE. ALL MINE.

Pictorial Part 1

The afternoon started out innocently enough...



But ma was on the internet again and ignoring her, so Azuki decided to amuse herself....


She went through our DVD collection, and believe me, the sense of irony is not lost upon me when she picked out "The Dog Whisperer" by famed dog behaviorist Cesar Millan... When I scolded her, she simply looked at me like that, as if saying, "What??"


She chewed its corner.....

For those of you who might not be familiar with this guy, he has a hit TV show on the National Geographics Channel, where people write to him begging him to come to their house and help them with their badly-behaved dogs. I had gotten the DVD when Azuki was a puppy in desperation to find some sort of easy solution.

As you can see, once a rebellious pup, always a rebellious pup.

It All Makes Sense To Me Now

Me: "I have never seen another dog Azuki's size with so much energy. Why did I end up with such a crazy dog?"

My mother: "Because her mom [that would be me!] is crazy. Poor Matt! He has to deal with two crazy girls."

Me: "........"

Azuki and I may be both a little crazy in the head, but we are also both crazy about our Shujin*.

To Azuki's pa: Despite everything, these three years are BY FAR the most fulfilling, happy times of my life. Happy Anniversary!

*Shujin, in Japanese, means "Master". It is the word for a dog owner and dog, but also describes the relationship between husband and wife. Matt loves that word.

The Pup That Shall Not Be Named

For the beginning of the new year, her yochien (kindergarden) sensei (teacher) writes in her doggie memo pad:

"Year 2006 was an enjoyable time. Together, the staff and Azuki, with her unimaginable energy and power, played and trained together. For Azuki's remaining time in Japan, we hope to work hard together again!"

The word "sozo dekinai" literally translates to, "cannot be imagined". This was used to describe her activity level.

I can't believe at one point I thought our pup was going to be lame.

I can't believe out of all the puppies in the world, we ended up with Azuki, the most genki little dog that ever trotted on this earth.

New Favorite Place on Earth

Taking a break from playing...

A Spitzer called Kuma-chan. He really does look like a bear!

Her little buddy Lea-chan. A gray toy poodle puppy. She is still a baby and runs around like a hopping bunny:

Running with ears flopping in the wind:

Coming to an abrupt stop, with hind legs high up in the air:

Running towards the camera, expecting a treat!

Azuki's new favorite place on earth is also nearby our house. I had discovered it randomly one evening while walking her, and heard a bunch of dogs barking. Azuki, always nosy about what other dogs are up to, led me to an old shrine where part of it is en no longer used sumo ring. Apparently every evening dog owners from all over the neighborhood gather and let their dogs off leash, despite two big signs at both entrances of the park that says "Under No Circumstance Should You Let Your Dog Off Leash"

This place is even bigger than Ebisu Prime Square, with more dogs, more grass, and all of it is in mud. This means that Azuki has that much more fun romping around, barking at other dogs to play, and eating grass/branches/garbage... She is always exahusted afterwards which works very well for me.

Now we alternate between The Jinja and Prime Square, depending on our mood.

I know much has been said about just how much Azuki likes to run (running is definitely her preferred mode of movement. Her personal motto in life being: "why walk when you can run?") And finally, I have caught some of it on film. The best moments are the most elusive ones, however, and I did not have the chance to catch that moment which would have certainly made doggie history, when she ran so hard and fast that she tripped on a rock, and did a back flip 360% in the air, then landed squarely back on her 4 feet. She was confused for about 1.2 mil seconds, and then literally shook it off, and kept on running.

Also missing on film is when she whams her head straight into a brick wall or a door, while sniffing the ground, or bouncing around in general. Usually instead of checking to see if she is okay, Matt and I are pointing and laughing. Don't worry, she has a really hard head so it doesn't seem to hurt her at all. It does make my day, however. And makes having a dog totally worthwhile.

Causing me to delete paragraphs of email at a time

The Tale of Two Cities

Let me just start off by saying that this is a belated post. How late it is? Hmmm...about 4 months or so?!?

A few months ago I had a semi-breakdown, well documented on this blog (isn't it lovely how neurosis is fully exposed on the internet, open to anyone and eveyrone to read?), where I told Matt that I am THIS CLOSE to packing up my bags and leaving Japan. The conversation sort of went like this:

"Where would you want to go?"

"I don't know. Anywhere but here. I am so OUTTA here." (Arms crossed, back turned. Pouting.)

"Why?"

"BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE IT THERE. Do I need a logical reason? Does my feeling not count for anything? Must I defend the way I feel? THIS ISN'T HIGH SCHOOL DEBATE!"

"But isn't it true that many would be so envious to be in you shoes, I mean, you don't have to work, I don't expect you to do anything, really, and you get to live in a different country, learn a different culture, and a different language? Maybe you should see this as an OPPORTUNITY instead of something negative."

"What kind of Bull-SH*T is that? If you tell me that I should feel lucky one more time, I am going to pounch you in the face."

".....(silence). Okay, if you feel that strongly about it, I'll talk to A-san. I will ask to be transfered to New York as an office manager." Translation: I'll give up my high-profile job with immediate exposure to the CEO being well-recognized for my efforts, doing exactly what I love and always dreamed of, and upon YOUR request, I will sacrifice it all and order office supplies and make coffee so you can hang out with your friends.

Of course, once he puts it that way, I shut up. What wife wants to be THE ONLY REASON why her husband does not reach his career ambitions? Can I really ask him to give up the one thing that he wants most, and not expect him to resent me for it later? Everyone thinks that I am the pushy one in the relationship (come one, admit it, you think it too) because I am loud and like to speak my mind, and that may be true, but you also can't deny that all the big decisions in our lives have been really geared towrads Matt's liking. Okay, the obvious reason is that Matt earns money and I don't, but sometimes I am not sure if my seemingly innocent, self-sacrificing husband is just the best, most cunning mind player in the world.

Well, it turned out totally coincidental that we were actually being considered for transfer to either the London or New York office. And NOT as an office manager (come one, isn't that the most ridiculous line of self-pity that you have ever heard?).

At that time, our two options both seemed doable--I had lived in London, tiwce actually, as a student, and thoroughly enjoyed both experiences. However, I wasn't sure if London was a place that I wished to reside, as an adult. It was, after all, another culture that I would have assimilate into, and make new friends (my friends were all students at the time). We would have to get new bank accounts, new credit cards...etc. All small things but add up to be quite a pain. On the upside, it at least in English, and the proximity to continental Europe can possible mean...weekend excursions in Paris?

New York, however, was the obvious first choice. I spent 10 years of my life in New Jersey, and therefore am already familiar with the city. I had always wanted, and in fact, always thought I would one day live in New York. My best friend Katy from high school told me the other day that she had re-read what I wrote in her senior year book, and it had said something completely horrendous, like "I will see you in NYC with our nice bags and shoes!"
Teenage years are such an embarssement.
I have MANY friends there, from all stages of my life since this seems like the one city that at one point or another young people live and work in. I also have close family there. Although East Coast living is not the same as laid-back California, we wouldn't have to open new bank accounts, would be able to rent and drive a car, develop relationships with doctors, and actually receive all of our mail and packages instead of having them sent to our mothers, who then have to mail them to us.

Another major consideration is, of course The Azuki. Since she is such a large part of our lives (we often feel like her servants. Like our purpose on earth is to fulfill her needs), I also had to consider dog-friendliness of those two cities. For me, it was down to: sure, both countries seem to love dogs, but what about their pet services industry? Are they ridiculousl? Totally unecessary? Completely insane to most people? Well, if they are not all of the above, then it just wouldn't do for our pup.

A quick search online revealed numerous doggie daycare, doggie grooming salons, dog runs...etc, but much more so for New York than London. For me, the answer was clear. New York was not only going to be the easiest place to transition for me, it also would be for our pup. She has a really good life here in Tokyo, and New York seems to be the one place that she will be able to maintain her opulent life style. Plus, there is no quarantine regulations in New York or any other mainland US states, while for the UK a 6 months preparation must be done ahead of time in order to avoid a lengthy quaratine. If Azuki was ever quarantine for 6 months because she was missing one document, I would never be able to forgive myself---being shut off from the world for that long...she would undoubtedly emerge a different animal.

So fast foward a few months and here we are, only about a month away from moving. There is a lot of mixed feeling--of course I am happy to be going back to the US, but at the same time, there are many things that I will miss about Tokyo. I also wouldn't rule out coming back to Tokyo one day, although that would take A LOT of financial incentive for us to do so.

So Azuki's adventures will continue, in the Big Apple. Stay tuned!

Happy Belated Holidays!

Azuki and I didn't do much to celebrate the holidays. Christmas was spent quietly at home, and she got to go out plenty and run around like a pup on crack, as usual. Then, she came home and slept while Matt and I went to celebrate in nice restaurants ;)

For New Years Matt and I went to Taiwan to see my family for a very brief trip. The night before we left we dropped her off at her usual puppy school, and before we knew it Azuki was wagging her tail and happily bouncing up the steps with the staff members, not even glancing back as we left. Matt and I stood outside of the glass window trying to catch her eye so we can wave goodbye, but she didn't even care that her ma and pa are leaving. She was looking up at her new friends (even though the staff weren't even her regular trainers, she doesn't even know them) excitedly anticipating joing her pup pals, and did not look back at us, NOT EVEN ONCE.

All we saw was our disloyal pup's backside.

In Taiwan although there were definitely some pampered-looking pets, but I also saw many unloved and hungry strayed dogs. I fed some left-over dumplings to a very skinny black dog who came to me looking for food, his ribs showing from starvation and hair and skin visibly suffering from some sort of skin disease. Like many other stray dogs that I saw, he was wearing a collar, signifying that at one time he had owners, who later decided that a dog is too much trouble and abandoned him.

Before I had Azuki, I didn't really think much about stray dogs--growing up in Taiwan meant that I saw many, and it never really affected me. Having my own pampered dog, however, suddenly gave me a love for not only dogs, but all animals, large and small. Now I can't even watch the trailer for the new Lassie movie without tearing up---I get so emotional, which is totally silly, because I can't even undertstand the voice-over in Japanese, but I'm like, Matt, the dog walks from ENGLAND TO SCOTLAND to look for his beloved young master, will Azuki do the same for us?? Matt would glance over and be like, arrgh, NO, she would look for the nearest warm lap and take a nap instead.

I wanted Azuki to realize how lucky she is, that there are many, many dogs out there who doesn't have the good fortunes of being born in Japan, and ending up in OUR home. In fact, there are many, many PEOPLE out there who don't have half as much as the pup has---a comfortable, warm bed, easy access to food, clean water, and , like, primary education. And there is our dog, sleeping on heat pads, 100% all natural cotton beds, eating the best food, getting expensive haircuts, and EVEN GOING TO A PRIVATE KINDERGARDEN, which she doesn't even bother to work hard enough to graduate.

So, I sat the pup down for a tete-a-tete education her on the plight of animals and human kind around the globe. She looked at me, with her tilted, like, oh look, mommy is talking to me again as if I have a freakin clue what she is saying. I wish she would stop doing that.