Some Things Never Change

Whether in Tokyo or New York, Azuki behaves very much the same at home:

Azuki standing on pa's lap, peering at me to see what I am up to. The pup does not like to miss a beat:



Sun-bathing in new york. Thank goodness we will get some sun in our livingroom. Where would the pup sun-bath otherwise!?



Another thing that she did a lot in Tokyo, which she does with even more zest now is barking at the door. We have had the fortune of having corner units for both apartments, which means that although there are many units on the floor, we really only have one next-door neighbor. This is good for us beceause Auzki is highly sensitive to the noise outside the door, whether real or imaginary. She has given herself the role of watch dog, and will bark in that annoying high-pitch yelp that people often negatively associates with small breeds. Well, there is a reason why people stereotype small dogs as yappy---because it's true.

In Tokyo almost all apartments have double doors, which significantly block out the noise. In New York, however, the doors are very very thin, and we can hear everything outside the door. For example, when I pass by our neighbor, I can always hear the kids playing, people speaking, and even my neighbor WASHING THE DISHES. I can hear dishes clonking against each other! Through the flimsy doors!

So it drives Azuki into a frenzy whenever someone comes home, leaves the house, or simply LIVING THEIR LIVES next door. Lucky for us it just happens that our lovely neighbors, a family of 5, have three small, rambunctious children, with very outgoing and social parents who ALWAYS seem to have friends and kids over. People who often drop by as far as I can tell are maids and nannies (probably their own and that of their friends'), other moms and their kids.

We met the kids the other day and the kids were excited but scared to see Azuki. They were like, "hey that's the dog that ALWAYS barks at me when I come home from school! I bark back at her though!"

Great, so now Azuki is known as the yappy little dog on the floor. But it's good thing that when she met them, she was the perfect little dog. She barked when she heard them through the door but as soon as we opened the door, she was calm and passive, laying down like I told her so the skiddish kids can quickly pat her and then run away, then come back, squeal in both fear and delight, and touch her again. The mom complimented how sweet Azuki is, and the kids got to see that the ferocious-sounding little beast is really just a ball of fur whose only defense against intruders would be to lick them to death.

Despite all her flaws, Azuki really is a very good-natured pup. She is wonderful with children, even when aggressive little bully children try to pick her up by her back legs, which she obviously won't like because of her bad leg. She has never shown any displeasure at them harassing her, only occasionally try to hide behind me or look at me with sad eyes. I try to protect her of course, but the tricky thing with kids is that you have to try to be really nice to kids even when they are not nice themselves--it's not like you can be rough with a child to protect your dog, although some parents seem to think it's okay for their kids to be rough to other people's dog. Thank goodness that most children are lovely, and the sight of happy children squealing in delight when she licks their fingers, or when toddlers who can barely slur the words "doooggiiiie" try to smooch her head into their armpits to give her a hug (always unintentionally suffocating the poor pup), is truly heart-warming. Something about children and dogs just go hand-in-hand, don't you think?