simple things.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

oreo the cookie NOT 2

From the mere 6 lessons which cost $280, oreo was toilet-trained. she learnt basic commands like sit, down, up. (some funny couple taught their puppy to "sit down". their pup must have been confused) somehow she also learnt the meaning of "gai gai", "mum mum", "drink water" "oreo go", "oreo come", "oreo bye bye", "oreo wait". how smart. she also learnt how to walk. as in..bringing dogs for walks..that kinda walk. cuz not all dogs would wanna move when leashed. she was so curious about everything she dares to walk on all kinds of surfaces (yes not all dogs dare to, cuz those u see on the streets are the daring ones). till today, we are still trying to teach her "oreo bang bang" so she will lie down on the floor and pretend to be dead. sometimes she's so smart she would struggle her legs before she goes "dead". she still needs some time to process the three words though.

During her first 4 months, she had to go through the pain ( or shall i say, the itchiness) of SCABES. some kind of skin infection. she could scratch herself for full 3 minutes while whining and moaning. it pained us to see her like that. it didnt help when we called Pet Stop to ask for advice (we are first time owners). All the person told us was "she feels itchy so she scratched herself." like..DUH. we were not satisfied with the answer so we brought her down to the same pet shop, and they said it was just flakes and it will go off after a while. so we let her be like that for about 2 weeks. the scratching became worse, she can scratch throughout the night. eventually, we brought her down to a vet. there, she was diagnosed with scabes. the infection was hidden so deep in her coat we didnt notice. she had it on the tummy, her ears, her lower front and hind legs. it's like some skin peeling with little traces of blood. the areas infected had bald patches. but her coat was too thick to be noticeable without close examination. soon, she recovered.

her unglam sleeping photo

I forgot to add that she had diarrhoea too.

Also, during the first 4 months of her life, her skin and coat was rather bad. THANKS to Science Diet. (though we added calcium and vitamins to boost her bone strength and immunity) Her fur was dry and her skin was sensitive. Her poo poo smelt damn bad. So under the advice of a few pet shop owners, we changed her food to Azmira Lifestyle Lamb. After she adapted to the new food, we added Pinnacle Hollistic Formula with Omega-3 etc. Within 2 months, after she was totally detox-ed, her fur became super shiny and soft. No more tangles too. For your information, there are actually many pet shops in Singapore that refuse to sell Science Diet because they know it is not good for the dogs. Azmira and Pinnacle use real meat to process the food, while Science Diet, surprisingly having more than 100years experience, uses ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS. Yes. Chicken head, feet, intestines etc. Totally damaging to the dog's health.

Just when we thought everything was fine. She had ear mites and yeast infection in the ears, at 6months. The vet said it was normal for puppies and the ear mites wouldnt come back after she recovers. Thank God.

Her life is finally in peace. She's taking heartworm tablets now for obvious reasons. We spray frontline on her before she goes for walk to prevent ticks and fleas. She is only allowed to walk on concrete grounds and no grass, as a double protection. She is not allowed human food except rice/porridge with steamed chicken breast or hard-boiled egg white. I guess she is fully protected for now.

after her hair cut by a lousy groomer

her freaking big nose

i know she does. heh

p.s. sorry for the long post.

11:45 PM