How Much Is That Puppy In the Window?

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I walked by a pet shop in our neighborhood and saw a Shiba in the window. Went in and asked about the price.

Me: "How much for the Shiba?"

Pet Store Guy: "She is 1450 'randomly' discounted from 1650."

Me: "Okay."

Pet Store Guy: "She's got a knee problem. Her knee..."

Me (interrupting): "Luxating patella?"

Pet Store Guy: "Oh! You know what it is! Well she isn't discounted because of this problem. It's not that bad, very minor. Level 1."

Me: ...

Pet Store Guy: "You just need to give her the right foods and vitamins..."

Me: "You are knowingly trying to sell a Shiba with a genetic breed defect?"

Pet Store Guy: "It doesn't affect her at all. She's in great condition..."

Me: *walks out of the store*

I'm always curious about the Shibas that arrive in pet stores and the breeders that they come from. I guess this conversation satisfies my curiosity. Breaks my heart to see this.

Shio vs. Costumes

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Been trying Halloween costumes on Shio for this year and I'm not sure it's gonna happen. He looks incredibly upset with clothes on! I'm a bad mom and I laugh at him as his legs suddenly stop working and flops down into a pile of miserable mush. That and the airplane ears (like Zuko on his 2nd birthday!) and the stare that can only be described as the "whale eye". Puahahah.

Here's a visual analysis of his anti-costume and clothes behavior over the years starting from this morning:

October 2010:

September 2010:

January 2010:

October 2009:

September 2009:

June 2009 (whale eye!):

May 2009:

Shio vs. Georgie the Cat

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Whenever we see a cat, Shio will tug with all his might at the end of the leash to try and sniff the funny little creature that doesn't want to have anything to do with him. We've never officially met a cat because the ones we bump into have been traumatized by dogs and run away. Last week, we met our first awesome exotic short-haired cat named Georgie! He's our friend's cat so we knew it would be safe to let Shio around Georgie. Ooooh I was so excited to see how Shio would react!

Waiting for Georgie to come down to play:

Peeking at Georgie from underneath the coffee table:

Overall, the whole experience was anti-climatic. I had all these high expectations of Shio frolicking with Georgie. Or getting smacked in the face by a cat's paw for being a hyper puppy but that didn't happen. Or grooming each other and napping together. Instead, Shio spent 30 minutes getting close to Georgie and then running away. Georgie was the one chasing after Shio! Who's the scaredy-cat now?!

This was the closest he got to Georgie:

Georgie can also be found via his tumblr site: http://georgietales.tumblr.com/ Hop over and say, "Hi" to our new friend!