Mind, Heart & Soul

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A walk outside with two Shibas garners nothing but attention and pointing but we are often stopped during our walks to answer a few questions about our Shibas, most typically what breed they are and where they are from. I often tell them that Emi was rescued but I often wonder if my dogs are the ones that rescued me.

When Shio came along, he was so tough to train. He's incredibly stubborn and thinks beyond the amount that a dog should ever be capable of. His primitive side has taken over more now that he's older and it's a constant challenge every day to figure out what we need to do to have him agree to do what we want. Luckily, he came to us at 3 months old so we were able to mold him as much as we could before his natural instincts took over. Having Shio around has always been more of a partnership than an ownership form of relationship. He communicates to us through his body language, eye movements, and exasperated sighs of disappointment and we have to figure out the riddle of this sphinx. Being his primary caretaker, Shio challenges my mind every day and forces me to ask questions to analyze how we can train him to be more of a dog than the primitive beast that he can be. When I need to scold him for undesired behavior, Shio is willing to listen to me but still insists that he's right. Which means that next time the same situation comes up, he will make the decision to do what he thinks is right and take the blame after the episode. I love his stubborn personality but it becomes frustrating when all you thought you signed up for was a dog. Shio motivates my mind to calculate how to work together with him in our coexist. We don't act like we need each other but deep down we are more committed than we'd like to admit. He's our first dog and nothing could ever replace that.

Emi on the other hand, is my half lab half Shiba dog. She enjoys being near me and lying so close to me that she and I melt into one whole being. Very rarely do I need to scold her as she is so easy going and with the few times that I do she knows wrong and learns the lesson immediately. She feeds my soul and makes me feel like I'm taking care of someone who needs me to protect her. I find myself lying next to her morning after morning staring into her sleepy face as my ovaries explode from her baby-like behaviors. She shoves her face into my fingertips searching for scratches like a cat and needs me to throw balls and toys for her to chase. Most of the time, she's a timid little mouse who jumps at loud unfamiliar sounds when we're outdoors for walks and I wish with all my might that she will become a more confident creature. I need her as much as she needs me. What a wonderful feeling.

When it comes to the subject of heart dogs, it's really heard to define what that is. It's a feeling and the more that you force it, the less accessible it is. Just like trying to retain a fistful of beach sand by holding too tightly to it. I often wondered if Shio was my heart dog before Emi came along and I realize that I need both of them in my life to feel complete. Shio to challenge my mind and Emi to feed my needy soul. Maybe some people find that they have a heart dog with one dog but I'm lucky to have two that complement each other.

So the next time people ask, I'm just going to say that my dogs rescued me.

Woofles

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This morning I woke up and decided to make Hawaii Dog Bakery's special Woofles for our pups. We've heard about how amazing they are for months now and they have only recently started shipping outside of Hawaii but not to the East Coast yet. Luckily, they posted their recipe online in a video and we copied down the ingredients to make ourselves!

We don't own a waffle iron so I improvised by using our Ebelskiver pancake pan and use the cream cheese and sweet potato as stuffing instead of creating a Woofle sandwich. The result resembled something more like a cream puff and I love it. The only other difference was that we left out the All Purpose Flour and substituted with more Whole Wheat Flour and used rosemary, honey, kale as additional ingredients.

Shio and Emi couldn't be happier with the results.

Thanks Hawaii Dog Bakery!

 

 

Emi's February and March Update

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Why hello neglected blog! Long time no update! I've gotten to the point where I've been avoiding updates because so much time has passed since our last one that there is just too much to write. So I'll just start off with Emi's update. It's been a crazy 2 months for our dear little adopted one.

She's found herself in a number of medical issues but luckily only one issue was bad enough to warrant a vet visit. At some point during these last two months, we decided to get health insurance for her. Let's see what they cover!

1. Swollen eye: As a dog that looooooves tennis balls, she often runs side to side in front of me when I'm about to throw a ball. I usually throw it low to the ground so she can scurry after it but one night she decided to run into the ball face first. It was dim outdoors and the only reason why I knew she was hurt was because she let out a loud yelp and then started pawing at her face. Then she was squinting with one eye. It took 2 days for the swelling to disappear and she is now fine.

2. Sore elbow: Shio always knocks her over while playing but one day he knocked her into our TV stand and she started lifting her leg. Seconds later, she was able to walk around without any visible issues so we didn't think much of it. After we came home from dinner the same night, she limped down the stairs to greet us and we knew that something wasn't right. Josh lifted her up and I massaged her leg to see where the problem was and she winced whenever I put pressure around her elbow. We decided to wait a day to see how she felt instead of bringing her to the vet since she was able to place weight on the leg. That night, I crated her or held her on my chest to make sure she didn't run around too much at night. The next morning, she ran around like the crazy little puppy that she was and felt no more pain in the elbow.

3. Diarrhea: We went away to an upstate cabin for a short vacation and when we returned, Emi kept pooping in the apartment. It was unusual for her to do so but the stool was still semi-firm and I thought that she was having accidents. I had class the next morning so I crated her and didn't think we would have problems while she was in her crate. But she had diarrhea in the crate and fell asleep in it. I took her out immediately and bathed her and she pooped 5 more times in the span of 2 hours and it was all runny. That's when I rushed her and her stool to the vet for testing. She was placed on medication to mitigate the elevated levels of bacteria and after her test results came back positive for parasites, she was placed on some more meds. Luckily, she started feeling much better after the vet visit.

4. Plum pits: The following weekend, we went out for dinner and when we came back, we saw that the dogs had gotten into the trash. It was most likely Emi because Shio hasn't gone through trash cans since he was 5 months old. We found a broken plum pit shell on the ground and realized that the dogs might've eaten some of the pits. Knowing that some seeds might be dangerous, we immediately called our emergency vet and they recommended that we bring her in. During the time I was on the phone with the vet, Emi zoomed around like crazy, wanting to play with us, and so the vet told us to call ASPCA Poison Control. They told us that the pits that she had shouldn't give her any issues and just to watch out for any sign of obstruction. She wound up vomiting a plum pit back up 2 weeks later.

5. Random vomiting: For a period of time, Emi would randomly wake up at 4am and vomit bile. Just once. And then everything was fine and we cleaned up and all went back to sleep. We still don't know what the cause was but we're happy it stopped.

Emi also found herself in some trouble when she ran out my parent's front door when we visited them on Long Island. She was afraid of being at the house because she didn't know anyone while Josh and I were out shopping. It took several neighbors, passersby, and a group of joggers to chase her down. She ran for an hour around the neighborhood and finally settled under a car where they finally caught her.

Now that we've gotten all the not-so-great news out of the way, the good news is that she's finally warmed up to Josh! She will come downstairs and run around in circles when Josh gets home and snuggle up next to him when he's on the couch. He's very much in love with her and it's nice to see that she's finally reciprocating! We find that she's also very clumsy. When she gets overly excited, she'll sprint around indoors like a madwoman and often misjudges the heights of objects. We've watched her try to jump over the back of a couch that's 3 ft. tall and will clear it! Other times doesn't get enough lift and bounces off the back of the couch.

We've hired a dogwalker for the two of them twice a week. The thought is that Emi needs to be outside and out of her comfort zone. There are times where she is still frightened when she leaves our home and we want to her build confidence and also a relationship with someone in our neighborhood other than Josh and I. It's been one week and so far so good...

We're happy that she's happy with us but this girl is definitely a petite bundle of trouble.