Our Communities and a Lost Dog Named Lili

I'm truly amazed every day by our Shiba community and our neighborhood. Last week, I was able to witness the power of their connectivity first hand. On Wednesday evening, during dinner with a Shiba friend she told that Lili, a Shiba in our neighborhood, had been missing since Tuesday. A few hours after I returned home, I started receiving multiple emails, Facebook notifications and tweets about Lili. Our local blog also announced Lili's disappearance and multiple "Missing dog" flyers went up.

Thursday morning came and Shio, Emi and I got ready to go out. Instead of our usual routine, I decided that we would go on a mission to find Lili. It is not always that a Shiba in our area goes missing and I was determined to partake in the search for her safe return! We walked for hours around the neighborhood and asked many neighbors about Lili. I would point to Shio and say, "She looks like him, only more petite. Please help us." Most of them would respond and say that they had already seen Lili's flyers. Dogwalkers who have clients in our neighborhood were all already notified via their network through text messages. Our friend on Twitter messaged us to tell us that he saw Lili a few hours before so we headed to the his sighting area. It was a hustling and bustling area with a lot of traffic, office buildings and students. We walked for a few blocks but it became to overwhelming for Emi, who is still timid, and it was difficult to navigate with two dogs. I turned around and started heading home when I was stopped by a couple who rushed over to me. They were Lili's owners and were outside frantically searching for her. It made my heart break to see how much they missed her but I was happy to see that they were so committed to finding her. I took our dogs home and dropped them off and went back out on foot to look some more by myself. I had no luck and finally give up.

When I returned home after a long day, I started getting emails and tweets to announce that Lili had been found! We all rejoiced and did a little happy dance. The best part? The owners sent an email to me to express their heartfelt thanks. That brought tears to my eyes.

At the end of the day, we are only as good as our communities and we need to assist each other when the occasion calls for a helping hand. I'm so proud to be a part of ours.

Thanks, Lili for uniting us all but let's not run away anymore, okay?

What my Shiba has taught me.

Trust is earned. Fight for what you want (treats).

Fight against what you don't want (baths).

When you see/smell something you like, throw your whole body weight into it.

Always stare blankly at an incredulous request (cuddling).

If you think someone is going to take food out of your mouth, chew faster.

If someone has wronged you, let the world know by screaming like you are being tortured.

There is no displeasure that can not be communicated with the whale eye.

The vacuum is the frenemy.

Meeting Kicho

On Tuesday morning, I braved the rain to meet Alice and Kicho at the Barnes and Noble located in Union Square. My saying that I braved the rain is nothing compared to Alice's bravery to loving her beautiful Shiba, Kicho. Kicho sat quietly in her bag as Alice began to share the story of Kicho's life. Strangers passing by commented on how beautiful and healthy Kicho looked. They inquired about her breed and size. Kicho sat like a model canine citizen as they pet her face and looked into her eyes. Little do they know that Kicho has a very rare congenital heart disease.

Every day we meet dogs on the street that bring a smile to our face as they goofily walk by or jump on us to say, "Hello!" Very few will touch your heart and inspire you daily in their will to live, love and be loved.

Thank you, Alice and Kicho, for inspiring us all.

Drop by puppypiranha to read all about Kicho and her furbro, Sumo.

Shiba Inu Home Security

Shio is the best alarm system we've ever spent our money on. Why not get a sign to go with it?

Protected By " Shiba Inus Home Security System " Parking Sign Dog

Re-Training Shio

We never used to worry about Shio running out the front door into the street. Was it because we're bad dog owners? Nope. It's because he would have to run out the front door, down the hallway, wait for the elevator, ride the elevator to the lobby, run out the building's front door and then get to the street. In case you're wondering, yes, potty training was very difficult! Now that we moved and have a front door that leads to the street we are very careful about teaching Shio sit-stay before charging out the door. In this new place, we also gained an unfenced back yard. This would've been a dream if we had an area dedicated for Shio to run around in but we've been training him not to run out when the door is open to the back because it's not fenced. He's not allowed to run out for squirrels, birds or even a toy that accidentally rolls out the door.

We  have neighbors that live upstairs and often here them walking around their hardwood floors. Shio is slowly adjusting to the sounds although he does have his freak out moments where he goes into a barking fit if he hears our neighbor's door slam shut. Every once in a while, he can hear voices upstairs and has been on edge about that.

We also have the mail man, UPS/USPS/FedEx package deliveries that come through our front door. We had the luxury of a doorman accepting all of this for us previously but now we're on our own. So far, Shio hates all of them.

On the up side, we've made a new Shiba 8 month old friend name Boozer from the dog run. They play and fight like brothers! They also dig like Shibas and have created many ditches in the dog run in their attempts to get back to save their friends in Japan.