Puppy playfulness

As I have said before, when you have puppies in your life, you will be entertained.

As they are growing, they are learning. So they are fascinated with the strangest things.

I remember Titan and Asha being completely fascinated with ants when they were really little. They would actually follow them. As they grew, ants became less exciting, and now don't even get a second glance.

Lots of other things came under scrutiny, particularly anything that moved.

One morning, Titan woke up to find a cricket in his drinking water. Not knowing what it was he wasn't particularly happy. He was actually a little afraid of it at first. I missed getting his initial reaction on camera, where he was backing away from the bowl and barking at it, but I did get this:

That was just one of his many encounters with bugs. I miss having him around during summer, because he has a particular fondness for eating the ugly brown moths that have a tendency to fly right into you. I can't handle them touching me, so it was quite lovely when he was around to save me from them.

Asha has less bug encounters. I think they're too small to be paid much attention. Asha's playfulness came from her agility.

My couches were often used as trampolines while playfully running away from Titan. But the funniest and most memorable thing she did as a puppy was jump onto tables. Luckily it was only on the outside tables, but she had figured out that by jumping onto the table, she could look into the house -- that was until we moved the table.

Here's a picture of her looking in:

Travel troubles

So my car is in for repair. The gearbox is faulty - something to do with the diff housing. I logged off when the guy started speaking the technical stuff.

Point is, the car is not yet two years old and it is still under warranty, so it shouldn't have such major problems.

I was hoping to get it back on Friday afternoon, and I almost did, if the mechanics hadn't left installing the gearbox to the last minute. Once they were done, they found a leaking pipe, and because they can't get to it easily, the entire gearbox has to come out again for the repair.

So it meant no car for the weekend, and no doggie park.

Luckily, I still got to see Titan and Asha. I walked the 1.3 kilometres from my house to my ex's house, and visited them for 2 hours, while he was at church. And since it was a rather miserable day I enjoyed the time spent cuddling with them in their dog house -- or should I say dog palace (I'll write more about that in another post).

But all this car nonsense did make me think back to the cars I have had in the past. My first car was a 1986 Toyota Corolla, which I sold when it was 20 years old. My next car was a 2006 Corsa Lite Plus. This is the car I had when we got Titan and Asha.

When they were small, it was quite easy and convenient to use my car to go to doggie park or the vet. But as they grew, trips to doggie park used to look like this:

My ex and I, and the mini horses used to fit into that little car. It was a squeeze, but we did it with little fuss. Although, every so often I would have a nose in my ear as I was driving.

As Titan and Asha started reaching their adult size, it became increasingly apparent that we would need a bigger car.

I was looking at getting a bigger car anyway, so I traded in the Corsa Lite for a 2010 Corsa Utility. I got it the same week as Titan and Asha's first birthday.

Since then, trips to doggie park have been easier:

Until this weekend.

It's amazing how much not having a car limits you.

Doggie destruction

When you have puppies in your life, you will be entertained. Like children, they just do the darnedest things.

As puppies, Titan and Asha had a particular fondness for destruction.

Luckily, furniture and clothes were not much of a target, as with some puppies. Although, I did have to rescue the odd sock and I had to stop them from chewing on the couch a couple of times. Also, the wooden frame of the passage mirror still bears tiny tooth marks.

Their main target was paper or cardboard. Often the newspaper put down for them to 'do their business' came under attack, as is evident from this photo, taken on day two of us having them:

The most memorable destruction event is what I have called 'the annihilation of the paper recycling'. In the time it took my ex to go and fetch a pizza for dinner -- about 20 minutes -- Titan and Asha made a huge mess, and had much fun doing so. And I got great enjoyment out of watching them.

You can share in the fun of watching them with this video. Unfortunately, I had turned my camera while recording them, so the video has come out sideways and I have not yet figured out how to fix it.

And here is a still picture of the same event:

Quite a mess!

Another item that came under attack was the door mat. They were not quite pleased with having to stay outside while we cleaned the one day, and so they pulled the mat through the security gate and did this to it:

Then, when it was approaching their first winter, we decided to make their dog house a little warmer by hanging a blanket with a slit in it at the entrance to the dog house and stuffing newspaper into the crevices. We woke up the next morning to this:

And I was actually able to record destruction in progress. Here are the before, during and after photos of Asha destroying a ball - she has always been much better at destroying things than Titan, he's a bit of a softy.

While in some cases their destroying things was frustrating - like when Asha took her new collar off the dining room table and destroyed it before she had even worn it - you can't get angry with them when it's so funny to see. It's play for them -- and what's more fun than ripping things to tiny pieces?

Moving out

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have an ex -- an ex husband.

The divorce was inevitable, moving out part of the package. The hardest part was leaving Titan and Asha behind.

It made financial sense for me to move back to our first place -- a one bedroom with a loft townhouse. It made logical sense to leave the dogs where they were -- at the house with a 1400 square metre yard. Plus, there's a rule at our complex -- no dogs whose size is above the knee.

From the day he announced "we should get divorced' to the day I moved out, it was a whirlwind of activity. Decide who gets what, pack up my stuff, and get the townhouse ready for me to move in.

We had rented out the townhouse, and it was a mess. So for the most part of two months, I spent painting, cleaning (serious cleaning - I don't think either of the tenants had bothered to clean, ever), packing and general organising. And throw Christmas into that mix.

When I finally moved in, completely exhausted, and I got a moment to think, I realised that what I wanted the most was my dogs.

Even though I get to see them each Sunday when we go for a walk in the park, I miss them so, so much.

When I have a bad day, all I want to do is bury my face in Asha's fur -- she has a very distinctive and lovely (to me anyway) smell.

I miss cuddling with them. Sometimes, if I'm lucky I get to do this for a few minutes at the park. But it's not quite the same.

I miss Titan's little 'good morning' kisses on the nose. And I miss Asha's 'cute' face, which I never get to see at the park because she's always too hyper and these faces happen when she's in a more calm state.

I love my dogs with all my heart. And I think I started this blog as a way to re-live the memories and moments that I have with them. That way, I can feel close to them even though they are not right next to me.

I sign off this post with pictures of Asha's 'cute' faces...