It's hard to say goodbye

Today, she left us for a better home.

It's been 11 months since we first took her home, when she was just a 2+ month old puppy. I carried her in my arms during the drive home. She was just a tiny little thing then. In the last 11 months that followed, she has grown to her full adult size.

During the time when she was with us, she has learned a few simple tricks, learned to love Prue, Piper and Phoebe and be loved in return.

Since I got pregnant, I was "banned" from taking care of all of them. So you might think there's no deep bond whatsoever. Plus the fact that I'm more a cat person than a dog person. And yet, when her new owners came to pick her up today, I couldn't control the tears.

She licked me on the face to say goodbye, but I could not utter the word "goodbye" to her. All I said was "See you, Pretty". It's a small comfort that her new owners gave us an open invitation to visit her whenever we want.

Ray tells me I shouldn't be sad because she will be loved and pampered as much as she deserves to be. I do feel better knowing that for a fact. She certainly deserves the attention and love which we couldn't provide anymore since the arrival of the baby.

This is my first time parting with a pet. It's an awful feeling. But like they say, if you love somebody, you have to set them free. Ray is right, we can't be selfish. She deserves to be happy and we will be happy for her too.

Farewell, Pretty.

All-in-one update

I haven't updated this blog for a while. All the weeks gone by, so many things I've thought to write about, but didn't have the time and sometimes the mood to blog. Many a time, I would begin a few lines and then I'd just delete the post way before I could finish. I'm not sure why. I wonder if this post would see the Publish button.

Here's what life has been like so far.

The dog
Pretty has been with us for two weeks now. I can't say she's on her best behaviour. After all she's still a puppy. By next week she'll be exactly three months old. She's kept Ray very busy in the last couple of weeks. She doesn't have routine times to do her business so he has to endlessly clean up after her. We can't even detect when she's gonna let go because she doesn't sniff around before she does her job!

Pretty craves for lots and lots of attention. She barks, whimpers and cries when left alone too long while we're at work. For many mornings, she's been waking us around 6am. Ray has to sleep on the couch to keep her quiet while the rest of us get some more sleep before our alarm clocks are set to go off.

She's so playful and full of energy. She walks over me like I'm a piece of furniture. She climbs on me and thinks my fingers and toes are chewable toys. She doesn't do this to Ray though, because he's her Trainer with the rolled-up newspaper as a training tool. When I let the cats in, she wants to play with them by dashing towards them the way she does to us. Obviously the cats hate it and end up running away. They hiss at her. On the one hand, I pity the cats because they're frightened by this girl's energy at chasing them. On the other hand, I also pity Pretty because she must be wondering why the other four-leggeds don't want to play with her.

In just a span of 2 weeks I've seen her grow. She's much taller now. Though taking care of her is not easy, we still adore her and her funny antiques.

Pretty in training to poo and pee on newspapers in her barricade.

The cats
The girls have felt somewhat neglected last week because we couldn't let them in when Pretty was indoors because she had just taken her vaccination. I'm slowly trying to make it up to them and hope they will get used to having Pretty around. Prue and Phoebe lie low hiding behind curtains or in corners. Piper is a little more daring and walks about. But she feels safest being on top of some stacked boxes that Ray brought home. Look how comforted she is knowing that Pretty could never jump that high!

Piper takes the "high road" and Prue is behind that curtain while Phoebe is nowhere to be seen.

Yesterday I found them to be part of the 365 Cats 2007 Calendar Girls when I browsed through a copy. I submitted their photos early this year, hopeful for them to get selected to be in print and I was delighted to find them each gracing a day of the calendar.

If you want to help out in this independent pet rescue effort, get a copy of the calendar for yourself or as gifts for cat and dog lovers. :)

Christmas time
Christmas is just a week away. We've been busy doing shopping for christmas presents. It's never easy thinking of gifts but once you get into motion and ideas start to come to mind, it gets you motivated and excited. Of course, in the expense of the purse. I would say we've worked very hard, walking about for majority of our weekend time finding all the gifts. Some of the gifts are all nicely wrapped up while some are still pending boxes that I don't know where to find from.

Some of our Christmas gifts for loved ones.

Right now Pretty is barking like crazy. I can't write anymore. Till next time when my days are not as boring and revolving around only the 4-leggeds, I'll post some more.

We're gonna have a baby!

We're gonna have a baby, and it's gonna be a baby girl! We haven't thought of a name for her and we haven't got much time to think of one because she'll be with us sooner than we think.

Here's a shot of her. Isn't she just adorable?



Ray with our 8-week old baby girl.
Ray found her from a breeder and tonight we had an appointment to see her. When Ray first showed me her photo, I thought she's cute. But when I saw the real her tonight, she's so much more than cute. I fell in love with her. She's a shy puppy, mild temperament from what we saw and so pretty.

She'll come live with us, together with the feline sisters Prue, Piper and Phoebe in 2 days' time. Will this new addition to our family be named Paige to form the complete Charmed sisters?