Liberty

For the past week, we've been doggie-sitting Liberty while Jeff and Jeanette were vacationing in Maui. It's been fun having another dog in the house. I'm not sure Tachi would agree with us, as he's gotten quite used to being the king of our little castle. But it's good for him to learn to share his toys, water bowl and our attention. Having Liberty live with us for a week has given us a chance to get to know her better. Some observations (in no particular order):

• She doesn't simply walk; she sashays. Liberty shakes her boo-tay when she walks.
• She has no concept of personal space and likes to climb up on your legs when you're sitting on the couch. She'll walk right up to you and start panting in your face.
  
• She's an attention whore. Whenever we play with or pet Tachi, she'll come over and push Tachi out of the way or climb on top of him to try to get to you. When you push her off, she just tries again. She probably thinks it's a game. She'll also climb up on the bed in the morning to see if you're awake. If you try to push off the bed, she'll just climb back up. But if you roll over and ignore her, she'll go away...eventually
• She leaves pools of water on the floor when she drinks from the water bowl. I'm not talking about dribbling water here and there. I'm talking about leaving a trail of puddles around the water bowl, down the hallway and finally dripping some onto your foot in the living room.
• She got used to being crated when we weren't home. I'm sure it helped that we threw her favorite treats into the back of the crate to lure her in and that we'd feed her in her crate too. She barked and whined a few times as we'd leave the house, but by the time we got home it was quiet...no barking or whining.

Having Liberty for a week has also helped me appreciate how well trained Tachi is. It's so much easier when your dog actually responds to you say, "Sit." "Off." "Down." or "Drop." We've enjoyed having her with us. She's back home now with Jeff and Jeanette, but I have a feeling Liberty might be staying with us again sometime in the future.

Doggie Update

Just a quick update on momma dog, Mikasa and her pup, Molten. Molten was adopted to a family in Alameda who had an 80 lb black lab. He has been renamed Quincy. Our friends at Pound Puppy Rescue, think he might be a Lab and Newfoundland mix. Good think his adopted family has experience with big, energetic dogs!

Mikasa has been adopted by Greg's brother and sister-in-law. I guess they didn't realize how much they wanted her until she was gone! =) They've renamed her Liberty. Jeff and Jeanette came down last week to pick her up. She met Tachi, her doggie cousin, and they got along fine. Well, if you consider Tachi ignoring her every time she tried to get him to play with her getting along, then it was fine. Liberty's going to be staying with us next week, so they'll have plenty of time to get to know each other.

Thanks to Grace for helping find homes for both Quincy and Liberty!

A Very Active Weekend

We had a really active weekend. It's been a long time since we've been this active. And boy, could I tell. My butt still hurts from this weekend!

On Saturday, we paddled in Paddle for Life, a charity dragon boat race at Jack London Square. Most of the teams seemed to be corporate sponsored teams. Our team, Doggie Paddlers, was a rag-tag team of friends and friends of friends. We had a few folks who had paddled before, but most were newbies. As part of the race, the organizers arrange three practices so people can learn proper form, timing, race starts and commands. While our team did get three practices, I don't think our entire team was at a single practice. You can blame it on volleyball. =P

We won our first race (the American Bridal Community Cup), came in dead last in our second race and took second in our last race (we missed first place by half a second!). But we got lots of compliments on our team t-shirt, which Edric designed. It was a good fun for a good cause. Thanks for organizing the team, Judy! Can't wait to do it again next year. Woof! Woof!

BTW, Greg and I met at a dragon boat race. It wasn't this exact race, but a different race that's held in the early fall/late summer at Lake Merced in San Francisco. Greg was paddling on Christi's corporate team, and I was paddling on my friend Doug's team, Dragon Warriors. Christi needed some extra people for their championship race because a lot of people on her team had to leave early. So, I volunteered to paddle in their boat. I must've wooed Greg with my impressive paddling abilities! =)

On Sunday, we woke up early again to ride in the Tour de Cure, a charity bike ride benefiting the American Diabetes Association. I rode with Team Cisco/WebEx. Greg just rode along with me (e.g. he didn't register for the race). Why didn't he want to ride with Team Cisco? He "couldn't justify paying money to ride a route that he's ridden for free many times." But it's for a good cause? Blink...blink.

Anyhoo, we rode 75K or ~45miles. The ride started at the HP campus in Palo Alto, around Woodside and Portola Valley, out to Canada Road and back to the HP campus. Now, even though we've ridden this route several times before, I haven't been on my bike in about 4-5 months. So, my butt, legs and lungs were not ready for this ride. It didn't help that my left leg and butt cheek were sore from paddling the day before. Greg, on the other hand, was fine. Sigh...it's just not fair.

It's definitely been one of the more active weekends we've had in quite a while. We'd both like to have more weekends like this...without the getting up early part. =)

How Much is That Puppy in the Window?

A few weeks a ago, Greg's parents found a black lab and her pup wandering the streets. They didn't have collars and weren't chipped. So, Mom Tai called Greg because we have a couple of friends who rescue and foster puppies.

This past weekend, we drove up to Greg's parents house to pick up momma and her pup. Momma is a really sweet dog. She rolled over right away when Greg greeted her. She likes to jump up when she's excited, but was a quick to learn that's not okay to jump on people. She wasn't food motivated, but loves attention and seems eager to please. Momma walked well on leash and did really well on the car ride back to Grace's place.

The pup is huge and really cute! He's got the biggest paws and if those are any indication, he's gonna be a big dog. I know he's part lab, but his poppa was probably a BIG dog. Looking at his paws made me realize how dainty Tachi's paws are. (Sorry, Greg.) He's got tons of puppy energy and is a bit mouthy. When I was playing with him, he bit me (accidentally). Of course, I screamed, "Ouch!" when he bit me. After I corrected him, I checked my thigh and the little bugger broke skin! He didn't bite me that hard, but his puppy teeth are pretty sharp.

The pup had never met a leash before we took him for a walk around the block. It was hilarious watching/listening to him walk on a leash. He started out trying to eat the leash, which is bad. And then he did the "I'm just gonna park my bottom right here and make you drag me." After that he did the "Fine. I'm gonna run ahead of you and then yelp at the top of my lungs when I reach the end of the leash and get tugged backwards."

Both momma and pup are being fostered now - in separate foster homes. I hope they find good homes and a families that will love them. Check out their adoption pages: Momma (Mikasa) and Pup (Molten).