Calender
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
<< August 2007 >>
Recommend

Selected Entries
Categories
Archives
Bookmark
Profile
Search This Site
Flickr
www.flickr.com
teddydale's items Go to teddydale's photostream
Others

Bear Necessities of Life

Musings of Teddy Bear Necessity's Household
to Whom It May Concern
スポンサーサイト

一定期間更新がないため広告を表示しています

Posted by スポンサードリンク
- / / - / -
Day of Reflection
Today is a day to go back on the memory lane
because today Teddy would've become 12.



Looking back, my little girl taught me so many things. To live with a dog, particularly with an Airedale, you need to be patient, tolerant, flexible, humorous as well as sociable. You need to be community-minded because dogs are social animals. Also, more in tune you are with your dog, more you become aware of the animal happiness and therefore you come to care for the issues of animal welfare.



My goal in raising Teddy was to raise a properly mannered Airedale who could go anywhere I wanted her to go and do anything I wanted her to do. It wasn't without hair-pulling headaches along the way, of course, but in the end Teddy did turn out to be just the way I asked her to become. She was an Airedale I could take anywhere and do anything with. She was my constant companion and my trusted confidant.




Now with Louie, things are a bit different. Perhaps because he's the 2nd furry child for us (not counting cats, of course) and we know more now than we did with Teddy, our guinea pig of a child for being first, we are definitely more lax with Louie than we were with Teddy. This in turn means that we aren't making nearly as much efforts with Louie as we did with Teddy.

To be fair, though, I must add to say that it is also true that Louie is so much easier than Teddy. Not that Teddy was so difficult for an Airedale, she still was a powerful dog with some quirky habits.

For example, she never stopped oompf-charging at whatever she decided were offensive, so we always had to be aware of our surroundings. To this day, I automatically tighten my hold of the leash when I hear a motor-cycle approaching. Teddy was the kind of a dog that was soooo good until she was soooo bad. In some ways, it was like living with a bomb that I had to constantly disarm before it went off. Life sure was exciting with Teddy.

Life with Louie is so much calmer. What you see is what you get with him, and there's almost no need to try to "interpret" him. I must admit that it's actually quite nice. In fact, it's soo nice and relaxing that I sometimes worry if we could go back to the exciting world of Airedales again.

I used to think that once you live with an Airedale, you could never have anything else, but perhaps it's more like that once you live with an Airedale, everything else becomes a breeze!
Posted by teddydale
4-Legged Musings / 14:39 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
Fireworks
Fireworks exhibitions are huuuuuge summer festivities in Japan. There are fireworks displays everyday somewhere in Japan during the summer time, and people make plans to see them way in advance.

The Tokyo Bay fireworks show was held on August 11, and we went to a restaurant overlooking the bay to ensure the good viewing. The organizer for this event had booked the restaurant one year in advance.



Another popular way of viewing the fireworks is from a boat. Yakatabune, commercial party boats, gathering up to ensure the good position for viewing. This was how we saw this particular fireworks show last year.


The show started at 7:00 on the dot.


Whoa, it's spectacular! What a show!!

Even through the thick insulated windows, we could feel the vibrations from the booming sounds of the fireworks. Even though it wasn't quite like being right there like on the party boat, I was very glad to be in the comfort of airconditioned room particularly because the temperature outside on this day was almost 97F! On top of that, the food at this restaurant, French-Italian fusion seafood, was quite spectacular, too. Ahhh, I can get used to this.


Below is another fireworks show in another place. This time, a friend invited us to view the show from his seaside house.





Oh the transience of split-second beauty, how captivating it is!
Posted by teddydale
2-legged Musings / 16:52 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
Louie
Louie entered our life on November 3, 2006.





When he came to us, he didn't really look like a purebred Kerry Blue at all because of the way his coat was cut and maintained and also because of his scrawny body frame and wobbly back legs (due to prolonged lack of proper exercises). We used to refer him as a muppet dog and even as a Kerry-Poo or Shunazer-Poo because he just looked far from our image of a Kerry Blue.

However, after 9 months of regular exercises, biologically appropriate food, and extensive grooming (combed daily and properly scissorred monthly by a Kerry expert), we are very happy to say that Louie now looks very much like distinguished Mr. Kerry.



Even his profile is definitely Kerry-like.
What a difference having a stylist makes!

Never mind Louie would be disqualified as a show dog at least by the AKC standard that dictates Kerry to be more blue than black by 18 months of age (among other rules that would also find him at fault). I know Kerry breeders would be disgusted with me saying it, but darn it, I like him black! ... although he IS changing color albeit slowly.

What I am constantly amazed about Louie is how sweet he is. Teddy was sweet .. to her loved ones, but Louie's sweetness seems to be for everyone. (You can say that Teddy was more loyal than this Mr. Casanova, of course. )

I'm also still amazed by how LIGHT he is!

Although an adult male Kerry is supposed to weigh between 33-40 lb., Louie only weighs about 25 lb.. If he overeats, he tends to throw up, so we don't force him to eat more than what seems appropriate. Considering he has gained about 5 lb. since he came to us and stopped growing awhile now, though, we think he's reached the right weight for himself at the moment. Because we feed him raw food, it's hard to say how much he eats a day, but I can say that it's not so much less than what our dainty female Airedale weighning 40 lb. used to eat.



Here, Louie's being picked up by a 5-year-old neighbor. This little girl is owned by an exuberant young Airedale who is rather solid, and so she, too, seems to think Louie is quite manageable.
Posted by teddydale
4-Legged Musings / 16:32 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
Evening Glow
Dramatic!



Posted by teddydale
2-legged Musings / 17:19 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)
A Little Too Fresh
Even Tobey the great dog-loving kitty has his limits.



Tobey still does not use his claws, though.
Posted by teddydale
Movies / 17:21 / comments(0) / trackbacks(0)