My First Post...

Thanks mom and dad for writing about me....I'll take over from here... This is my diary and I want to start contributing too.

I don't remember much of the first 8-10 weeks of my life. I prob'ly slept a lot, suckled from my mamma and played with my brothers and sisters. What I do remember starts here:

I was to be auctioned off at some puppy-mill stuff.. That was where I met Lynne and Dallas and other cool people. They did not want me to go to the puppy-mill place and instead wanted me to stay with them. It was a fun place. Dallas and I had the place pretty much to ourselves all day long. Dallas was a little pussy.. I had to push and prod him to move about sniff stuff, you know- like we dogs normally do. I heard he's doing well now with his happy forever family. Good for that little guy.. Will miss him..He was my first bud...Enough nostalgia for a 5-month pup, you think?

Anyway....Lynne kept asking us to stand still for a camera.. She kept talking about the internet (I've finally figured it out...it's what my parents keep poring into and reading and looking dopey-eyed at the end of it all) and uploading my photograph there... Anyway, I posed - I love posing, by the way... and we even did a little movie co-starring me & Dallas.

Lynne then told me about my third mommy (that's the end of the tally, what say folks?) and Crazy-Joe (Anurag) who wanted to have me come over to Chicago, by the lake. I said "OK, if you insist" and drove along to the big city.

I now live high up with a nice lake-view. I love watching airplanes go by the window and love staring into the blue waters of the lake (deep, huh?) and running around in the park. CJ takes me on the wick-end (is that how it's pronounced?) to the park. It's great to stretch my legs and give those birds a li'l scare.

I just love changing channels and pausing the TV stuff (It drives CJ crazier). I am getting good at using the internet and running slideshows of photos on the computer and have been getting a hang of the I-Pod touch too. I read the newspaper bit by bit and rip to shreds (literally) articles written by most journies.

CJ and mommy are suckers. They fall for my "batting the eyelashes- scratch at the door- ain't I cute" routine and keep giving tonnes of treats- neat! I have a few friends around the neighborhood. Tucker's the best dude though. He kicks ass and we love romping all around the area like shameless lovers. I also attend puppy classes. They are great because I get tonnes of more freebie treats and feel like a bloated laado (mom calls me that- CJ thinks it means small laddoo - an Indian sweetmeat) at the end of it all.

It's getting rather bare and bleak out here. Not too many leaves on trees- the grass in my former romping ground's a-gone too. But, I get plenty of warmth from mommy and CJ and feel happy at home.

This should do for a first post....Will write on critical issues soon.

So long, people! Keep praying, keep the faith and stay positive. A few weirdos shouldn't make the rest of our lives miserable.

-Yuki

The Father's Tale

Let me start the tale from where it must be started......Almost three years ago, there was one very pretty girl who was nice enough to respond to a cheesy line from me. Forward 18 months on, and she was nice and at this point, I must add, foolish enough to agree to marriage. Fast forward another 12 months on, and I finally started enjoying her version of "chai", learning to stay calm, relax and enjoy the quiet moments of pleasure in life. She has indeed been my better half.

And, that's when I decided to believe in what she called the ultimate relaxation technique- dog therapy (second only to dance therapy- nice try getting me to dance though!!!). A little more background...I have been diagnosed with cynophobia all my life (by myself). I have run away from dogs, been scared shitless of them and have generally distanced myself by a friendly mile or two from the nearest dog whenever possible.

So, even considering such an option was a great step forward for me. Fast forward another month or so, and we went on a glorious vacation to Puerto Rico, and that's when I actually played and petted my first dog - Tiko, a big lab mix. "That wasn't too bad, was it", said my present, calm self to my fearful past. No, it wasn't at all, to be truthful. And, I realized, it was very calming.

And, so started a new phase in life!! I decided to take on my fear front-on. I started volunteering for a dog shelter- being walked by big dogs (with a few misadventures), walking little dogs and occasionally dominating the extremely little ones. I did feel extremely light-hearted at the end of these walks. So, when the missus said, "Oy Mister, what say you about a dog?", I said, very unconsciously that too, "Sure, muffin". And, that was that.

It was a rather hard path to Yuki. I shall tell that tale at a later time. But, we finally got her, and life was never the same again. Our li'l cocker has kept us awake aplenty, caused our parental hearts to miss many a beat with a few health issues and troubled us to no end with her obstinate behavior. But, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything else in this world.

Here's to thirteen + years of fun, enjoyment and love with our Yuki!!!

"Honey, I'm pregnant"

Err... not in the traditional sense of the word. In all other ways, yes, I was pregnant and expecting! Each day I was flooding hubby's mailbox with listings of prospective babies from www.petfinder.com . It has almost been a nine month wait too. Nine months of thinking "Are we ready yet?", reading books about dog breeds, doggie care, working out finances, looking for pet-friendly housing and ofcourse hours... endless hours of imagining the bliss of walking hand-in-hand by Lake Michigan with a little (or large), happy tail-wagger, strutting by our side!

The easiest part of the whole process was looking through the websites and falling in love with all the adorable faces. Each time we volunteered at Chicago Canine Rescue, we'd come back sighing and praying for 'the right time' and 'the right dog' to come soon. Walking the dogs at CCR was great practice. With both hubby and I struggling to control the 80 pound dogs, we knew we'd have to keep the "I want a big chubbu!" for a later stage. As cute as St. Bernards are, and as much as i'd like to hug the big fella and sleep every night, if Little Me has to show an id just to play a round of Pool (sigh, yes... I get harassed each time) and move a couch with a whole lot of huffing and puffing... I really didn't want to imagine what a little huff and a little puff from the big fella (however playful it might be) would to do me! And as daring as I am, I didn't want another incident when 'Hubby the Great' drops the leash coz the dog is too big and excited, and 'Little Me' has to grab the leash and sit on the ground to get my body weight to counteract the excitement of a 7 month old Dalmatian/Pointer pup!

After much debate, we decided to drop the idea of a Retriever/Lab pup for a first dog and started looking for a medium sized breed that would be just as great a family dog. Hubby's only requirements were that the dog should be bigger than a pomeranian, not the snappy, yappy kinds and athletic enough to be an occasional running partner. All the reading resulted in me spotting the English Springer Spaniel. Medium sized, athletic, great temperament and something about the white & black/brown markings just made me fall in love with the breed. The tough part though, since we wanted to adopt, was that Springer Spaniel pups rarely turn up at adoption centers. So we expanded our search to include Spaniel mixes.

Male? Female?... Female please :) Not that there's anything wrong with male dogs. I grew up with an adorable American Eskimo Dog (always thought he was a mini Samoyed.. my 'Snowy' totally had the 'Samoyed smile', amidst this recent research, I chanced upon the Eski and discovered Snowy's real breed). But I can't help being biased towards a female dog. For several reasons actually. Firstly, I always thought my first child would be a girl :) What better way to make it happen than adopting a little darling! Secondly, I owed it to myself to bring home a female pup, care for her and give her a good life. I'm still haunted by some mistakes that I feel I can never forgive myself for. As a child I fell in love with a stray pup, took her away from her litter and brought her home, only to come back home from school one day and find out that my mother had abandoned the pup on the streets again because she felt a female pup would be very problematic to look after. 'Misty', I think I called her. I never saw her again. I've never stopped saying sorry.

"Well, since I can't undo what happened 15-16 yrs ago, I can most certainly bring home a bratty little female pup and fill the void!" So there started our hunt for a female, spaniel family member. And amidst the chaos of finding a new apartment to move into and subletting our old apartment, on 6th September 2008, the Gods smiled and we spotted little 'Denice'!