Pink Squat Lobster - found on barrell sponges. Hairy lil buggers and in this particular case - kinda on the fat side...one of my favourite finds. This little bugger is about the size of my pinky nail like most of the stuff i like to photograph underwater....

Bon Apetit! A plate of my own words

My earlier post reeks of lots of things - dread, fear and optimism. Optimism especially towards the end....reads like..." every morning...without a fight...happy family...blah blah"

Now i would like to order a plate filled with my optimistic thoughts for supper - oh! and by the way have a dentist standby to fix all my teeth after i get thru this tough meal.

It was a long day but a good one. Both hubby and myself got loads done, we were fed and happy to be coming home. We arrived greeted by a happy wolfie and a not so happy poppet (in the garden). As is the practice - hubby will change into his shorts and let in whichever doggy that was in the garden into the house. This time was no different.

Not long after we were all upstairs the doggies commenced their war in the middle of the living room. I sprayed and sprayed them with my water cannister (all accurately hitting them in the face - i've been practising ;)) to no avail so i jus gave up and stood there looking at them. Hubby valiently steps forward ready to control this chaotic jumble of legs, fur, teeth and tail amidst violent dog like noises. When suddenly i hear the loudest yowl from the party of three - my precious hubby has been bit!!!

Man that made me see red!!! While hubby retreated to clean the wound (fairly deep gash - compliments of Wolfie) i went over to both dogs and pulled them off each other screaming in their faces to stop! Do men ever listen? I mean seriously - in any species - have you ever witnessed any dude that listens? Eventually they do stop. Both wet (compliments of me!) both still pissed off but not as pissed off as i was (should have seen me - my face was a combination of blue and red)

Seconds after this chaotic violent episode - hubby's wound has been cleaned and dressed. Both dogs have been thrown outside to sort it out themselves. And we agreed that both dogs will sleep outside from now onwards. None of that "Poppet sleeps inside".

The eeriest part of all of this was - last night i did not sleep well...i had dreams of doggie violence as well as that my hubby kept nudging me awake (i snore pretty badly) and towards the end i associated the violent doggie dream with hubby. Tot nuttin of it all day till all this happened at the end of day. Talk about Dejavu...

another eerie thing was that the Dog Whisperer called this evening to find out how the doggies were doing and all was a positive report at the time of the call.....hmmmm are both of us psychic? That would make me a psychic without any more teeth....

Early Days Yet

After the Dog Whisperers' visit...we were filled with renew vigour to combat this anti-social behaviour from both our doggies. As is the practice - the morning yard shift for these furry criminals fall to me whilst the late night yard shift falls to hubby.

Descriptions of our furry inmates:
Poppet - Tall, Long, furry, furrows on his forehead (especially when he looks at wolfie). convicted of grievous bodily harm to wolfie, aggression towards other dogs and general feelings of jealousy.

Wolfie - short, stout, furry (with a penchant to produce adorable squeaky noises at anyone other than poppet). Convicted of grievous bodily harm to Poppet and me and hubby, general manja-ness and displays symptoms of been bitten by the tsetse fly.

Both inmates are kept separate from each other unless there is supervision by the house wardens - me and hubby. Most stressful times for the warden are in the mornings and evenings - as this is when they are allowed yard priviledges

(dun ask me why i'm relating my experiences as if we really did run a prison for doggies - must be the stupid documentary hubby was watching last night - gave me inspiration!! I mean if you had seen how the prisoners fight - the violence is similar to that of a dog squabble!)

Anyway.......every morning when i wake up - my heart is filled with dread (the vigour left me an hour after the Dog Whisperer went home). But i pull myself outta bed and haul ass up the stairs with much trepidation. Upon reaching the landing - i see my first inmate - Poppet. He is happy to see me and wags his tail. I give him a brief pat on the head and go to open all my gorgeous windows to let fresh air into the house - he tags along - secretly i think all male species like watching women work!

I go to pick up both his and wolfie leads to get ready for the morning yard exercise (walkies), arm myself with a spray cannister filled with water. I open the door slightly. both dogs have their noses in the small gap and immediately the growling starts. I squirt water on both inmates and tell them firmly NO and then i close the door. Remembering what the Dog Whisperer told me to do - if they start to look like they are about to start any fight just spray water on them and tell them NO in as firm a voice as one could muster! Yeah right! That's gonna work! :(

whilst regaining my composure i remembered him saying that if a fight did break out - i was to remove myself from the scene, let all hell break loose on the other side of the door. His reasoning is that they are fighting over me (awwwww....that's way too sweet!)and if i'm not there to witness their bravery/sutpidity - they will stop. So i try again - i open the door just a tinnie weenie bit but this time poppet gets past....i hear them growling and the sounds that accompany the beginnings of a fight....I spray water all over the place except where it should have been sprayed...and the dogs are off - fighting that is...I close the door rest my forehead against it and pray for my car!

I dunno how long i was in that position but i suddenly realised that it was quiet. Not sure if either or both doggies were dead...I bravely put my crocs on and stepped out. My my....maybe the Dog Whisperer was right....they were not fighting just walking around and looking tough.

I put the lead on Poppet and then on Wolfie. And we started towards the gate. And we almost had a fight on our hands but no CIGARS! (Not that i want the bloody CIGAR!!!)Thank GOD for the spray cannister and a deep sort of panic induced high pitched voice (mine of course)!! we continued on our walk without any incident and returned both inmates safely into the compound

In summary, YARD duty is toughest in the mornings i think. But over the last couple of days, hubby has made a very concentrated effort in helping me out in that department (I'm so proud of him)and every morning that goes by without a fight amongst the inmates makes me believe that we will be a happy family one day!

The Dog Whisperer

This morning we were visited by a dog whisperer. He is a Spanish trainer that operates a kennel in Shah Alam. He is said to have the ability to deal with the most impossible dogs. He was invited to a home visit to assess both poppet and wolfie. All this time we thought poppet was the alpha (the leader of both these dogs) - it turns out (according to the expert) that wolfie is the alpha.

The dog whisperer also thinks that wolfie is older when we always thought poppet was the senior dog in chronological terms. He told us not to tie either of the doggies up but to let them roam. We have to set the rules and essentially try to stop any anticipated or ongoing fight with water and a firm NO!

Fat Chance - I thought to myself as he uttered this advice. This has been ongoing even before he arrived and it hasn't worked. But i guess he has reinforced that we are doing mostly the right stuff with a little adjustment needed and the rest was up to time and the dogs.

I felt more reassured that it would pan out - given time, patience and possibly a lot more bite marks on me and hubby. I remain optimistic. If my optimism proved wrong and worn after another month - we may have to send them off to boarding school to learn to behave better. Boarding school for kids and dogs were equally exorbitant! A full 20 day camp (full board) for the doggies would amount to RM$3,000.00.. Makes me think i am in the wrong line...;)

The dog whisperer did say it would be better to try to work things out at home (better but takes a longer time as each dog assumes ownership of something or some space) rather than to send them to camp as the camp is considered neutral territory and both doggies will not have claims to anything there - making socialization easier but returning to the same problem when they come home.

I need to believe that our efforts and patience will see results we want. Some people may ask - why go through this? Why not just give one dog up? I considered some of these well meaning questions and i appreciate the concern. Both hubby and myself know that it will be a fairly long drawn out process and that we will need each other more than ever to see this through. But i think with each other, strong unfailing belief (bolstered by one another) we will achieve this goal. Afterall - we have overcome the many curveballs that life has already thrown us and we will continue to do so. I think this will bring us closer as a family.

I thank all my friends and family for their concern and I hope they will have unending support for our decision to keep these pooches and to be our shoulder to hold onto if we ever lose our stability or sight of our goal (for a doggie's fairy tale ending where they live happily ever after).

Saving the Doggies with Wolfie

Today i brought Wolfie with me to a charity carnival where i was supposed to help manage the adoption booth for rescued doggies. I was a bit apprehensive as i did not know how he would react to being around so many doggies but nevertheless i was determined to get wolfie out of the house so that hubby and poppet and enjoy a stress free morning - so off we went together to save some doggies.

He was marvelous! He behaved himself beautifully - non of the aggressive behaviour that he shows when poppet is around. Only the occassional bark to tell me to hurry back from my journey to fight some serious attack of the thirsty monsters.

He let children pet him and walk him and he even made friends with Billy another male dog that was there for PR purposes. There was also a guard dog show where I volunteered to be a "victim" of a snatch theft incident. I was supposed to be walking when a guy comes from behind, steals my newspaper, pushes me and runs off. I was instructed to scream "HELP! HELP!" And a trained German Sheperd named Rocky would be chasing after my assailant, biting him on the arm to wrestle him to the ground until the command was given to release.

I say - my performance demands an oscar la! Wolfie on the side was barking when he saw the guy push me - aaawwwwww.....he luves me that dog. It was a nice morning out doing some good but seriously hot! The best news is we will probably see most of the puppies adopted into good homes. We had lots of inquiries and we will have to screen the homes before the adoption can take place...more doggie saving duties...

We are home now in the comfort of our aircon living room. I am as usual sprawled on the floor, writing this blog with wolfie beside me asleep. He had a busy morning saving doggies as have I. I'm gonna catch a couple of winks with my dog wolfie (a short respite for the heros) and then when we wake in about an hour - he's gonna get a bath! I'm sure he's thrilled...NOT! (Even super dog Wolfie needs to smell nice!)

Shoeprints.....on my toilet seat

What can possibly be going thru a person's mind when they stand/squat on a toilet seat (to do their "business" i presume - otherwise why would they be in a toilet ....hmmmm....that one probably deserves more thought...)

Which century or era do they belong to? Have they just come out of hibernation from the deepest, darkest recesses of some underground cave that went deep into the annals of this planet EARTH?

The Discovery
Our office is similar to the Ally McBeal's office in that our toilet is also unisex. We have people coming in for training sessions and of course during the course of their training they will need to use the loos. As we are training adults - professionals i might add - we expected a certain level of publicly accepted behaviour.

Malaysians are used to the fact that their toilets are always wet. This is because the majority of the population of Malaysia are Muslims and they do not use toilet paper only water to clean up. So we were prepared for the wet toilets (and constant mopping) but i did not expect to find ... SHOEPRINTS ON MY TOILET SEAT!

Having said that i have heard that in the universities in Australia - a special orientation program for Malaysian and Chinese nationals have been prepared. In it they are told repeatedly - NOT TO STAND/SQUAT ON THE TOILET SEAT!

Anyway, there they were! I felt so violated...so dirty...i mean this was the seat i would have to sit on and there they were - black footprints where my precious bum bum would be. Thoughts of eek and eew filled my head. Once the shock had worn off then the anger set in. I wanted to grab the guilty stepper of toilet seats and slap him as hard as possible and call him (it's definitely a him as the shoeprints were too big for a woman and i did check out all the ladies feet size - discretely of course) horrible names and send him to an etiquette school!

Soon after i calmed down i went online to search for cute pics to illustrate the "No standing/squatting" policy in our office toilets. But could find none. So i settled on just large bold print text with loads of exclamation marks for better effectiveness! I prepared 2 for each of my small cubicles. All my posters were placed in plain sight - regardless if you just entered the toilet or were standing up to take a leak or sitting down (eeeeeewww) to do bigger business.

And two days later - there they were again! Not a lot you can do - short of installing a camera and violating someone's privacy. But thing is whilst we are so careful not to violate their rights to use the toilet privately, they are violating our rights to use the toilet by their inability or careless attitude towards other people's consideration. Honestly when i saw shoeprints on my toilet seat - i felt really really violated (about the same feeling i had when i was molested)

Profile of A Stepper
The suspects were all "professionals" in their field of work (pun intended). They looked normal, well dressed (well not all). Some looked a bit dodgy. Mostly Males. Big Dirty Shoes.

Another disgusting habit - The men's inability to lift the toilet seat to pee. Leaving spray marks all over the seat! That's just gross!! I mean - do they not learn anything in school? Are they so arrogant to think that there's always someone to clean up the mess?

Profile of a Toilet Seat Sprayer
Definitely Male
short sighted
Bad with guns or projectiles
High probablity of a short dick(too small to manouvre)
Arrogant or ignornant
High probability a Stepper

To Castrate or Not to Castrate

See...after i was bitten Hubby also got a taste of it...though not as bad as mine. So we decided that maybe both dogs should be castrated to ease the socialization process (which is already difficult with both dogs being male, around the same age and around the same size)

Hubby by this time has already had enough is more ready to give in to "the castrate them all" mentality - to be honest so was I. Having two dogs behaving as if they owned us like toys and fighting over these "toys" was enough. Bloody hell...the toys (being us) were sick of it.

So we went over the reasons why people castrate their dogs or at least the reasons given by the society in which they lived in gave for the need for castration.

1) it reduces agressive behaviour
2) they are more homebound, less territorial, less likely to hump
3) reduces unwanted puppies being conceived and born
4) reduces the risk of the dogs getting cancer

See...all these reasons were backed by an image that's being promoted society:

1) if you do castrate your pet - you are a responsible pet owner to the society in which you and the dog lives in
2) if you do castrate your pet - you are prolonging their life and reducing their risk of cancer
3) if you do castrate your pet - it is likely that your pet will stay more homebound and less likely to roam in search of the fairer sex - which makes looking after them easier.

Even with these solid reasons and the image of conformity and social consciousness that comes with castration - I HAD A PROBLEM CUTTING MY DOGS BOLLOCKS OFF!

I guess it's a fundamental thing. A living thing is born the way it is born (with nuts and all) WHO AM I TO TAKE THEIR BALLS AWAY? I mean i asked myself this question - if I knew now that in 20 years i might have breast cancer and that this could be avoided by cutting my boobies off right this minute - would i do it? Probably not.

So then people that have heard me whinge about this will tell me to stop being sentimental and to be practical about this. They urge me to make the practical and much adopted decision for an animal that cannot make it's own decisions. So let me tackle this practical side of castration.

The REASONS AND WHY NOT?!
1) Aggressive behaviour - there has been no studies localising aggressive behaviour to the removal of the testes. All vets for domestic animals will tell you that it's a possibility (50-50 chance). Some dogs do become less aggressive whilst other maintain their level of aggressiveness or increase their aggressiveness (who wouldn't? if you cut their balls off?!)
2) Aggressiveness is mostly a personality trait - this needs to be corrected but not through castration.
3) In response to being less territorial, less likely to hump, less tendency to stray away - the key word here is LESS. It is not an absolute. People with castrated pets will be witnesses to the fact that their ball-less pets still hump, fight and protect their territory.
4) In response to conception of unwanted puppies...well...that will happen if you let your un-castrated pet roam freely around the neighbour or beyond without your supervision (SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!)
5) Reduces the risk of cancer - well...it's not a myth. It's TRUE! It does reduce the risk of testicular cancer where a small minority of dogs are susceptible to. BUT CASTRATION INCREASES THE RISK of your pet getting prostatic cancer compared to a dog that is NOT CASTRATED. From what i understand - PROSTATE CANCER is far worse than TESTICULAR CANCER.

See...these arguments have essentially put reasonable doubt in my head as to the necessity of castrating the dogs. I find that mot people are ignorant of why they castrate their dogs. Of course there are situations why you would need to castrate them, medical reasons, safety reasons etc.

I find that most people want to conform to the image of being a RESPONSIBLE pet owner. Also the reason we castrate dogs without giving it much thought (our own versus that planted by society) is because it is conveniently lumped to the convenience of living with the dogs. Also it is a cheaper option and marketed as a less strenuous effort than training/trying to socialize the dogs

Dogs were historically wild animals, domesticated for various purposes to live and work with humans. We have come to love them and care for them. They are loyal to our needs and (i would like to believe) go the extra mile to keeps us safe, happy etc. Whilst we claim to treat our pets as part of the family - do we really?

Would i cut my sons nuts off if there was a danger of cancer in the future? Let's see - NO! It's life - people and animals will live and die various kinds of deaths. If you said yes - you have just denied your son quality of life for the REST OF HIS PROLONGED LIFE.

Would i cut my sons nuts off if they were not obedient, got into fights? I don't think so. Just like you would treat your family - education and training maybe the answer.

Call me silly, sentimentalist, ignorant...whatever comes to mind. I have decided to exhaust the non invasive method of dog socialization before going under the knife. Thanks to my local vet who explained how a castration was performed (Man - it was grim!!)! He spurred my efforts to trudge on bravely in the field of non invasive dog meets dog world of poppet and wolfie - hopefully with hubby walking bravely beside me!

Another episode that proves with all the convenience modern society provides the road of LIFE ain't easy and if you choose to LIVE LIFE - then we endure anything it throws at us - GOOD AND BAD - Nothing comes easy nor free! It has also made me want to think about what is actually being offered in our superficial modern sophisticated society....

Off With Their Nuts

The Ruler of Bubble-dom is pissed off beyond belief. I always believed in a peaceful (though sometime sarcastic) settlement of disagreements in Bubbledom. I believe that i'm never the one to start (most days) a confrontation and usuallythe one that ends all forced confrontations. But today is a whole new ball game!

Most days my dogs settle their greivances amongst each otherby tiring themselves out snarling, circling, snapping and biting each other. We provide some help in settling these petty issues (i.e. that's my mommy hand stroking you - Notallowed!! or that's my part of the floor you sleeping on - Not allowed!! or I dun like your face - Notallowed!!) by pulling them apart with brute force (believe me you that you really need arms of steel and that no weight training program in the market can get your arms in shape like holding back two actively aggressive trying to kill each other)

So the morning started not so good with the boys going at it at the gate even before we are out the door. Usually they are pretty well behaved once out walking but not this day. Not this morning. This morning both dicks (literally) went for it in the middle of the road. In summary, why i am so pissed off is because:

1) they hurt each other again
2) i lost my stick (actually i lost Hubby's stick - bet he'll be pissed off...)
3) I got bit in the leg
4) My leg got bitten
5) the bloody dicks got my leg....
6) oooowwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Essentially that's it! Is there anything to be said in their defence before sentencing is passed? NO! ZIP! ZERO! NADA! TAK ADA!

Therefore as a highly pissed off Ruler of Bubbledom with a sore leg - I now pass Sentence

"Off With their Nuts!!"

I will save my justification for this sentence in another post.

Early Morning Muse

My body's clock is all over the place! Slept on Friday night at around 1am. Woke up at 3am and then at 4am and then again at 5.30am. At 5.30am I decided that i might as well not bother going back to sleep as I needed to get hubby's things ready for his hike up some mountain (in preparation of his tibetan trip later this year).

Stretched out...yawn...and flipped outta bed and proceeded to get his stuff ready. I planned to get back into bed and catch a couple more winks after hubby goes off to do his boy thing and before i walk the doggies.

After hubby goes - i crawl back into bed, wrapping myself up like a big cotton popiah (spring roll) and sigh with contentment feeling all cozy ..... drifting off to sleep.....when... BAM!! - The electricity goes and i can feel the heat creeping up on me. Still i comforted myself that the room would remain cool enough to sleep for at least half an hour....when BAM! All hell breaks loose when the dogs go completely barking mad! (LITERALLY)

so then i dragged my sleepy self back upstairs - too tired to do anything. I decide against walking two possibly agressive doggies in my state and drag them one at a time out into the garden to make sure they pee and pooh there instead of in the house. This is followed by feeding and medicating (both dogs are a bit sick at the moment)

I contemplate my day - plan lots of stuff to do...*yawn*...the process of doing the plan...*yawn* *stretch*....snoooreeeee...........

But sleep is not peaceful....what with my dogs walking around and over me...sticking their nose in my ear...chewing my toes....growling at each other....

i wake up from my fitful rest at around 4.30pm. "Oh Fish! I have not done anything i planned...but wait i didn't get to plan...sleep took over! ahahahaha!"

Hope tomorrow will be a better day! I'm calling it an early night this Sunday morning! *Yawn* Good morning and good night!

My Doggies

My dogs - Poppet & Wolfie are both precious to me! Poppet has been with me for over a year and recently (due to no fault of my hubby...;)) he went missing. A simple case of "oooppsss...i accidentally opened the auto gate!" I believe my Poppet went in search of softer"company" and after finding it - found himself LOST!

We searched for him for 16 days and on Mother's day - we found him (how apt - seeing as i treat him like my baby!) 5kgs lighter and one sore toe. During his "holiday" away from home - our search took us to the Dog Pounds of Kuala Lumpur and there we found Wolfie and gave him a home!

When Poppet finally came home - he was of course not pleased to see another doggie in his home. We were in for a rough ride and i seriously doubted that they would ever get along. It's been 3 weeks since they first met each other and though they still get their respective furry knickers in a twist on occassion- they are able to walk together without incident (most days).

They are still a handful to walk especially when they try to tangle me up in a web of leads and legs and tails. But they are still my darlings and i hope one day (SOON) that they will get used to each other or at least tolerate each other better than they do now.

All I can say is that I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO HUBBY GOING TO TIBET FOR 3 WEEKS!!!!

The Newbie Agro

Blogging has been on my mind for a long time...well actually not (it kinda pops in and out of my mind...). My great sistah made me read hers and she makes writing a blog look sooo easy - can't say the same about most other blogs (yes...it's like having to eat poison or like vomiting blood...aka as muntah darah!)

Some friends of mine encouraged me to take up blogging (they felt i have repressed anger/childhood/adulthood issues and this would be a safe outlet for a nutter like myself!) - Actually they wanted to be able to view some of my underwater shots!

So i tot i might skive off work today and try my hand at this blogging thingy! I tot it might take away the stress that comes with work. BOY! WAS I WRONG!!!!!!!

The agro of it all....first you had to register, then you had to make a whole bunch of decisions on names, titles, colours, themes, templates, content, etc. I mean, this process required me to make more decisions than if i had to make when i was getting hitched (aka married, partners till either of us become food for worms)....

Then i had to post something - if not the blog looked really sad. As i'm writing this a throbbing headache has taken up residence in my left temple (throb throb throb)...actually this is turning out to be quite a headache (no pun intended on the posting of a blog) - i think my chronic migraine has returned. I'm gonna go now...get some chill pills for "The Throb"

Catch you all later with more news from Bubble-dom!