Expensive doggy

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

It's been busy, busy, busy for hubby and me but something popped into our mail a week ago that totally made our day. About a month ago, we decided to start the new year by sponsoring some kids under Compassion Canada.

We went to the website, made our selections and waited for the kiddy packs to arrive. It took much longer than expected because they got lost and damaged along the way, but they finally arrived after a month with apologies from the Canadian post. Woohoo!

But no worries. My time in between was well-spent pelting Compassion Canada with emails. (Yes, I'm one of those irritating people-types.)

Anyway, I was so excited, I stayed up till 1am reading all the material and the dos and donts for writing to the kids. I even broke out my pretty letter writing sets and penned my first letter.

No, my handwriting's not that bad. I just pixelated the details.

I must say, most of my writing material is over 20 years old! I'm a stationary geek and I used to collect all manner of remotely cute paper stuff that I'm finally putting to use!

One of the things I can send the kids are photos so I hauled the family into the living room after dinner for a group shot. I think the flash was a bit bright or something cos you can see my bro's singlet underneath his white shirt! So ah peh!

In case the kiddies can't identify us, we included the shot below. The kids are quite poor and many live aka Slumdog Millionaire, so one of the guidelines for photos is not to take shots with any expensive, wealthy looking stuff, such as your Ferrari collection or 2,000 carat diamond ring.

With this in mind, we carefully selected our attire...

What do you think? I was nicely tucked in bed when hubby chucked me out to take this shot. Hey, at least the colours match! ... Some days they don't.

By now you're probably wondering what all this has to do with Danny. Well, I was doing up my sums the other day, and this is roughly how much it costs to keep Danny alive:

Grooming: $45 (once in 3 months)

Food: $50 (once a month)

Training: $200 + $900 (one-time)

Toys, leashes, replacement towels, cushions and wires: Lost count

By contrast, it costs roughly $45 Sing to feed, clothe and educate a child in Ethiopia, AND this is without the mental aggravation.

Danny's only plus point, he comes fully clothed.

"I'm expensive. Feed me."

All set for CNY

Danny's latest adventure with wet paint totally earned him a trip to the groomers. He had an appointment with Bryan in anticipation of CNY so we didn't bother trying to clean off the paint.

Hey, it's Nippon Weatherbond, meant to withstand sun, rain, hail and snow. I didn't think it would come off easily. Plus we didn't want Danny roaming the house smelling of turps.

Bryan was all booked up for the weekend and I couldn't take leave. So the plan was for Rhoda to walk him there around lunch time, and I pick him up on my way back from work.

I had to work late that day and made it to Bark Angel 15 minutes before closing. The first thing I heard when I stepped through the door was Danny half yelping half howling.

By rough calculation, he had been waiting for me for about six hours.

I turned to one of the staff, "Er...I think that's my dog." The guy nodded and looked positively relieved.

"Has he been doing that the whole afternoon?" He nodded again. Oops.

Still, he handed Danny over with a smile and charged me the mini schnauzer rate of $45, even though Danny's more like a maxi schnauzer. They had to shave him really close to get rid of the bits with paint and in some places, you can almost see his skin. I'm sure he felt a draft.

Danny was estatic to see me. I think he thought we had abandoned him. He didn't have his chew toy, didn't have his afternoon nap and was stuck in some weird place where they grope your tush and shave it bald.

He was nice and quiet in the car and when we hit home, he greeted everyone, headed to his corner and went straight to sleep.

So now I have a nicely groomed dog all ready for CNY.....which is more than I can say for his owner. :Þ

PS: Oh yeah, on a seperate note, someone abandoned a 2-month-old red poodle puppy on the street near Bark Angel. The staff took her in. I saw her when I went to pick up Danny. She was quite weak and was having fits. I guess that why she was left behind. They said they would bring her to the vet in the morning.

Don't you just hate people who chuck their pets? If she's really that sick at least put her down humanely! Grrr....!

Momma's lil helper

We had a busy, busy weekend preparing for Chinese New Year. A whole bunch of relatives will be descending on our house on Sunday and mom volunteered us for cleaning duty. She herself spent the bulk of the day getting the garden ready, repotting plants and stuff.

Danny began the day indoors, but as there is no clean house when Danny's about, we soon quarantined him with mom. Which turned out quite well.

Mom was puffing and panting, trying to loosen the soil in the ground so she could stuff it in pots. Danny observed her for a minute before he dived in and sent the dirt flying. Schnauzers, it seems, are bred to dig and chase after all sorts of underground creatures.

I guess he wanted to show her how it was done.

Mom just happily scooped up whatever he tossed out. After a while he got a bit bored and decided to help Rhoda.

That didn't turn out quite so well.

Rhoda, you see, was busy painting the garden wall. By the time I saw him at dinner, he had white highlights on his butt.

Do you see it? No? Let's go a bit closer... Taadah!

He even managed to get a couple of splotches on his head!

Although for a dog with a white paint-matted tush, he looked really pleased.