A taste of parenthood

Pepper is definitely an integral part of our family and truly like a child to us. Ever since we first got her, it has been hard leaving her to go to work. Even though one or both of us come home for lunch and to walk her, it is painful to think of our pooch being left alone in the house for a few hours at a time, missing our human companionship. We even feel bad going out on an occasional evening, knowing that she was by herself for most of the day. It is obvious how much she likes us being home due to the exuberant welcomes we get even after being gone for an hour or less!

I know that many parents must go through this separation guilt when they take their kids to daycare or leave them with a babysitter for the first time but, somehow (and call me crazy), at this point, thinking of leaving a child with another responsible adult seems a little less harsh than leaving a puppy... alone. We are not ones to "get another dog to make sure the first one isn't lonely" but I sure wish sometimes, when I see her little face peering out through our back glass door, that one of us was either a stay-at-home parent or worked about half as much.

Last week, our little Peppy went in to get her TAHBSO (as I have been stating) or get "spayed" as it is known to most people. She is about 17 months old but was a potential breeding dog (had one litter) and thus had not had her "female" organs removed (she actually was in heat the first day we had her) until just this past week. While I knew the vet hospital would take great care of her, when I starved her before (I think she was confused why she had to be "NPO" without breakfast), dropped her off, and then went off to work knowing she'd be put under, I worried, just like a Mom would. The hospital called me as soon as she was "out" of surgery, saying that everything went well, but I knew that she'd be freaked out by the new environment, and it did not surprise me one bit when they told me (when I picked her up the next day) that she didn't eat a single thing during her overnight stay even though we supplied some of her "normal" food from home. We missed her a whole lot the one night she was not with us!

And then she came home with instructions to wear the "e-collar" until her stitches our out, to prevent excessive licking or tearing. We can't bear to have it on her when we're around, as she just shakes and shakes trying to get it loose (last night around 1 a.m., she managed to jump on our side chair, side table, and onto my face, obviously expressing her agitation that she had to wear that "thing" on at night, when we could not well supervise her. Needless to say, we relented and took it off).

You can barely see it in this picture (it is clear plastic), but here is our poor poochie with the collar in place, getting ready for bedtime. She is so pathetic looking with it on. It seems much worse to put it on her when we are leaving for work but, alas, we don't really have an alternative.



In any case, next week I am going to be that protective parent who removes her own child's sutures rather than taking her back to the vet :) We may abandon the e-collar altogether soon.
And we definitely hope to have no more upcoming trauma for our canine child!

The Lost Coast

Kelvin and I drove down to the Bay Area on Tuesday in order to attend a contraception (Nexplanon) training session in Berkeley (I will put a plug in here that this [formerly Implanon, now with an improved applicator and now radioopaque (locatable) on xray] is a fabulous method of long-term, reversible contraception). On the way, we decided to spend a few hours visiting Shelter Cove and the "Lost Coast," named such as it was a region of California's Humboldt County coastline deemed (in the 1920s) too rugged for a road.




While difficult to reach (to get to the coastal town and Lost Coast Gateway of Shelter Cove, you must drive about a hour west from the main north-south highway 101), the area is a remarkable display of natural beauty and well worth the added time to visit.

We spent some time wandering around Black Sands Beach, named for its unique grain color from the grey sandstone of King Peak (a 4,088-ft peak a mere three miles from the beach) and the other mountains of the King Range. The King Range Conservation area was the nation's first conservation area, protected since 1970.







Pepper enjoyed the beach, too! :)


In the pet sling :)




We then drove through the pretty seaside town of Shelter Cove, stopping at a few viewpoints to look for sea lions and other wildlife off the coast (sometimes you can see migrating whales). Kelvin swore that these bobbing brown things in the water were animals, but I couldn't be sure.







We took some photos and admired the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse, which was built in 1868 and used to live about 30 miles north of Shelter Cove on California's westernmost point. However, it suffered quite a bit of damage in 1971, became non-functional, and the Coast Guard deemed it property that could be restored by an organization willing to move the structure; it was reassembled in Shelter Cove in 1999.



There are miles and miles of hiking trails in the King Conservation Area, including the Lost Coast Trail which extends for about 25 miles out of the town of Shelter Cove and on which you could trek for days. We didn't have enough time to tackle this, but plan to... someday.

Tuesday evening before our training, we hung out at Wai Kiu and Hanh's house and got to visit with many of our residency friends who re-convened for a delicious sushi night. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

Here is the best (and unsuccessful) attempt at getting two dogs (Shabu, Pepper) and a child (Mason) to look at the camera :)

Brad (with Shabu), Kelvin (with Mason and Pepper)


We drove straight home after our Wednesday conference.
It was a quick, but still very productive trip to the Lost Coast, Bay area and back.

Crab season!!

We are blessed on the North Coast with an abundance of fresh seafood. I have yet to try fresh abalone, but we are saving some smoked oysters from Trinidad in our fridge (for a special occasion), and, this weekend, took home freshly caught Dungeness crab from Captain Zach's Crab Shack in McKinleyville which we enjoyed at home. Yum!!!!

And then came the rain...

We had the driest December in Humboldt County in 120 years but are now paying for it. It's like all the rain for December was saved up and has fallen in the past few days. I do not think I've ever seen this much rain. I knew this area was supposed to have drizzly winter weather, but it has been POURING the better part of 5 days now. Our little neighborhood trail is flooded, I drive through lakes on the road on the way to work, and I'm not sure when it will end. The forecast looks like rain for at least another 7 days.

We felt so bad for Pepper, who doesn't really want to go outside in the rain as she gets drenched in about 3 seconds, that we did the unthinkable... we got her an outfit. I did NOT think we'd be those doggie "parents" who would dress up our canine child. However, this rain is just about intolerable. It was getting to be quite difficult to wipe down her paws with each and every walk in the rain, and towel her whole, shivering body dry when she comes back in. She seemed to be "holding" her urine and stool, which was a bit worrisome from our point of view, as she has been so well trained thus far without more than 2 accidents in the house her first week being here.

So K took a trip to our local pet store, where he purchased not only these little "Paws" rain booties to keep her feet clean and dry, but then (on impulse), a rain jacket (from Outward Hound) to boot!

Trying out the "Paws" indoors




The full getup (could she be a model?)


I have to say that I think that our little pup was quite embarrassed to wear the whole outfit. It really takes two of us to get the booties on right (they feel almost like little balloons -- stretchy, but snug around the ankles) and it takes about 4 minutes to get her "ready" to go out. She walks a bit funnily (i.e. high-stepping it) in the little shoes, but I think she tolerates them now, as they let her go out for a quick pee without coming back as a big ball of wet fur.

What do you think? :)




I only wish the rainjacket had a hood! :)
In any case, I hope this rain stops soon, so she can go out as a "normal" dog!

Bronze Medalist Bowlers

(iPhone quality photos)

I think I mentioned that Kelvin and I participated in a Thursday night bowling league this fall/winter with members of other clinic sites. I was, to put it mildly, NOT a very enthusiastic participant, usually hoping to get called out to a delivery rather than have to attend and bowl three painful and long games each week (my attention span is about one, 1.5 games, top and, unfortunately, Thursdays between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. was not a hot time for babies this year). However, Kelvin likes (and is quite good at) bowling, so I thought I was being a good, supportive wife in going, too, although I can think of about a bazillion other things I could have done (and would have rather done) the past ten Thursday evenings.

I am not a very good bowler. I did not really become a better bowler in the weeks we did this. I am not sure I plan to ever bowl again, as I think I have put in my lifetime's worth of bowling games. However, with the adjusted "handicaps" that they assigned to us, our team (comprised of K, me, Elise, and Kelly [MAs in K's clinic]) miraculously came in third place (out of eight). Kelvin got two individual awards-- I think for the highest raw league score (214) and something else I can't remember...

As you can see above, we got an actual trophy which, despite its female figurine, is displayed in K's office now :)



And, with that, I am retiring on a high note from the sport of bowling :)

Tiger children

My dear (and very musical) friend, Laura, posted this You Tube video on her Facebook page yesterday, and I just had to steal it to share.

Having recently read Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (a scary but entertaining read about the "superior," Asian way of parenting), I found this clip both relevant and remarkable.



One of the comments read, "No matter how good you get at ANYTHING, there is always an Asian kid half your age with twice your abilities." So true.

With my years of music education and Kelvin's Asian side, maybe (with or without Chua's extreme style of parenting, and someday, far in the future) we can produce children who can perform like this-- check it out! Thanks for sharing, Laura!

A Very Groomy Weekend

Serena kept commenting that our doggie looked too shaggy (in pictures). Her paws do get quite muddy in this damp climate (although we have continued to be blessed with more than our usual share of fabulous weather), and we agreed that she did need a clipping... however, we wanted to make sure that she was good and settled before subjecting her to a long (and potentially scary) grooming session. She tolerates daily coat brushing, tooth brushing, and toenail clipping (I was terrified I'd hit the "quick" and cause a lot of bleeding, but it went just fine!) quite well, so we figured we were ready for the next step. With the confidence that my husband now lets me regularly (q3-4 weeks!) cut his hair (you can read about the inaugural haircut here!), I figured I could tackle Pepper's hair without too much difficulty.

In fact, I used to be the official hairdresser for Toccata, the miniature schnauzer we got when I was about 10 years old (although I don't think I was allowed to cut her hair until I was in high school). I got a WAHL clipping kit (the same brand as we use for K's hair, although this was an actual animal one!) to be prepared to clip our pooch's locks.

It took Kelvin holding her for most of it (the electric part for her back, chest, and sides), and a few treats, but she did really well! We actually think she's quite cute with "some" shagginess, and so we didn't go really short, but did take off quite a bit. I wonder if she'd do any better at the groomers'-- I think they would do her hair for about $30, so we could consider taking her there if it got out of control or just to give us a break. However (like with taking the responsibility and time to cut K's hair), it was kind of satisfying to do it ourselves.

Before


During


After (doesn't she look more like a puppy? Serena, do you approve? :))





Despite that, following the haircut, I gave her a bath and then blow-dried her hair totally dry before we took her for her afternoon walk, she was still my best friend at the end of the night.


The next day, we tackled the adult's hair-cutting, which took about half as long (but that's just because I have had practice ;).

My two babies, post-grooming, watching football:


Besties