It has been almost 2 weeks

Kopi-O has joined this household for nearly 2 weeks. He has brought nothing but joy to us… :)

A few days after he arrived, on Friday 18th Mar, I remember, he didn’t eat and had no mood to play. That was about 6am. When I went to see him again at 9am, he vomitted and had diarrhoea. Blood came out of his poo! We were petrified and immediately sent him to the nearest animal clinic we knew. He was so week, he had to be hospitalised.

We brought him home that night. Weak as he was, he still wagged his tail when brought home.. I supposed that he licked something off the toilet floor and contracted some flagellated bacteria inside his body which gave him the vomit. I mass cleaned the house and made sure that we puppy-proofed our stuffs…

To keep him safe, we bought him a pen. part of his right leg had to be shaven in order to put him on drip during hospitalisation. Poor Kopi-O :( He looked so sad that day… (He had 2 injections)


He recovered fast! Within 2 days, he was up and running :) We had to leave him for some time on Sunday to attend my BIL’s wedding, but he was very well behaved.

For a few days he started to have normal stools.. but  had a bad habit – he ate and licked his own stools. That caused him to have diarrhoea again! So we had to bring him to the vet for injection again…. And more antibiotics for him…

To add to that, he was scratching so much that it was painful to watch.. According to the vet, he has yeast infection, aka, dog dandruff. So we bought him an E-collar so that he won’t go and lick the affected areas. He hated the collar – he would try every opportunity to get rid of it!!

Even this morning, there were still traces of blood in his stools and they are not semi-solid, more of a liquid. I have to continue feeding him charcoal until he has semi-solid stools. But how to prevent him from eating his own poo? We poured vinegar on his poo and this seemed to put him off, but I’m not sure whether this is a long term solution…

Other that those aforementioned minor mishaps, Kopi O is a very happy dog :) He loves to chase. I noticed also that he sleeps differently from the other dogs I’ve seen. His hind legs are spread out when he’s relaxed and sleeping.

 

Here comes Kopi-O

It’s already the middle of March… I have not had the luxury to update this blog for a long time :( For the past few months, I did not feel like switching on the computer when I returned from work. I felt exhausted and aimless..

However, I felt the renewed vigour to continue chronicling my life after the arrival of Kopi-O, my sheltie :) I’ve always wanted a dog, and felt that now is the right time… he gave me new directions to move in my life… Why the name Kopi-O for a dog? Unfortunately, that’s not his coat’s colour; he’s actually sable and white… My hubbie and I are both coffee addicts, but coffee is a name for bitches, so we decided to give him a more masculine sounding name…

Ain’t he cute? Shetland sheepdogs are supposed to be smart dogs. According to experts, they rank no. 6 in the 132 breeds tested!  I’m currently trying to toilet train him. Before he’s housebroken, we’re keeping him in the kitchen toilet and training him to do his business on a tray.

He came to us on 15 Mar 2011, at 2 mths old. To us, it was love at first sight… he stood out from the rest of the puppies. Yes, he was excited to see people, but he was calm and didn’t bark. Come to think of it, I have not heard him bark these 2 days, not even when he puked on the cab on his way home :( I’ve only heard him whimper…. He loves to play, and runs like a deer :)

The first day we brought him back, we fed him the food given by the breeder, but that upset his stomach. We had to purchase puppy food, and are glad that it’s calming his stomach. Imagine the mess I had to clean up yesterday.. I’m sure God gave me this puppy to prepare for greater things ahead :)

Puppies are curious creature. When let put of his den, Kopi-O sniffs around and attempted to chew several things. To help him curb his chewing habit, we purchased 2 cheweble toys for him today – a green turtle and a mini bone. He seems to prefer the bone over the turtle. Maybe because the turtle is round and he finds it hard to grip with his mouth…

I’m looking forward to more happy days with kopi-o :)

Hong Kong Hiatus – Other moments worth mentioning

Of course there are also other places that we visited while in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to explore the New Territories, perhaps next time..

Below is the famous dim sum restaurant – Heung Lin @ Sheung Wan. Boy is that place crowded… so many people and it was so difficult to get delicious food. I don’t think it’s really worth it. We discovered a cheap and good Dim Sum place at our hotel. That was better :)

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One of the days, hubby’s friend brought us to Causeway Bay. On our way to Times Square, we passed and overhead bridge. There was a gathering there, not to pray to unknown Gods, but to engage a “bomoh” to “beat the little man”. I was surprised to see many young people believing in such awful deed…

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This was taken at the entrance of Times Square. Again, so many people! My mom complained that she felt dizzy looking at all these people :( The shopping centre itself is nothing special really.. Sg also has many shopping centres, and HK stuff are not cheap!

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The night we returned to Macau, we headed towards Tsim Sha Tsui to catch the Symphony of Lights. The picture below was taken in 1881 Heritage. Very elegant place, filled with upmarket shopping! Why 1881 Heritage? I have no idea…

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It was tough getting a good spot to view the Symphony of Lights. There were so many people there, people of all races and skin colour! I took many shots, but because it was night and there was no tripod, only a handful turned out okay. I’m glad to be able to capture a clear shot like the one below..

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On our last day at Hong Kong, we took the Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central. It was only about 20c :) and we enjoyed the nostalgic feeling the sea breeze brought…

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This is a view of Tsim Sha Tsui from Central. The sun was setting then…

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We tried 2 hotels in Hong Kong – Royal Plaza and Panda. I wasn’t fond of the first one but Panda Hotel made an impression. I love the cute pandas that they used to decorate the hotel lobby :)

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The rooms are small, but comfortable :)

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We stayed on the 27th floor. It was my first time staying at such a high floor… This is a view of Tsuen Wan from my hotel window… HK architecture is amazing – how they manage to erect skyscrapers on solid hills!

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I didn’t really enjoy my 1 week in HK – I felt that it was too hectic…and things are expensive! But I will definitely go back again….maybe to Disneyland next time :)

Hong Kong Hiatus – Lantau

2 days before departing, we visited Lantau Island. It’s a beautiful place, not as busy as Kowloon and Hong Kong island, and it’s filled with rolling hills and surrounded by great beaches :)

Our aim was to take a look at the famous giant Buddha. To get there, we opted to take the cable car – the crystal cabin, where one can have a 360 view of the vista, where one can actually see through the bottom of the cabin. Although scary, I did not regret this…

We shared the cabin with 4 other Sg women. The journey took about 25 min. From the cable cabin, we could see the airport, fishing villages, factories, and rolls of hills… However, that day we had a very bad overcast and the haze simply blocked most of the view.

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This is a picture of the giant Buddha taken when we approached our destination. It made me wonder how they brought the materials up to construct the site. Helicopter?

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On the way to Polin Monastery and hence on the giant Buddha, we passed by this Bodhi tree where people write the wishes and hang them on the tree.

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Alas the giant Buddha!! My Hubby and I conquered the hundred of steps to reach the top!! The wind there was extremely strong, almost on par with those I experienced at the 12 Apostles :)

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View from the top – because of the haze, we couldn’t see very far :(

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There was nothing much at the Giant Buddha except some museum that showcase ancient chinese literature. Thus we made our way down to Polin Monastery. One should try the vegetarian snacks there! It’s simply delicious :)

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We took the cable car back to Tung Chung. This time there was only 4 of us. The wind was very strong and 4 persons’ mass is not enough to stabilise the cabin against the strong wind. So we were swaying here and there… I was a bit petrified, but it turned out ok :)

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Hong Kong Hiatus – Macau

Frankly, I don’t really like Macau. Despite the hype about her food and historical monuments, I find the city more suitable for gamblers! Almost every single hotel in Macau offers a casino of some sort…

There was an extremely long Q when we reached the Macau custom – we had to wait more than 1 hour for the immigration to clear. It was worse than the Sg-JB Causeway custom :( On top of that, we were greeted by an air quality worse than Hong Kong; is it because Macau is nearer to the mainland? What irked me even further was the fact that we were also “cheated” by a private car masquerading as a cab…. We did not know that taxi rides in Macau are a lot cheaper than in Hong Kong :(

Our first stop that day was the ruins of St Paul. The sheer number of people there dampen any awe I had for the monument… It’s nothing special really… Just a structure that resembles a gate of some sort…

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Night time, Macau has a different facade. The streets are well-lit with colourful neon lights and the air seems less polluted.  From St Paul, we walked towards Grand Lisboa, sampling the local delights on the way. I’m also not sure what’s the hype about Macanese food except the for biscuits…

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This is Hotel Grand Lisboa. It reminded me of a “Hu Lu”… Beautiful architecture, with even more elaborate interior! We toured the casino there but resisted the temptation to sin :)

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The next day, after breakfast and before returning to Hong Kong, we took a cab across to Taipa and visited the Venetian. Now, I was utterly impressed with the architecture of this hotel. It makes any hotel in Singapore appear dingy… Just look at the ceiling!

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And the floor, which looks 3D and can cause dizziness if you stare at it for too long….

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Wouldn’t it be nice if you have a wedding here and walk down the spiral staircase? This hotel is huge! It houses many floors of casino, guest rooms, ball rooms and shopping centre!

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What was more intriguing was that the shopping mall has a canal where one can take a boat ride from beginning to end. Expensive boat ride…. I supposed it’s part of the design to make the whole place look like Venice :) They even installed false sky within the mall… Haha!

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The rest of Macau was not much of a sight… The buildings seem old and crowded together.

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Will I go back? Maybe… maybe not….