Of Fear, Food and Friendship

An "awww" moment on thursday:
As you may know, Cleo the kitty is now roaming freely in the appartment with Ginga and Booboo. They are indifferent to each other most of the time. It's especially true for the kitty and Ginga because Ginga is a bit intimidated by cats, for reason that Daisuke explained previously. Booboo is still trying to run at the kitty from time to time but kitty is less and less impressed so it's not as fun for Booboo.
Thursday, Ginga was in the bedroom with me, Kitty was napping in the hallway between the bedroom and the living room and Booboo was with I-mei in the living. I decided to get a drink for myself and treats for the doggies. I stepped over the stretching cat and open the treat bag, a sure signal that two fluffy heads will come soon enough with very interested looks on them. So I am quite surprised when only one set of pointy ears approached the kitchen. I turned around to look for the other 4-legged barker and I saw a doggy anxiously seating down by the end of the hallway, torn between proceeding towards the kitchen and not disturbing the queen kitty laying in the middle of the hallway.

You have to understand that there are very few things that can keep Ginga away from snacks. A burning fire is probably one ( not positive though) and the cat apparently, is another one. Cleo's psychological ascendancy on Ginga by now is well established. Cleo is, dare I say, the alpha-dog in the group. Booboo at first, was totally focused on not missing out on his treats but he realized that his partner-in-crime is oddly missing. He observed the whole scene, Ginga, the cat and the treats, then he analyzed the situation and knew what he had to do. He growled slightly to let the cat know he was coming and got a starting run. The cat jumped up and ran towards the other room. Ginga knew he had only a short window to escape so he got the clue and rushed towards the kitchen as Booboo made the diversion.
And that's how Booboo delivered Ginga from the "mean queen" Cleo and got him to get his favorite treats.
Another tale of fear, food and friendship in Lafayette, IN. Expect the unexpected. Booboo would never openly admit it but he does have a soft spot for his rounder brother Ginga. He is also warming up to his new sister but, one day at a time.

Starring Ginga as Oliver Twist

"Please Sir, May I have some more?"

All about Boo

These are interesting flowers, they were there in the morning but no sign of them in the afternoon.

Beware the eye of Sauron... but yield to the eye of Boo:

A Ginga story

As you know, there is a small concern about Booboo's weight.
So to remedy the slight weight loss, we figure that a bowl of puppy food every night can help him gain some needed muscles. Evidently, there is no such worry about Ginga :).
The problem is, everytime we give Boo puppy food, Ginga becomes increasingly depressed that he is deprived of the bonus food, especially tastier food.

To comfort his hurt feelings ( in the eyes of the Gingster, there is probably no bigger injustice
than unequal distribution of nourishments ), I-mei likes to hug him in a tight embrace for long minutes and whispers to him that he is as loved as much Booboo and that this situation is just temporary. You have to know that I-mei's hugs to the doggies are notorious for being of the choking kind. So at some point, either Ginga or Booboo have to escape for air. Today, Ginga decided to escape before the hug becomes unbearable. However, I-mei felt very sad about the early separation and started to fake-cry. We never tried that before so I expected Ginga to just walk on behind the table as he usually does. His reaction was priceless: first he looked startled and then he came back to I-mei and curled into her belly to comfort her and cuddle. It was the sweetest thing. For good measure, he added a little roll-over and a big Ginga smile. Yep, seeing that definitely felt like a royal treat.

PS: It is Madagascar's independence day so GB's had to have their walk outside with small multicolor lanterns.

A gift for William Wales

Prince William of Wales? or England? anyway William of Wales is celebrating his 25th birthday. A reporter was rhetorically wondering what does one give somebody who has everything. Well, I have the answer - a day with BooBoo and Ginga.

So, in the morning, Ginga comes in and wakes you up with a big sloppy kiss.

Then he positions and repositions his body for a massage. Even though it sounds like work, giving a massage is very good for relaxation. He will tolerate big hugs during this process.

By the time the Ginga massage is done, BooBoo will come in for an arse-rub and he gets very excited when you get up.

Then Ginga Boo perform a little wrestling match for your benefit - especially if you like photography, this part is a lot of fun.

A long, relaxing walk follows, during which Ginga and BooBoo attempt to compete with each other by seeing who can poo-poo the most. BooBoo is about half the size - it's amazing how he manages to keep up. This must be one of the wonders of the world.

During the walk, other doggie parents are running around and you get to meet them, as well as people driving by who smile at you very kindly. This is particularly good for the prince, as he can be sure they are smiling at him because of the doggies, and not because of his fame and fortune and all that stuff.

Then, training time... as long as some treats are brought out, doggies will cycle through everything they know - sit, lay down, roll over, speak etc. and you can teach them new stuff as well. Ginga in particular becomes a genius when there is food around. It's extremely satisfying when they do what you want them to...

One can then go for enjoying nature aka taking the doggies to the woods so they can go off leash and you can enjoy the wild outdoors. Now you can find where squirrels hide and how fast they can climb up a tree when faced with BooBoo and Ginga.

Once home you realise that you are out of treats and go to the store to get some. When you get back they jump around and are very excited to see you, even if you just took 10 minutes to come back. Well BooBoo does the jumping around and Ginga dances.

I've never seen any paparazzi around gingaboo so the prince will be safe in that regard too. In conclusion, the best gift to give the prince who has everything is a day as a commoner, with a chance to get unconditional love from some little Princes.

GingaBoo approves of Paul Potts

A not-dog related video at all but just because this is so awesome.....
And also, Booboo and Simon Cowell are distant cousins. What ? You could not tell ?

Chloe

Ginga and BooBoo's friend Chloe came visiting from Chicago to get away from the big city and enjoy life in the rural wilderness. We introduced Ginga to Chloe first. Chloe initially didn't take too well to Ginga's sniffing of her behind and there were a few moments when Ginga got told off. Ginga also got snapped at when he tried to mount Chloe... Ginga - not on the first date, buddy. Fatass treated Chloe with a little more respect after that and we think he's on the path to becoming a true 'gentledog.' This is Chloe.

Wish I had muscles like that!

Ginga and BooBoo also had lots of fun. And, they responded to "Come" very well. OK OK so we had to bribe them!

All the doggies decided to have mud baths. Wish they were as happy about having baths in good, clean water. Ginga decided that he was going to try to avoid the after-walk bath by rubbing some of the mud off the grass.

BooBoo later had fun in the fountain - that did not save him from a proper bath though. Even the high pressure of the fountain couldn't take off the smell of whatever dead animal he had rolled around in.

Dog Conference 2007

Lots of doggies decided to attend this year's dog conference to chat. Our secret informer inside the conference gave us these exclusive photos of what transpired. The main topics of discussion included poop, pee, rabbits, squirrels, trash, stinky dead things and how to pretend to not understand what the annoying human is saying. Needless to say Ginga Boo are experts at that but the other doggies also gave them some pointers.

We couldn't sneak a picture of all the participants, but here are some of them:
Tango, Ginga, Goucho, Lily and Scottie. Tango's half border collie, half retriever (something like a Boonga), Goucho's a half border collie, half collie and Scottie's all Border collie.

Here's Tango, posing, also featuring Ginga, not posing.

Goucho tries to tell Lilly, "How YOU doin'?"

Tango and Lily really hit it off together, despite Goucho's interest. They looked like black and white versions of each other and kept sneaking off into the bushes and coming back looking very happy. Goucho looks confused... the how you doin' look always works with all the other ladies.

Apparently there was lots of other action too. Ginga was the initiator this time and in the thick of things.

The black-and-whites volunteered to check up on the best spots for perfume and massage. Unfortunately they rolled all over the stinky dead stuff before anybody else could get there so their scouting didn't quite benefit the conference. Well they're smiling now but they won't be once they get showered at home.

They came back pretending nothing had happened. The smell is tell-tale though doggies. Even the humans within miles can smell that.

Ginga enjoyed himself thoroughly. He took up the role of the guard and went ahead on the trail and looked back every now and then to make sure everyone was following. The other doggies didn't know what "trail" meant so they were after every squirrel in the woods. If they didn't come back when called, though, Ginga had something to say to them. Tough love with Ginga. With his short stature and military bearing, maybe he was Napoleon in a previous birth.

Ah yes the humans bring welcome food. Excellent.

Wait... oh Ginga got it first. Now there won't be any left for anyone else. No point in trying.

BooBoo and Scottie may be related. They had the same mannerisms. Hey, maybe we brought home the wrong one, this could be just like parent trap.

We were afraid Benji couldn't keep up but he was a trooper. Since he can't see he had to go by his other senses... often his senses told him to go away from where all the big dogs were making lots of noise. Although he could not resist posing when the camera was on him.

Boo took a particular liking to Benji and made sure he kept up. Benji didn't like that very much usually. He's older than all of the rest, he can take care of himself. Sorry Benji, hang around with enough Border Collies and you'll start getting herded.

After the conference concluded the dogs decided to rest.

When asked, Lily said the conference was delicious and also flirted with our correspondent. Or was she just licking off the remainder of some food?

Have a good summer everybody, more conferences will be arranged soon.

Spring is in the air

...and BooBoo says HI! Those are some intense eyes, BooBoo.

Ginga wants to serve and protect like his german shepherd ancestors. The birds are not a threat to us, Ginga.

BooBoo also decided that looking at us would not get him any treats. But sitting down and staring at the birds might get him an off-leash experience.

More about Ginga's Origins....

Ginga was found on the net by his first mom (thanks to modern technology), after searching lot of dog pictures on famous pet listing sites she came across a cute puppy pic from South Bend, IN. I think it said only $49.99( actually its a measure owners use protect their dogs from being sold for experiments to labs by some ppl) . So we drove to south bend. To our surprise there were a lot more dogs than we had imagined. We even met his mother and other brother and sisters, there were lots of them from the family we got ginga. We were presented with 2 choices one was ginga and the other his mirror lookalike brother. Ginga was more friendly and playful.

ginga is a German Shepherd ( ithink his mother was the shepherd) and Golden retriever mix (no he does not have any beaggle or chiuwaha in him). although one can argue abt that based on his short legs.

Since he was only 3-4 mnths old, and it was winter, if we took him outside he use to start shaking bcoz of the cold, so his mother use to put him in her jacket and zip it up with only his head sticking out ( he was not 30 kgs and dint find playing in snow blizzards fun then).

He kept making puppy crying noises for many days and we felt really bad that he was seperated from his family. He was really cute and his puppy eyes could melt anything...

Origins of Ginga

Ginga and Boo welcome Ginga's ex-daddy Daisuke as a guest writer on the blog. Here is his first post:

Origins of Ginga: Ginga is a from a far far away land called south bend in indiana where he had many brothers and sisters and a mom. He was only 3 or 4 months old then. His friendly personality stood out amongst his siblings. We were immediately melted by his cuteness. So we put him in our car. He cried all the way to W laf and for few more days... he really missed his mom and family. But soon ginga mixed up with us and became a integral part of our family... His name was decided from the famous Japaneses Anime called "GINGA", story of an Akita Inu pup called Gin (Japanese for "silver") who leaves his owner, a young boy named Daisuke, to join a pack of wild dogs. The pack is gathering strong dogs from all over Japan to fight a deranged bear named Akakabuto and his minions... (although i am not sure if ginga is on such a mission looking at his fitness and reading abt his eating habits)..more abt ginga's life before joining the new family...

Black... the pets are all black

The fatass Kitty was just sitting around

So we gave her something to do... she had some fun catching the string. Her claws are the reason why GB don't meet her very often.

I think Lova took this pic... I love it, looks like snow next to a river and there's a sunset to boot. edit: Lova says I-mei took the photo. Thanks Imei.

BooBoo is the King of the hill, and he's enjoying the view

Time to climb down the hill

Although G-man does not quite fit with the theme of the post... he does have some black on him so here is Ginga...

...and no he's not eating the shoe, he's using it as a pillow. Lazy Ginga.

Bow to the snow