Moving on with twice the fun!

As some of you know, the day after Christmas, we adopted a Jack Russell Terrier puppy named Obiee. Since this blog is Mochi-centric, we've decided to chronicle the pair's adventures in a new blog - http://mochiandobiee.blogspot.com/

Day at the beach!

In early September, we took Mochi to Fort Funston, based on the recommendation and experience my sister had bringing her dog there.  It's the first beach/national park I've been to that officially allows dogs to roam around off leash.  We thought he would have a good time at the beach since he didn't seem too scared after the first time we put him in a swimming pool.  That time, we gently put him in the pool, and then he frantically swam to whatever edge seemed closest.  He let us do that a few times, so we figured he isn't as fearful of water as his cousin Joey.

Of course, mochimommy was quite worried about a 13-lb dog getting swept away by the current, so as soon as we reached the beach she prayed, "Jesus, keep him safe!" Jesus delivered and we all returned home in one piece. Of course, that didn't stop mochimommy from shooting serious eyes at mochidaddy with a stern, "protect my dog" every time mochidaddy lured Mochi to the shallow pool to play in.

Joey stuck as far away from the shoreline as possible, so we didn't see the usual Mochi & Joey show at the beach until we hiked back up to the cars. Joey was much happier away from the water.  Here's uncle kento and auntie jenny admiring Mochi's lack of fear when it comes to the water.

Punkin'!

Here is Mochi in his Halloween costume. We went to Googleween, where he tried to play with other dogs in costume but we got there a little late so there weren't many other dogs around. He did run into his cousin Joey and they were both sad that they only got to see each other for a few minutes, but we promised him (and uncle kento promised Joey) that they'd see each other later.

Needless to say, his headpiece did not stay on for very long.

Spoiled Dog!

If you can't already tell, Mochi is quite spoiled. Just a few reasons:

The last several months have been a little busy for mochimommy and mochidaddy: In the middle of mochimommy studying for the GRE, we decided to train for a half-marathon. Training for the half took up a tremendous amount of time, which mochimommy _thinks_ led to some of Mochi's summer acting out, primarily the chewing. We came home to find the couch arm chewed. So we blocked it with the side table. Mmm hmm. (pictures to come)

Then gramma asked us to hold on to some furniture for a few weeks. Mochi took to the blue chaise lounge...and promptly chewed it. Luckily gramma gave it to us (Mochi) when she was gifted new furniture.

So with the extended hours away mochimommy and mochidaddy realized that most of Mochi's acting out happens when we get home later than 7 pm. (Except for brief bouts of buttheadedness - see "30 minutes of destruction.") Which has led us to consider whether or not we should get him a brother or sister - especially before mochimommy starts grad school. We've got the majority of aunties (aunties lissa and jenny), uncle davy and gramma n calling us "crazy" for thinking about getting another dog when the one we've got is so high-energy and spoiled, with support from auntie crystal, grampa n and probably gramma h. Not sure where uncles kevvy and kento and grampa h fall. (Gramma h reports that if we get another dog, the next time we go on vacation she'll stay at our house rather than housing a total of five - yes, five - small yappy dogs at her place. Four was enough for her. :)

Another aspect of Mochi's spoiledness is the morning routine. For several months now, when he wakes to go shi-shi (pee), usually between 5-6 am, we let him snuggle in the bed with us. (I think we've been doing this since camping.) He acts really frantic, trying to get under the covers as quickly as possible and sometimes wants to skip going outside altogether. When we get up, particualarly on cold mornings, he decides he wants to stay in bed as long as possible. And on Sunday mornings after he eats his breakfast, he can usually be found in a snuggle bubble in our bed - he doesn't even get up to see mochimommy off to church.

As the weather's turning colder, Mochi's been shiver-buggin' a lot. So we bought him a $40 jacket. But he's so handsome in it! Also, his jacket came in handy when mochidaddy forgot to turn the heater back on after our Thanksgiving trip. Bad mochidaddy! Good thing mochimommy put it on him before she left for work.

With the cold weather comes Mochi's need for increased snuggling. On said cold day, mochimommy asked him if he wanted to snuggle when she finished dinner. Mochi got super-excited and when to the spot on the couch where we snuggle. So not only is he super-spoiled, he's super-smart. And last Friday he spent most of the day on mochimommy's lap while she worked. He even runs up and stares at the laptop, willing it to move so he can occupy the lap instead. mochidaddy and mochimommy have learned to quickly raise the laptop to prevent Mochi from helping us compose emails or otherwise type. We've both sent incomplete emails thanks to Mochi's help.

Spoiled dog.