BlaringSmelly

Sunday afternoon the snow started to come down. Hours went by and there was no sign of stopping. Around 10pm, ktula took Mango out for walk. Upon opening the door, ktula turned to me and asked if I wanted to take pictures of Mango running in the snow.

That’s when I noticed the ground is covered in snow. No!!!

Enough with the snow already, we were snowed in for an entire week not too long ago. My bitterness toward snow is still fresh in my memory. I do not want to deal with another snow day.

Good thing most the snow melted by next day morning.

Lately, Mango develops an annoying behavior. He growls and barks at the smallest rustle outside the house. We tried to stop him using time out method. Either he is stubborn or not too bright, the progress is slow.

Last week we had a guest over. He met Mango when he was just a wee pup so he was no stranger. But Mango was very unfriendly toward him. The barking continued even after we gave Mango time out. Usually Mango calms down as soon as he is in his crate but not this time. Ktula gave our guest some treats to give it to Mango. Mango refused to take any from him and remained tense the entire time he was here.

Mango’s behavior had us worry. We want to find out if he is behaving this way to everybody visiting the house. So over the weekend we asked ktula’s sister and her fiancé James over. Mango doesn’t know James. This could get interesting.

We asked Paul’s sister to come in first. To our biggest fear, Mango was barking at her. Moments later, James came in. I didn’t see what happened exactly. Mango was alert at first, but warmed up to James in matter of minutes. After that, Mango was back to his normal self and was quiet as a mouse. Mango bugged James to play fetch with him the entire time.

What a huge relief knowing Mango is not hostile to all our guests. Next, we need to figure out what’s causing him to act nervously. Never did I foresee Mango would become territorial and protective of us. I guess this is kind of like raising a kid. You do the best you can and pray the kid would turn out ok. Oh~ the joy of parenthood.

Mango made some new friends at the December Shiba Meetup. Typhoon is the cream color one, Sunny is the sesame color shiba.

Typhoon is also 7-month old. Mango finally met his match - both were mouthy and obnoxious pups. They were playing with each other for the most part. Good thing they kept each other company.

An aggressive shiba gave Mango a good bite on the face. The bite was just skin deep, but Mango was shocked by the attack. To shake him off from the trauma, I started running to let Mango chase after me. Mango forgot all about the attack and was having fun in no time.

Overnight Seattle was dumped with tons of snow. This was easily the biggest snow day I’ve seen in my 8 years living in the area. Both ktula and I didn’t make it to work. Snow continued coming down in the day and there was no sign of stopping.

Ktula took Mango out in the morning. Mango was chasing after the snowflakes and was captured in a short video.

Early afternoon, Mango and I went out for a walk. Being a hardy Shiba, he was having a blast in the snow. His thick winter coat kept him warm and looking like a fluffy bear. While I was slowly freezing to death in my insufficient snow gear, Mango took his time exploring every inch of snow-covered landscape. Well at least one of us is having fun.

Today started like any weekday. Little did I know today would turn out to be one of those days that things just don’t go the right way.

I came back around 2pm to take Mango to his afternoon walk. Mango chose a nice grassy area to poop. After he was done, I reached into the bag only to find I used up the last poo bag this morning. Realizing I had nothing to scoop Mango’s poo, I felt like one of those dog owners I hated so much for not picking up after their pets. Walking away from the crime scene, I was embarrassed as hell. After quickly taking Mango home, I returned to clean up. Picking up cold poo is so much worse than picking up fresh warm ones.

After work, I took Mango to Seattle Center. Maybe it was the evening traffic noise or the stormy weather, Mango was quite jumpy and nervous to follow me. Half dragging and half pulling, I managed to get close to Seattle Center before Mango’s collar suddenly snapped open. Mango was loose and he took off running away from me.

Holding on the other end of the leash, I couldn’t believe what just happened. Horrible thoughts flashed through my mind of Mango being lost for good, Mango being hit by car, or Mango becoming a stray dog. My first reaction was to chase after him. Then I remembered there’s no way I could out run him. Out of desperation, I squatted down and made a cheerful call. At this point, Mango was already half a block away. Amazingly, he heard my call and stopped running. I yelled out “Mango come!” and started cheering like I was having so much fun with him. To my relief, Mango put on his smiley face and started running back to me like he would do during our recall exercises.

After securing his collar, I was kissing and hugging Mango regardless of passerby’s strange looks. Holy cow, that was too close a call. I was so thankful he responded to my call. I recalled Diane stressed the importance of recall exercise. Diane was right. I can not imagine what’s going to happen if it wasn’t for the training. I’m so proud of my little guy.