A friend asked me if I had photos of Ginger and Lucy, and I realised, even though I've got loads of them, they were mostly in my hard disk, and I had to prowl through them each time just to show my fav pics. So, I'm going to put some of the more memorable/fav ones here (with commentary) so that I can just point to this link the next time anyone asks. :)Starting from 2002...the year we got Ginger, or rather Tinkerbelle - the name given by the ex-owner's 7-year-old daughter who wanted to buy Ginger from the pet farm because (guess what?) Ginger was cute! Who knew? Six months later, Ginger (surprise!) grew so big that she was knocking down the daughter, and the rest is history...
So, we got Tinkerbelle, and we decided that the name Ginger suited her better, simply because - 1) she's ginger in colour, 2) she has a gingerly demeanor.
One of the challenges of having a bitch is when she's in heat. It's fine if it's a small bitch because you probably wouldn't notice anything but Ginger was 30kgs at that time when she had her first season. To my horror, she was DRIPPING all over the floor, and there were puddles of blood EVERYWHERE. So, it's either I mopped the floor for three weeks or put her in one of those doggy "underpants". Of course, I chose the latter although I later realised it was just as bad an idea because she was like, HELLO HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO PEE? I ended up having to closely monitor her pee signal, and if I didn't or couldn't, she would pee through the whole thing, and it was back to floor-mopping until the underpants had been washed and dried. If you're wondering why didn't I get an extra pair, it was because I didn't think it was worth spending another $60 on something that was going down the rubbish chute after a couple of weeks especially since she was going to be spayed the moment her season was over. So, there I was, mopping the floor AND washing her underpants EVERYDAY for THREE whole weeks, and thinking to myself why did I get a bitch instead of a dog? :p
The other challenge we faced when she was in heat was how to "ward off" advances from the opposite sex because, DUH! SHE COULD GET KNOCKED UP BY SOME ROGUISH RAKE OUT THERE. Of course, we could keep her at home the whole time she's having her season but that would be cruel. She still needed her walks, and so we brought her out as usual. However, on this day we were feeling particularly adventurous, and we decided to walk her along the Singapore River. I remember the night was slightly breezy and the moon hung from above like a broken picture. Ok, I made that up. I don't remember ANYTHING about that night except Joe scooping Ginger up in his arms and us running away from four stray mutts chasing us down the river trying to get near to Ginger, presumably to "gang-hump" her(?).
I wish I had a picture of our running away to show you but I don't. I do, however, have a photo of the way Ginger was scooped in Joe's arms. Now, imagine him running, with Ginger in his arms like that. Get the mental picture? Good. :p
Like I said, we ran away because Ginger was in heat, and there was every chance that she could become pregnant which would've been undesirable but, what about when she's NOT in heat? Would we have allowed her to "romp" with other male dogs?
As it turned out, we wouldn't. Not if we could help it, but sometimes, incidents like the following just happened.
It was at the West Coast Dog Run. He was a full-blooded husky, and she was a young 10-month-old débutante not yet "au fait" with the ways of the canine world. The moment he laid eyes on her, he was on her back - MOUNTING her. It happened so quickly we didn't have time to stop him. Joe shouted at the his owner for him to come get his dog but he was so far away Joe decided to take matters into his own hands by plucking the horny husky from Ginger's back, but it was too late ... Ginger's innocence - *snaps fingers* - poof! JUST LIKE THAT.
Obviously, I do not have a picture of Ginger's ordeal (or so we like to call it; it was probably more of an ordeal for Joe than for her) but here's a picture of our sweet young thing some months after the incident looking as virginal as if she was never "violated". ;p
If the incident taught us anything, it was: NO DOGS ALLOWED WITHIN 5 FEET OF GINGER. Just kidding. Of course we allow Ginger to socialise with other dogs, male or female; rule of thumb is, NO HUMPING MY BITCH, YOU HORN DOG!
Ginger and Freo - fellow member of the Golden Retriever Club.
Fully chaperoned and purely platonic.
Ginger and Benjee - Joe's cousin Eugene's dog.
Also purely platonic although no chaperon is required as Benjee is a gentleman! :)
Somehow, Ginger seemed to understand our "concern" what with all that screaming and yelling whenever any male dog tried to mate with her. It came to a point where we didn't need to "protect" her anymore, and she would just sit down to "defend" herself from all the unwanted pursuit. In fact, she became rather clever in her own little ways that we thought, hey, she might actually be trainable. So, off to obedience school she went...
Ginger's graduation day.
You can tell she took her graduation very seriously.
And if that wasn't enough, we also sent her to clicker training where she learnt how to associate the clicker with reward-based behaviour.
I could go on talking about the myriad of tricks Ginger could do as a result of those classes but I suspect you have left this long-ass post already (holy smokes! Is this turning into a novel or what?). :p
Ok, I'll just show off ONE of her tricks here.
With that, I shall end Part I of this post. There will be Part II (with Lucy in it) but for now, I need to rest my almost-carpal-tunelled wrists.
:p
Tinkerbelle (aka Ginger) at her former residence.
So, we got Tinkerbelle, and we decided that the name Ginger suited her better, simply because - 1) she's ginger in colour, 2) she has a gingerly demeanor.
Ginger and Doggy (our make-believe dog companion for Ginger).
One of the challenges of having a bitch is when she's in heat. It's fine if it's a small bitch because you probably wouldn't notice anything but Ginger was 30kgs at that time when she had her first season. To my horror, she was DRIPPING all over the floor, and there were puddles of blood EVERYWHERE. So, it's either I mopped the floor for three weeks or put her in one of those doggy "underpants". Of course, I chose the latter although I later realised it was just as bad an idea because she was like, HELLO HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO PEE? I ended up having to closely monitor her pee signal, and if I didn't or couldn't, she would pee through the whole thing, and it was back to floor-mopping until the underpants had been washed and dried. If you're wondering why didn't I get an extra pair, it was because I didn't think it was worth spending another $60 on something that was going down the rubbish chute after a couple of weeks especially since she was going to be spayed the moment her season was over. So, there I was, mopping the floor AND washing her underpants EVERYDAY for THREE whole weeks, and thinking to myself why did I get a bitch instead of a dog? :p
Ginger in her "sexy" underpants.
The other challenge we faced when she was in heat was how to "ward off" advances from the opposite sex because, DUH! SHE COULD GET KNOCKED UP BY SOME ROGUISH RAKE OUT THERE. Of course, we could keep her at home the whole time she's having her season but that would be cruel. She still needed her walks, and so we brought her out as usual. However, on this day we were feeling particularly adventurous, and we decided to walk her along the Singapore River. I remember the night was slightly breezy and the moon hung from above like a broken picture. Ok, I made that up. I don't remember ANYTHING about that night except Joe scooping Ginger up in his arms and us running away from four stray mutts chasing us down the river trying to get near to Ginger, presumably to "gang-hump" her(?).
I wish I had a picture of our running away to show you but I don't. I do, however, have a photo of the way Ginger was scooped in Joe's arms. Now, imagine him running, with Ginger in his arms like that. Get the mental picture? Good. :p
Like I said, we ran away because Ginger was in heat, and there was every chance that she could become pregnant which would've been undesirable but, what about when she's NOT in heat? Would we have allowed her to "romp" with other male dogs?
As it turned out, we wouldn't. Not if we could help it, but sometimes, incidents like the following just happened.
It was at the West Coast Dog Run. He was a full-blooded husky, and she was a young 10-month-old débutante not yet "au fait" with the ways of the canine world. The moment he laid eyes on her, he was on her back - MOUNTING her. It happened so quickly we didn't have time to stop him. Joe shouted at the his owner for him to come get his dog but he was so far away Joe decided to take matters into his own hands by plucking the horny husky from Ginger's back, but it was too late ... Ginger's innocence - *snaps fingers* - poof! JUST LIKE THAT.
Obviously, I do not have a picture of Ginger's ordeal (or so we like to call it; it was probably more of an ordeal for Joe than for her) but here's a picture of our sweet young thing some months after the incident looking as virginal as if she was never "violated". ;p
Ginger - after the fact.
;p
;p
If the incident taught us anything, it was: NO DOGS ALLOWED WITHIN 5 FEET OF GINGER. Just kidding. Of course we allow Ginger to socialise with other dogs, male or female; rule of thumb is, NO HUMPING MY BITCH, YOU HORN DOG!
Ginger and Freo - fellow member of the Golden Retriever Club.Fully chaperoned and purely platonic.
Ginger and Benjee - Joe's cousin Eugene's dog.Also purely platonic although no chaperon is required as Benjee is a gentleman! :)
Somehow, Ginger seemed to understand our "concern" what with all that screaming and yelling whenever any male dog tried to mate with her. It came to a point where we didn't need to "protect" her anymore, and she would just sit down to "defend" herself from all the unwanted pursuit. In fact, she became rather clever in her own little ways that we thought, hey, she might actually be trainable. So, off to obedience school she went...
Ginger's graduation day.You can tell she took her graduation very seriously.
And if that wasn't enough, we also sent her to clicker training where she learnt how to associate the clicker with reward-based behaviour.
I could go on talking about the myriad of tricks Ginger could do as a result of those classes but I suspect you have left this long-ass post already (holy smokes! Is this turning into a novel or what?). :p
Ok, I'll just show off ONE of her tricks here.
Ginger clearing hurdles.
With that, I shall end Part I of this post. There will be Part II (with Lucy in it) but for now, I need to rest my almost-carpal-tunelled wrists.
:p
2 comments:
I miss Ginger~!!
Woof! Aunty Bluesky! When are you coming to visit me again?
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