Milo has fallen for an older woman

I knew it would be an adjustment bringing Milo from our 4-bedroom, 4-person apartment in Taiwan to my 2-to-3-person, multi-level house with my mom's 12 year old dachshund Daphne in the Philadelphia suburbs. Daphne and Milo started off curious about each other. Despite the fact that he is at least four times her size, Daphne calls the shots in this house. Still, though, he occasionally baits her into playing, and has influenced her to stay frolicking outside just a little bit longer than she had before.

Lately, though, instead of claiming spots at opposite corners of the kitchen (their domain during the day-- at night Milo stays with me and Daphne with my mom), they've been sharing the bigger bed and cuddling. While I'm pretty sure Daphne is in it for the comfort and warmth as the temperatures grow colder, Milo seems to have drawn bigger conclusions.

A few mornings ago, I woke up earlier than usual and brought Milo downstairs. As usual, he eagerly went outside to release his bladder's nightly accrual. When I let him in and filled his dog bowl with breakfast, though, he just looked up at me confused. He kept looking from the bowl to the door and back to the bowl. In Taiwan, Milo always downed his food almost before it hit the bowl, eating it more quickly than we thought caninely possible. But here he was, eating a few pieces and then looking nervously to the door.

When Daphne came down just a few minutes later, and I gave her her breakfast, Milo began eating as quickly and enthusiastically as ever. Apparently, he didn't want to get in trouble for starting to eat without his date.

This morning, Milo and I slept in. When we came downstairs, Daphne was already here and (I'm pretty sure) successfully breakfasted. So I let Milo out and filled his bowl. He just looked at it. No eating, not even picking at it. I figured the late wake-up time had thrown off his hunger, so I figured he'd eat it when he wanted. After 20 minutes, he started throwing up. To avoid grossing you out, I'll just say that this kind of throw-up comes from the dog not having any food in his stomach. So here Milo was, getting sick in front of a very indifferent Daphne, with a full bowl of food only a few feet away. So I poured Daphne a second breakfast and coaxed her into eating it, and Milo began gulping his food with gusto.

The poor little guy, hopelessly attached to this older woman who only occasionally cares about him in return. Unfortunately for me, Daphne's biggest manifestation of love for Milo is in the way she often runs to my door to wake him before heading to the kitchen. Thanks, Daphne.

Let's hope he can shake this affection when we finally move out of the house!



Note: This kind of material is all I have to write about while my life is restricted to the Main Line. What can I say, I'm giving it a shot.

O Jamników: March of the Dachshunds 2009

Imagine my excitement when I learned that, every year in the beginning of September, Krakow hosts the Marsz Jamników-- in English, March of the Dachshunds. For those not from my Pennsylvania life, my family has always had dachshunds and only dachshunds (that is, until the recent addition of Milo). They are my mom's breed of choice, so for my whole life we've always had a short-hair miniature dachshund (or two) roaming around the house.

This past Sunday was Krakow's annual March of the Dachshunds. Jonathan and I had no idea what to expect. What it was: over 200 dachshunds, many of them in costume, parading one block (from the Barbican to the Rynek down Florianska Street) with their owners and various dachshund fans, led by a marching band. After this there was some sort of ceremony, where the best-dressed dachshunds were introduced, dachshund poetry was read dramatically (all in Polish, unfortunately), and children presented their dachshund-inspired art.

As you'd expect, I took about a million pictures. I'm torn about what to put up. Some readers would be content with a few representative pictures, while others, I'm sure, would love to see all the dachshunds I managed to capture in their full hilarity. As a compromise, I've put a few pictures and a video here, and I've created a facebook album with the set in its entirety. Enjoy!

Dachshund owners and enthusiasts gathering by the Barbican on parade morning:

Many dachshunds were in costume:

Some dogs were not so happy about it:

While others took the opportunity to make new friends:

An excerpt of the parade:

At the ending ceremony, as incomprehensible Polish words washed over us, at one point the audience was instructed to raise up their jamniki (dachshunds)... and they did:

Even Jonathan, who is not a great lover of dachshunds (or small dogs in general), found this event preposterously entertaining.

Remember to click here for more pictures!

They grow up so fast

So, our little Milo is about 7 months old these days (or 6... that's what you get when you adopt a stray) and already at the "he won't get any bigger than" weight that the adoption vet told us (15 kilograms). But of course, he's still getting bigger. And just got his 結紮 yesterday. Though I declined to see his 蛋蛋... do they offer that service in America?

He goes on walks (often walks us), sleeps through the night, and, as a couple vets have said, "很會吃."

Anyway, here are the pictures that everyone wants to see of the little Taiwan 流浪狗 that could.






Little post-op Milo (a.k.a. Coneface) walks home from the vet...

Written with a broken heart

I don't really know how to talk about it, how to write about it, but it's something that you all will ask about at some point, so it's best for me to answer your question before you even ask.

Three weeks ago today, we adopted two young puppies, Sonic and Milo. They had been strays, but they'd had their first round of vaccinations, and we were seeing the vet regularly. After about a week and a half, Sonic started to lose his appetite, and got a pretty severe cough. We brought him into the vet, who told us that Sonic had canine distemper and would likely die.

Canine distemper is a disease uncommon in the US because most dogs have been vaccinated against it and vaccinated mothers provide their puppies with enough immunization to get them through the early months. Taiwan, however, has a high population of stray dogs, and many Taiwanese don't follow the vaccination protocol for the dogs they do choose to raise. Thus, these highly preventable, highly fatal diseases still have a high occurrence in the population.

We contacted the woman from whom we'd adopted the boys right away, and a week ago she picked Sonic up to stay at a veterinary hospital for treatment. I visited him every day, but after the first few days, he began to quickly deteriorate. And this morning, three weeks after we adopted him, Sonic was unable to stand, eat, or control his own muscles. With incredible sadness but full knowledge that it was the right thing to do, we had to let him go.

I'll always remember Sonic. He was paper-trained within a week (Milo still hasn't figured it out). He liked to chew on anything; if our shoes weren't around, he went for the kitchen wall. His eyes were always bright, unlike any other dog I've seen before-- we fondly called him "Asian eyes." He was a handsome dog who had a lot of energy, but until the day he lost muscle control, he would climb into my lap and fall asleep in minutes. I'll always remember Sonic.

There is nothing we could have done about the canine distemper, and in fact it's still likely that Milo will start showing symptoms any day now. All we can do is hope for Milo, and be glad that Sonic at least knew some love, comfort, and a sense of home before he died.

I will always remember Sonic.

My two excuses

So, the secret's out. Time to disclose what I've been busy with the past few weeks. But first, let me explain how it all started.

A few weeks ago, my roommate Dani was getting her bike out to run an errand. I was chatting with her while she was getting ready to head out. I told her about how I don't like using my bike as much in this traffic, and that I was (and am) thinking about getting an electric bike, or a kit to make my bike electric. Dani was half-interested in, half-amused by my rambling. I then said, "It's okay, it's just something I'm fixated on right now. That, and... how would you feel if I got a small, contained pet in my room? Like a flying squirrel or chinchilla?"

Dani laughed, said she didn't really care what I did, and then said, "What I really want is a dog." As a chinchilla was the most interesting, cuddly, still-containable pet I could come up with because I thought a dog was out of the question, I was excited by her response. So we talked. And we plotted. And we asked our roommates. I asked our guard whether dogs were allowed in the building, and he answered, "不要吵就可以啦!"

We had all the green lights we needed. So I started searching and email local animal shelters (in Chinese!) about adopting dogs. About a week and three trips to 左營 later, Sonic and Milo had entered our lives.

Dani and I adopted two stray puppies (sort of for my birthday) from an animal shelter here in Kaohsiung. They are mixed breeds, brothers, about two or three months old. We named one Sonic, because he is a little ball of energy like our favorite video game hedgehog. We considered some obvious corresponding names (Knuckles, Doc(tor Robotnik), and Tails)... but somehow, ended up with Milo.

If you're concerned, veterinary care is very inexpensive in Taiwan and we can more than afford it. And though it's complicated, I'm planning on taking them with me when I leave Taiwan.

And now, some pictures.

First, my birthday lunch at T.G.I.Friday's.


And now, PUPPIES! Everybody loves puppies.

First day home, Sonic likes chewing on my sock.

Dani cuddles the tiny, calm Milo while Sonic watches, desperate for attention.

Sonic finds the attention he seeks. In my lap.

Now, the boys are growing up. Milo is more energetic, and Sonic and I have enjoyed several naps together on the couch. Milo finishes his dinner first and stands vigilant over Sonic, waiting for him to lose interest and leave his bowl unattended.

They are sweet, smart boys who are about 90% paper-trained after less than two weeks. Their vaccines aren't complete until Christmas, so for now they have to be apartment dogs and can't go outside. But they were officially introduced to my Fulbright peers last night, so now they can be officially introduced to you.