My lovely collections from PawsNWags 😊

Those who know me will know I love to buy things for my darling Bingsu,
be it clothing or accessories or toys.
I just love to dress my princess up whenever I can. 😊

PawsNWags have variety of bowties, collars & bandanas
with so many fabric collections that we can choose from,
 best thing that I like is lady boss can customise for me!

So being the shopaholic mama,
 of course have to buy something for bingsu the princess lah.

When I saw their launch of unicorn prints I know I must faster place an order,
it’s so pretty & it’s limited edition!
Ordering was a breeze through the website,
I was so excited to receive them after placing order.
I was in awe when I received the unicorn collar,
 really very de pretty lah!!😍😍😍
 I actually loved it so much that I asked lady boss
whether she can make a bib for my little boy or not
& she accepted readily hehe.

My other pretty collection definitely has to be the recent one made
for this year chinese new year!
I saw the new print released & I immediately text lady boss again,
this round I requested more from her. 🤣

I wanna customise set of 3 for chinese new year!
 A bib for bingsu, bib for my little boy & angbao holder for myself. 😬

Ladyboss as usual accepted my customisation readily
& even helped me rush the order before chinese new year.
My relatives love the angbao holder very much as well,
so  probably I should buy as a gift for them next year as well.

Thank you ladyboss for always accepting my unusual requests,
I’m blessed to have got to know you.

Please remember to tag me whenever you have new & pretty collections,
so the shopaholic mama can continue her shopping journey. 😬😬

Bingsu, my sweet westie girl

Thank you to lady boss of PawsNWags for giving me a chance to write about my dear princess Bingsu!

I’ll need to lor soh abit on how we got to meet Bingsu so please bear with me. 😊

On 23^rd September 2016, we were at Tengoku waiting to collect our beloved Maltese boy, Mickey, ashes home with us. Little boy was our 1^st furkid & we adopted him from a pet shop, unfortunately he had GME & lost the fight after 6 months diagnosis.

So while waiting for his urn to be ready, we decided to walk around Pasir Ris farmway to see some cute furkids & distract ourselves as we were grieving with the loss of our baby boy.

This routine of walking around Pasir Ris farmway from then on as I was pretty lost all of a sudden, I don’t need to set alarm to feed him medications or wake up in the middle of the night to check on him.

1^st week of October 2016, we started visiting pet shops at Pasir Ris farmway with the intention of finding a westie pup as I’ve always dreamt of having one since young. We did our research online as well so we know what to look out for. There were a few westie pups but none of them really caught our attention. We ventured into one of the pet shop & saw one little westie girl who kept bouncing & running around, trying to get everyone’s attention. However we noticed no one seemed to notice her, everyone seemed to be looking at cute Poodle or Maltese pups. Little girl captured my husband’s attention & we went over to look at her. The lady came over & started telling us how old is she, how many siblings she had & also mentioned how much she costs.

I saw the excitement in my husband’s eyes when he first laid his eyes on this little girl & I had a feeling she’s the one for us. Though we knew that we would like to have a westie baby but we did not think of having one that soon as my baby boy has just passed away less than a month ago. Cause of this, we held back on bringing her home on the spot & decided to wait awhile more.

From the day we saw little girl, we unintentionally (or intentionally?) go back every weekend to visit her, feeling excited yet uneasy lol. Is she still at the pet shop? Had anyone brought her home? We felt excited whenever we saw that she’s still there, the same old happy & active her. And we felt sad when we had to leave the shop without her as we’re unsure if we got to see her again next weekend.

On 31^st October 2016, we decided to bring all the family members to visit her as well as we had plans to bring her home soon. It was our 5th weekend back at the pet shop & the 1st for his family members. But never did we know that was the day we decided to bring her home with us! I guess my husband couldn’t wait anymore! So yes, little girl went home with us on that day! We name her Bingsu as the mama (which is me hahahah) loves Korean dramas & Korean food. 

5 month old Bingsu & her 1st night at home! 👸
#socuteright #dunnowhynoonewananbringherhome

Bingsu was a challenge to us as she was only 5 months old when she came home, we didn’t have any experience taking care of a puppy other than reading online & seeking help from our friends. She was very very different from our little boy. Nonetheless we worked hard together to care for Bingsu & she gave us lotsa joy & love.

Our precious princess,smiling so happily at me 💓

Cause of Bingsu, I joined westie club on fb as I’m interested to know more about westies behaviour & get to know more westie pawrents as well. And it’s from there that I got to know lady boss of PawsNWags. 😊

Fast forward to now haha, Bingsu has been with us for 2 and half year & she’ll be turning 3 years old this year June! She has blossomed into a lady, showed us how gentle & playful she is & how much love she’s able to give us selflessly.

 

I’m very thankful that Bingsu has led us to her & chose us to be her pawrents, very thankful that she was very patient when I was pregnant & accepted her little human brother readily. Though Bingsu destroyed all our skirtings at home with her powerful puppy teeth, we still love her very much. All I hope for now is Bingsu will grow up healthily & happily together with her human brother. 😊

my 2 precious babies enjoying ride together haha

Bingsu jieje accompanying her baby brother

Celebrating Gotcha Day!

One year later on 4 March 2019, we celebrated Dusty's "Gotcha Day"!

I vividly remember the struggles I had to face dealing with the food aggression, toilet-training and the destruction of home furniture 😡. In particular, the sofa . The once scrawny little devil would used to growl and snap at my husband and I whenever we went near her food. Since I spent the most time with Dusty, I decided to seriously do some research on home training methods for food aggression. I ordered books such as "Siberian Huskies for Dummies" and watched religiously watched Youtube videos of "Cesar Millan". This dog is gonna receive some bad-ass military style training!

In between the training to stop her food aggression, I thought maybe I could challenge the ever so famous obstinate nature of a husky by seeing how many tricks she can pick up and how fast. Most husky owners and books says it takes alot of effort to get a husky to do tricks #challengeaccepted. Of course I started with the basic "SIT" which was pretty easy - I mean all dogs must know that command. "I'm going to teach Dusty how to "Pawshake" and "High-five", I told my husband one day. "She is too young, she will not get it", he said nonchalantly. Dusty was almost 5 months. "Well, easier to teach a child than an old fart I guess!" I replied giving the husband a side-glare 👀.

With patience and repetitive practice, I was able to finally toilet train my feral pupper 💀 within a month and tame the food aggressor in 2 months. GOD, that was some intense training. She really wasn't happy about it. BUT! I managed it like how any Alpha would 😅.

Alas! The chewing persist especially when we leave her at home on her own. Well, I guess that's at least 2 down and only 1 bad habit to conquer. We sent Dusty for Basic Obedience training when she was about 5.5 months. It was more about having her properly socializing with other dogs than anything else. By then, Dusty had already understood most of the basic commands that included "Pawshake" and "high-five" #proudmom. Basic Obedience class did help us teach Dusty to walk properly on leash and reinforcing commands she already knew in an environment that had distraction. We loved it 💓!

Anyway, fast forward one year, Dusty still occasionally chews on the sofa. We are now so immune to it we just let her instead of giving her the pleasure of getting the attention from us whenever she does it. Our sofa is so far from "gone" at this point we just worry it might break while we sat on it 🙍.

Dusty coped with her food aggression really well and now humans can basically go near her food or while she eats and she has no problem with that. We felt it was important to curb this bad behaviour as we were worried if we were to have kids over or even our own children in future, this bad behaviour may escalate and caused unnecessary injuries. The downside of overcoming her food aggression was she becoming a super slow, chilledout, picky A-hole eater. So much so, now she doesn't want to finish her meals. Pretty weird because we do not over treat her nor do we give her table scraps. She would vomit bile from starving herself #stubbornhusky. Well, we think she is just weight conscious and have an undying ambition to become a VS model. So we just let her be since she is growing well and not undernourished in anyway according to the vet. That's a story for another day.

Despite her occasional b**chy attitude, we are  so blessed to have Dusty in our lives. The only thing left to train her on now is how to bark when strangers enter our home and not sprawl on the floor and ask for belly rubs 🙄. Even though it brings me great joy each morning when I get out of bed, to see Dusty waiting for me downstairs with her legs spread wide open waiting for a belly rub 😂. It sometimes amazes me how smart Dusty is (sorry bias dogmom here) and how well-natured she has grown up to be. So sweet nature that sometimes  I can't help but wonder if I were to be attacked by another dog or human will she protect me😓? She occasionally still gets bitten by small dogs although she just minds her own business. How and why, I am unsure.

 Anyway, 4 March every year will forever be etched in my mind as the day Dusty came into our lives and sparked so much joy and we will never be KonMari (ing) her. EVER.

1 year Anniversary "Gotcha Day"  - 04032019
Dino Bib by PawsNWags cox "D" for Dusty
(Looking like a bobble head here)

The Destroyer

The "Dead" Sofa

How she behaves during meal times

Books for Dummies

What I wake up to every morning

So much love to give #mybestdogever

Why PAWSNWAGS?

Hello Friends.

 

Today, let’s talk about how I came to know about pawsnwags & their beautiful work.

 

Last year, mid of May, I was planning a last minute surprise birthday party for my hubby. A soccer themed party as he is a die-hard fan of Man UTD! During the last few planning, I realized my princess was going to be awkward because while all the friends are going to be in soccer themed shirts, she had none!! How can that be?

Imagine the stress I was facing? I was in panic mode. Messaging everyone I know if they can set up something for Sofia to wear at the party. Not many had ideas. Until my friend Rin, recommended pawsnwags.

When I messaged Jasmine, founder of pawsnwags replied me immediately and agreed to actually help me do up a bandana for Sofia!!! You will never guess how happy I was, because I was running out of time to have everything in place for the surprise party.

One aspect I love about Jasmine-the founder of pawsnwags is that she delivers what she promise!

 

The Man Utd Bandana

All I had to was tell her the theme & she mix & matched the colors for me. I was saved from stressing over the design & colors!!! Thank you Jasmine!!!

 

That was just the start, after that whenever I was running out gift ideas, I always turn to her.

Cause a furkid can never have too many bandanas right?? Hence, I went to her to create cutie bandanas for Sofia’s nieces & nephews. They are really beautiful!

 

What I most loved was when I ordered another set for Sofia’s friends for the Christmas party! That was abit too many orders and quite time constrain because it was the festive period & even she needed a break. But she took the effort to rush out the orders for me.

Did you see how colorful and pretty the bandana looks?

Churios- Sofia's niece with the bandanas
for herself & her siblings.

The colours standout on the furries. And the bandanas are reversible. Yeap, if you are bored of your furkid showing off only one side, just reverse it & wear it for them. Ta-dah! It’s like your furkid just got another new bandana. Haha…  

These are the bandanas given to Sofia's friends for Christmas.

PawNwags will always be my go to for orders for Sofia because she knows my preference well & also she remembers the size of my Fat Fat Princess! Haha.

Thank you Jasmine for always rushing out my orders. Looking forward to ordering collars for Sofia so that she can change according to the occasion. hehe…!!

With Lots of Love :

Minnie-Mommy of Princess Sofia!

Sofia, The Golden Princess

Hello everyone.

Firstly, Thank you PawsNWags for giving me the opportunity to blog for the Month.

I am Minnie, the proud Pawrent of Sofia the golden princess.

 Being born on April 8^th 2015, this golden ball chose me to be her pawrent at two months old. My wish was to actually own a chow chow pup, but it was difficult to find a cute one with a bear face.

Princess Sofia during her puppy days.

Chubby & active pup.

With an open mind, my hubby brought me to view the golden puppies at his friend’s place. With only 3 puppies- 2 boys & 1 female left, this girl was the only one who kept running up to me. She stole my heart when she adorably fell asleep on my feet while we humans were talking. It was then that I decided to have her even though I was busy with pursuing my Diploma.

This golden ball is a best friend any girl can ask for. Even as a pup, she was the one who kept me company while I stayed up all night to complete my assignments & studied for my exams. Though she was busy tearing down the walls & destroying my sofa.

She was my motivation, my companion & my study buddy.

Sofia taught me what RESPONSIBILITY was. Learnt the definition of commitment because of her.  As a pup she was a terror and being a first time Pawrent, I knew nothing about discipling her or training her. But with the help of my hubby and a trainer, I managed to discipline her.

During the puppy days, Sofia had weak immunity. She was often getting ear & urine infections. Each vet visit cost me a bomb & I had to cut down on my shopping expenses for her. At first, I was the only princess at home. Which means, I always get what I want & I can always buy whatever I wanted. But with the arrival of this golden ball, all the privilege went to her. Yeah, even my Dad would rather buy treats for her than to buy back my favorite food.

She is pretty much allergic to almost everything. Allergies & all the infections on her was starting to annoy me that I almost wanted to give her up. Imagine spending a few hundreds per vet visit every month? Seeing her always scratching & having numerous wounds cause of her allergies broke my heart. I spent nights crying as I didn’t know how to help her.

With the advice from a close friend & deciding not to give up on her, I switched from standard shelved dog food to home cooked diet plan for her. I included supplements which helped to boost her immunity, strengthen her bones, complexion & probiotics for her digestive system. Since then her immunity and digestive system has improved vastly. 😊 Which means visit to the vet were much lesser. Thank god for that.

 She also has separation anxiety. Leave her alone and be out for a few hours, I will always have to come back to damaged golden! Yes, you read it right, DAMAGED GOLDEN!! Because she would have chewed all her 4 paws till they are swelled & sore. Or she would have ripped her fur from her tail. Imagine coming back to a partially bald & bleeding princess? It always breaks me down & causes a lot of stress. Hence, I learnt never to leave her alone at home or even if I have to, she will be on her e-collar. Yeah, just like a princess, that’s her CROWN.   

That's how badly she scratches when I left her alone just for 15mins.

Since a pup, I encouraged Sofia to meet & interact with people from all walks of life. It is the best thing I have done because she has gained lots of love from different people. She brings so much joy around. People who never really liked me are now pretty much close to me & are always pampering Sofia with lots of love & gift.

Sofia while she does her usual MEET-THE-PEOPLE Session. And a few toys she got while she met people.

Sofia has gained so much popularity that whenever I am out, people flood me with the 4 “W’s- ‘Where is Sofia?’, ‘Why isn’t she with you?’, ‘What time will she be out for her walk?’ & ‘When can I play with her?’

Thanks to my Princess, I have gained a few more good friends, became closer to my family & learnt to appreciate everything around me & be happy with little stuff.

Above all, I get to dress her up & spoil her with lots of love. Stay tune for her upcoming birthday party pictures later this month!

Just a few of her dresses & bandanas that i spent hours looking for online & purchasing them.

Why Tripod?

"Why do you call your dog Tripod?"

"Does he have 3 legs?"

"Tripod as in the camera tripod? That Tripod?"

"Your dog's name very unique hor!"

These are the general reactions when people ask Tripod's name and I tell them his name. Let's clear it up now: Why did I name Tripod, Tripod?

For this, we have to travel backwards in time, all the way to when I was 13. One fine rainy morning, I was on the way to school for my history exams (Any one still remembers Chandra Gupta Maria). At that time, I was still very studious and I was extremely concerned about my academic results. I didn't have much time to study the night before, so I was feeling very stress on the way to school. 

I actually have social phobia, where I cannot be in a place full of strangers without my headphones to help block everything out; so I was listening to FM98.7 while I walked to school. That day, I remember clearly, the DJs were asking for people to call in to share the weirdest pet names that have for their souses, aka nicknames. However, one of the callers misheard, and called in to share about her friend's dog's name. The DJs burst out laughing, mainly because of the misunderstanding, and also because of the dog's name as well. 

Honestly, it's not that funny now, it was just a very adorable mistake, but because I was so stressed during that time, I found it hilarious and I was laughing to myself about it. From then, I decided that my first dog's name would be Tripod. Tripod then became my motivation to do well, because I told my mum, that I would get a dog named Tripod once I graduated poly/JC, whichever that I chose to go to. My mum just agreed to it, because she thought it was just a one time thing. Little did she know that I really meant what I said. 

Then came my 3rd year of FYP, and I lost the motivation to work hard for it. A lot of things happened in my 3rd year, I got into a heated argument with my lecturer that has 0 respects for the students, and the issue blew up to be enormous, and it became wide spread to the entire course, not just only my year 3 cohort. Everywhere I went, I felt like everyone was staring and talking about me (probably partially due to my social phobia, idk). It got so bad that I shut myself out from school and my group; not sure if they realized it, they probably thought it was just me with my mood swings.. It badly affected my group, because I was in-charge of the art department in my group, and no one else could / was willing to step up to help cover their own ass somehow. 

Eventually my mum agreed to let me have a dog, and that became my motivation to just work towards graduation. I managed to graduate in the end, even though I refuse to submit my final assignment, thought I still couldn't walk out of the trauma of that incident, and I lost a good friend because of that as well. But tah-dah! I got Tripod! 

Even now, Tripod is still my happy pill and my motivation for everything, he's my motivation to get a job and work hard so that I can provide him with better food, and if anything bad happens during the day, the first thing I do when I go home is to get a hug from tripod and a mouthful of his forever shedding fur, and an occasional whipping from his cane - like tail. He's the reason why I wake up early to go for walks with him, and also the reason I stopped sleeping my life away when I have no work. I honestly have no idea where I would be now if Tripod wasn't around. 

I once asked an AC to help me ask Tripod why he doesn't react to his name at first, and the answer I got was that he feels like people keep laughing at his name. Now, I tell Tripod everyday, that he (and the name Tripod) is very precious to me and plays an important role in my life, regardless of what people say. Some may say that he may not understand what I mean, but I would like to keep my faith that I have at least this bit of connection with him. I'm not sure how many of you can relate to that, maybe it's just me.

Conclusion: please just love Tripod and embrace his name and him as himself! 

Lots of Laughters, 

Tripod and Human

@4leggedtripod

Start of Tripod's Wardrobe Collection

OK. To be honest,  Tripod doesn't have that many accessories. #TrueWordsComingFromTheHeart. He used to have, I think over 40+ bandanas? But now the collection is down to only 30+. Isn't that sad?

Initially when I got Tripod, my family were not 100% agreeable to it, simply because of his breed. Despite my parents having bigger dogs in their home last time in their childhood (by bigger i meant a doberman),  my mum was actually scared of "big dogs", and she was expecting me to adopt a small breed dog which I refused to. This extends all the way to my aunts and grandma, while they thought that Tripod was cute, they were also worried because big dogs = fierce dogs.

Such a scary big pupper :")

Then I met my neighbor, who owns Heihei, Tripod's first friend when he came to our neighborhood. She gave me some of Heihei's shirts, which he doesn't wear, because Heihei doesn't like anything on him other than his collars. Tripod was so tiny at that time, and the shirt was oversized, making him look extremely adorable!! And that triggered Tripod's wardrobe collection. See below for Tripod's first ever shirts! He still wears them now~

Tripod generally doesn't have a temper, he's pretty tolerant to everything that I do, and has absolutely no objections to me putting on clothes for him. This eventually lead to his first bandana (blue), then the first customized bandana, then backpacks, then eventually fancy collars! One of Tripod's first fancier collars came from PawsNWags, a pink sakura one. Tripod's fur is this very neutral color, so pretty much every color looks good on him, including pink!  Tripod also landed his first pawdel gig with PawsNWags too, his photo was on display in their booth when we went for one of the events and chanced upon the human behind PawsNWags by chance!

 But Tripod being Tripod, he just had to cause trouble for me. I eventually realized that he can slip out from his buckle collar, because of his odd body proportion. Tripod's neck circumference is only 36cm. My cousin's maltipoo's neck measures 28cm. Can't understand his body proportion, but I had to deal with it somehow, which was then I came across fabric martingales, and I can't turn back. Mainly because of the variety of designs available. I kept bugging Ocha Mama telling her that when she released her martingale collection, I will be the first to get it! I don't think i managed to fulfill that promise, but I managed to snag myself a one of a kind design for the collar!

I love that design, and we would have used it everyday, if not for the fact that Tripod's neck becoming smaller again when we tried the new collar on him. Right now that beautiful piece is undergoing alterations, but once it's back we will have tons of photos and matching bandanas to have a photoshoot session with it!

I think that's about it, there's nothing much that I can share about Tripod's wardrobe now. We are superlly culturally diverse though, so if anyone has like cool lobangs for new style accessories, do hit us up!

Lots of Licks(From Tripod),
Tripod and Human
@4leggedtripod