Food galore 食い物つくし

Christmas season. They say it is the time of giving, but it feels to us, it is the season for eating! Mum agrees. She's baked another couple of batches of apple walnut cake, pandan cake (shown below) and cookies etc. Each of us also had a giant sushi as a X'mas treat!　Mum also received lovely food gifts for Xmas, like the Wonka Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight chocolate bar, which she savoured by herself, the selfish woman. Alas! We never had a chance to try chocolate, as Mum says it's toxic for us dogs.


(pandan cake 地元風シフォンケーキ)


(Doggie sushi すしワンコ）


(Wonka bar ウィリーウォンカチョコレート)

December snow 冬だワ～ン。

Winter is here! We love the snow but the cold isn't very comfortable for us here in the garage.
Mum brings us indoors once a day (when Dad isn't around to yell at us) so we can warm up a bit before going back to the garage. She also lowers the shutters when it snows, or closes them completely when it is simply too windy and cold.

Today, it suddenly started snowing! We had almost forgotten what that white stuff falling from the sky was. At about 2pm, the weather was still OK and we were playing tug-of-war with the toys as usual.　(see picture) Then, a couple of hours later, the ground was covered in snow! We got all excited again and played in the garden with the snow for a while. (See video)

2時ごろにゆきがないのに遊んでいるうち雪がこんなに降ってしまった！

Model Dogs 僕たちはモデル！

We went to the photo studio near our home in Sapporo to have our picture taken. Mom likes to take family pictures that include us, although Daddy finds it a bother. At the studio, we could hardly contain our excitement! But with the help of the photographer guy and his family, we managed to snap a few nice-looking pictures. Here's one of us with Mum!　家族のメンバーが増えたから市内の写真屋さんで再び家族写真を写してもらいました！こんな感じで～す♪


And here's one when she still had Issey in her belly. As you can see, we're having a hard time understanding her instructions, but we soon got the hang of it and everyone had a great time that day!　赤ちゃんがまだお腹にいたときに初めてスタジオで写真をとりました。楽しくてしょうがなかったけど、ちゃんと指示どおりにしようと頑張ったよ！（証拠写真↓）

New old car! 新中古車

We've got a cool new ride! Mum & Dad bought it secondhand from a dealer at a really good price. Can you see us in the picture?　新しい乗り物だ！いつ乗れるかな～？

They told us that our old Nissan Bluebird has gone to scrapmetal heaven. It's a pity we only rode in it once to go to the vet last week for our yearly inoculations.

It seems that there have been so many changes this year. I wonder when things will finally settle down. 今年は変化がありすぎ！なんとなく落ち着かないね…

We love apples リンゴ大好き！

We absolutely adore apples, just like Dad. Mum gives us some every time she peels one for Dad, which is about five times a week.
She also gives us some whenever she makes some apple and walnut cake. (see the picture). We don't get to eat the cake though, just the leftover apples! Mum says it's good for our stomachs, and she might be right 'cause we've had fewer bouts of diarrhoea recently. As the saying goes, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." But in our case, we love our vets so much we can't wait to see them every time! リンゴがお腹にやさしいらしい。毎週必ず何回も皮と芯がもらえる。美味しいわ～ん！

The Destroyers フラミンゴ バイバイ～

Mom has started calling us "The Destroyers". I wonder why. She came to play with us after giving us the flamingo to wrangle. I'm sure she was proud to see what we a good job we did on that flamingo.　(Play video please.)

ママがフラミンゴをくれた！僕たち二人ですぐにフラミンゴを解決した。
ママに見せたくてしょうがない．．．どうだい？？ ビデオを見てね～。

Good Girl & Good Boy

Mommy says we've become very good girls and boys.
Here's a video as proof!　(Play video, please)
ぼくたちはとてもいい子になってきたみたいよ。
ビデオ証拠があるから見てね！

Prison Break プリズンブレーク

Mommy has been missing us terribly, and vice-versa, and she told Daddy she hoped we could be closer to the house. Daddy made a little fenced-up area at the side of the house so that she can see us from the window. At first we thought it was fun, and ate up all of Daddy's Mitsuba plants, but after a while, it feels like a prison!! WE WANT OUT! 出してくれ～！

I (Hop) managed to dig a small tunnel below the fence and escape, but Mugi just couldn't leave! We were soon discovered by Mom, and Grandma took us back to the garage, where we proceeded to fight and frolic again as usual. プリズンブレークしたらすぐばれた。幸い、プリズンに戻されてなく、いつもの車庫のスペースに連れて行かれた。

　　　　　　

Who's this? 誰だ？

(backdated post)
We're still getting used to the new member of the family.　He seldom comes out of the house to see us, and when he does, he's always being carried by Mum or Grandma. We like him though; he smells so deliciously like MILK! I (Mugi) wanted to show him a good welcome, so I handed him a bone but he was sleepy so he didn't take it. Here's a pic.　一惺、ボーンはいかがですか？

Mum is still feeling weak because of her operation so Grandma's always carrying him.
I wonder when we can all go out together as a family. We've been really lonely since we moved to the garage, but Mum tries to come down to visit us as often as she can to play with us! (See video)　車庫では寂しいけど、お母ちゃんがよく遊びに来てくれる！

Banished to the garage 車庫へ移住

We've been banished to the garage doghouse ever since August 25 when mom went to the hospital. Before she left, she patted us and waved goodbye tearfully, knowing she would miss us badly during the 8-day hospital stay, and after, while she was recovering from the C-section. Goodbye too, to our presence inside the house, now that we were to remain in the garage. Methinks she worries more about us than the baby!

(Wonder when we can get back into the house again...)

4 days old

we have a new brother in the family it seems! We smelled him on Daddy's clothing and on a towel that Grandma brought for us to sniff. Hop got all excited and wanted to play with the towel, but received a stern warning instead. Here's a picture of the 4-day old baby showing off his age.

Best of all, we both got "big brother and big sister" presents of cow hooves! Super!

Why Mom's getting bigger ママのおなかが…

We just realised that Mom's not just getting fat, she's got a baby inside her! We heard her telling the neighbours. I think Mugi suspected something long ago. She's been more attached to Mom recently, crying and whining when Mom is downstairs or in her room, separated from us. Come to think of it, I should have known. Just look at the signs!
- Slower walks than usual. Fewer walks too; Dad takes us more often nowadays.
- Getting angrier than usual when Hop is a little too boisterous around her.
- That big stomach of hers! It moves sometimes, like in this video. We can even hear noises in there from time to time.

The baby's still not due until late August, so it will be a long while more until Mom can take us out for long walks again. Maybe it'll be the THREE of us this time!

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

A brief rainy spell in Sapporo really got Dad down. He hates taking us out for walks when it rains, since we get easily confused about our usual peeing and pooing spots, and take longer than usual. It's also a hassle for Dad to dry us up from the rain.

These days Dad makes us wear a raincoat if it rains. Mugi's raincoat was a hand-me-down gift from a neighbour's GR who had outgrown it, and I must say she looks really cool and sporty in it. Dad bought a new one for Hop, but he looks kinda stupid in it sometimes, unfortunately.

Have you ever seen a UFO?

"Have you ever seen a UFO?"
Mom's been teaching her students about the present perfect in English grammar, and we've heard several of her students practice asking and answering this question several times already. Each time, we'd like to shout a resounding "YES! Right here at home!" 「我が家に変なやつがやってきたぞ！」

You see, last weekend, Dad took this "thing" out of a box and suddenly, IT CAME ALIVE! It's a saucer-shaped object with rotating wing-like brushes and made this loud whooshing noise as it scurried around the living room floor. It kept bumping into things too, and sucked up all the dirt and our hair on the floor. At first we thought it would play with us, but it just ignored us and went on its way. After a while Hop got frustrated and started yapping at it in a embarrassingly whimpy voice, but still the "thing" just carried on going and whooshing. Now it's a permanent member of our family, coming alive every morning and going back to sleep after an hour or so.


(We can't understand it, but Mom and Dad seemed very pleased to see this weird-looking UFO running around the house.　不思議でしょうがない…)

Sick again (sob sob) また病気だ。

Diarrhoea again. :-(
Why does this happen?
It must be hard on Mom to have to take us to the vet so often. She seems so easily tired these days. Worse, Hop has to go to the toilet every three hours or so.She and Dad woke up four times in the night to clean up his poo. At 2am, I think Dad was almost crying in frustration...


(Maybe it's the hot weather thats's bringing us down.　早く治りたいな。)

On the bright side, Mum made us some new toys out of yellow and red felt and we had a good time playing tug-of-war with them. In the evening Dad played with us using the toys and we had a nice time . The next day, we felt much better!

Branded ブランド化された僕たち

In early June, Sapporo Beer put out a new product -- us!!!Someone has finally realised our how delicious-sounding we are and made us into a new kind of alcoholic beverage. Unfortunately we haven't yet been asked to put our faces on the beer cans, but we're waiting for Sapporo Beer company executives to call us anytime now. We even took a bathe to make sure we are fresh and clean when we negotiate our contract. Do you think 10yen per can is a good royalty rate? Mom and Dad -- our agents -- seem to think so. They even like the taste of the new Mugi & Hop beer!　マスコットになれるかしら？

Neighbourhood friends 友だち

We live in a neighbourhood with lots of friends to hang out with. There's Pon-chan, a German Shephard who practically owns the neighbourhood park-cum-poop-joint. There's our closest pal Kumahachi (with the J:COM fan) who's almost 8 years old but can still run like the wind. Kuma's got a housemate Torahachi the cat -- we've never met but here's a pic too.








Another good friend is Hina-chan, the temperamental Shiba madam with a good hind kick ready for any one who invades her private space. And of course, our furry fun-loving friend "Baron" Yoshimune. He's a Jack Russell Terrier prone to flights of freedom and is rumoured to be able to understand at least 4 languages. There are lots of other dogs in the area; we'll try to get as many pix in here as possible and update when we can.

A few other Goldens live in the area, but we only meet once in a while because of different schedules. There's Dory, the biggest and strongest Goldie we've ever seen; cool guy Noel -- he comes over to our place for a visit sometimes, always looking good with some new clothes or dragging a long leash behind him; and Hana, a well-mannered lady that Hop has a crush on I think. She way out of Hop's league, hah! --- Mugi

Dad went to thailand and all he got us was....

... this pink elephant tissue box holder. How very disappointing.Mum was happy with some of the other souvenirs Dad got her, but we were outraged. Nothing for us, his beloved dogs!
But we were pleased to have him back so we can go on long walks again. Mum's been rather lazy these days. She's still bringing us out on walks, but these are usually short and slow. I wonder what has happened to her? She's getting rather fat and big these days, too. Eating a few too many slices of bread at breakfast, perhaps? Mysterious... but we're going to get to the bottom of this.

(waiting forlornly for Dad to come back from Bangkok....)

Aunt Maki's wedding in Tokyo

A few days after Mom came back from Singapore, Aunt Maki held a cosy little wedding luncheon over the weekend in Tokyo. Here's a picture of Mom (size XXL) and Aunt Maki (size XXS). Needless to say, we weren't invited, but Mom and Dad were, and they left us at Kabco and Vanilla pet hotel AGAIN. I don't like having to stay at an unfamiliar environment, and I refused to get up the van when Mrs T came over to pick us up. I kept looking at Mom, imploring her to "save me", but she didn't seem to understand. Hop too resisted initially, but went into the van without much of a struggle when they lured him with a dog biscuit. Simple-minded traitor!

At the hotel Hop showed such a bad attitude, barking at the other male dogs at the hotel and showing off because of his size and ego. Truth be told though, he's a real softie and gets bullied by me all the time. By the second day, Hop's weak stomach started acting up because of all stress brought on by the change in our living environment and he developed diarrhoea AGAIN. Mom & Dad's NOT going to be very pleased about this. I get the feeling they're pretty tired of taking Hop to the vet so often. I,for one, am sick of having to go with him and getting a thermometer stuck up my butt. NOT my idea of fun, I can tell you that... --- Mugi

Back to Singapore

Mom went back to Singapore from May 22-28. It was so confusing! Usually we stay in the house with her and play together for a couple of hours in the morning or in the afternoon. Even if she's working on the computer and basically ignoring us, it's still nice to be able to play by ourselves around her. That's our favourite spot under the computer table.

But early one morning she just left us and Dad put us in the garage all day! We kept wondering when he was coming back to take us back to the house and barked and barked all day long, but soon realised he had left us too! Howl!!!

At 6pm, though, our good friend and pet sitter Mr Nakatani came by and took us out for a walk, which was fun. By the time Dad came back, it was night already. He took us out for another short walk before taking us back into the house to sleep. Words cannot express how relieved we were to be back in the house, and back inside with Dad. Perhaps a photo will do the trick?

After almost a week of such a hellish and high-strung lifestyle in the garage, where every passing neighbourhood dog can see us in abject squalor and pity, Mom finally came back. We were absolutely ecstatic, and Hop wagged his tail so hard he hurt himself banging it against the door. Mom looked tired but happy, and said she had a great time eating Singapore food and meeting family and friends. Surprisingly she didn't gain any weight while she was there. She brought us two big hard white bones from Singapore. Here's the only picture she took while in Singapore -- a photo of one of her favourite Indian dishes, Roti Prata. Apparently, she was always so eager to eat that she completely forgot about pictures to show us. Aw Mom!

Lake Shikotsu / Pet hotel

I can't believe it. We were left at the pet hotel while Mum and Dad went to Lake Shikotsu with other family members. At first we didn't understand why they were packing their suitcases, but when they lady from the Pet hotel came to pick us up in the morning, we suddenly understood. I willingly and happily jumped into the cage inside the van, but Mugi refused to get in at all and her eyes kept imploring Mum to "save her"! After a while we calmed down a little, but I think the new environment gave me a bout of diarrhoea and I was sick for a few days after coming back from the Hotel on Sunday.

We were so happy when Mum & Dad finally came back from Lake Shikotsu. They said the highlight of their trip was actually the lake cruising on a speedboat, and showed me pictures but I was too excited to care. When we arrived home, they were having a BBQ in the garden! We weren't allowed to have any of the salty, tasty food, so we salivated all over the garage. Later Mum took pity on us and put some doggy furikake on our dinner! Yum! --- Hop

Passing of an old friend

Today we mourned the passing of an old friend named Puho. We had known him since we were about 4 months old, and played with him and his girlfriend Gimu virtually every day.He had withstood our abuse all this time with a cheerful smile on his face, but today his strength finally left him and we tore him apart. All that remains of Puho now is literally an empty shell. Good bye Puho! --- Mugi & Hop

What's for dinner?

(The kitchen is our favourite place in the house...)

Every day we have the same old stuff to eat.

Breakfast: Dry dog food with water or broth
Lunch: An apple core between us, or some grapes
Dinner: Dry dog food with water or broth
Bedtime snack: A stick of rawhide or vegetable dog chew

Sometimes we also get some leftover bread or rice that Mom & Dad can't finish. Mom cooks almost every day, so we often get excited when we catch the lovely smells wafting from the kitchen. If there's pork rib or chicken soup, it usually means we get some in our dinner as well! Yummy!

Here's what Mum had got in the kitchen the other day when we snuck in. The other picture shows what they actually ate. You can't see us, but we're actually just waiting under the kitchen table, even though we never get any table scraps. --- Mugi & Hop

Golden Week

We did absolutely nothing for Golden Week. Just stayed at home most of the time, waiting for Mom to come home from work or to stop fiddling with the computer, and for Dad to finish his gardening. Wonder what's up with Dad and his gardening fetish. He had recently planted some flowers and a new pear tree. When we tried to go into the garden to investigate, he got really mad and yelled "Out! OUT!". What a bummer. In the winter we're supposed to do our business there, but in spring it's "out! out!". SO unfair. --- Hop.


Mom's been interested in something called homeschooling recently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling　(Wikipedia)
http://www.homeschool.ne.jp/ 　（日本ホームスクール支援協会）
There are lots of books on homeschooling lying around the house and yesterday she spent 2 hours reading one of them in the garden instead of playing with us. Unbelievable! With Mom and her reading, and Dad and his gardening, we'll never be able get them to pay attention to us. She tried to read some of the passages to Hop but of course it was all Greek to him, the silly dog. I tried to pay attention to her reading aloud, but I got bored and decided to pick a fight with Hop instead. He caught me staring at him, giving him the "eye" and promptly took up the gauntlet and away we went! --- Mugi

Sick as dogs

We're sick.

Yesterday Mom discovered that her dishwashing sponge was missing. I think I swallowed it. I saw something in the kitchen and it smelled good so I ate it. Mom is throwing a fit because this would be my 2nd kitchen sponge. The last time I ate the kitchen sponge, they took me to the vet and did an X-ray examination. Luckily Mom decided not to cut open my stomach. I had my first surgery when I was about 4 months old, when I swallowed a large sock. That was a nasty and, according to mom, expensive experience. I had to wear that silly Elizabethan collar and one of Mom's tank tops. --- Sponge-eating Hop


(I look like the lamp on the wall behind me...)


(Here's me looking like Freddie Mercury...)

I think I've got something stuck in my throat. Last night I kept heaving and trying to throw up, but nothing came up. Mom was really worried and woke up several times in the night to check on me. Finally, I managed to get some sleep and the heaving stopped. I'm still not feeling well now, but at leat I don't feel like puking anymore. One bad news is, Mom got rid of all our old and dirty toys!! She thinks that the toys have something to do with my being sick. I protested but of course, she wouldn't hear of it..... Sigh. What a great way to spend May Day. --- ゲボハキ Mugi

Kishimen きしめん

Mom & Dad had something called "Kishimen" today. Mom said it reminded her of a kind of noodle she used to love in Singapore. I wonder how that tastes like. I sometimes steal food from the kitchen sink, so Mom gets very angry with me if she sees me sneaking into the kitchen. Mugi can't reach the top of the kitchen sink, but if she could, I'm sure she would steal food too. --- Hop

Hop's latest passion is fetching. He never used to like to fetch, but these days we're so bored we'll try anything to get Mom's attention. That blue ball in the video? That's his latest best friend. Frankly, I think this whole "fetch" business is entirely overrated, but Mom makes such a fuss over Hop that I get quite jealous sometimes. --- Mugi

We speak English! Woof!

From the time we were just puppies, Mommy and Daddy have been speaking to us in English. Most of the time we don't really understand, but I think we've got a handle on some of the words they say. We both know "sit", "down", "wait" and "house", most importantly, "NO!" (Mommy likes that word A LOT. Daddy just uses a broom on us, or grabs our neck and throws us out of the house.)

We're planning to take the TOEIC test in the future, but I'm not sure we'll pass...
Gotta get back to studying/ eating/ fighting/ sleeeping!
I'm a busy dog. Woof! --- Hop

(Mugi practicing "down" and Hop in a cute little "sit".)

Happy Birthday to US!

Woof! It's out birthday today! We're officially one year old. Does that make us grown-up dogs? I don't know and frankly, I don't think either of us care. We celebrated not today, but on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon Daddy and Mommy took us out for a long walk and a little picnic. First we walked in the direction of the nearby shrine, but when we got there we didn't go in. I think there must have been a sign that said "No dogs allowed in the grounds of the shrine". So we turned back and just went to the nearby dog-friendly park as usual. There we had a little picnic; Daddy had light beer and Mommy had a frozen sherbet. Hop got too excited and started digging up the earth in the park until Daddy got mad and yelled at him. I just ran and ran around the park, nipping Hop occasionally on the hind legs when he's not looking. Ha! My brother is so clueless sometimes... 「バカホップ」 is his nickname.

Then Dad took out a packet of dog food!! yaay!!!! We ate and ate and ran and ran.

We were out for about 2 hours before heading home where we had another mini wine-and-cheese picnic while reading in the garden. We got all excited when we smelled the cheese but they tied us up where we couldn't reach it. Dang!

Today too Mum gave us our food with a special treat: pork gravy and rice!
Happy birthday to us!!♪ ---- Mugi

Warm days ahead

It's Saturday. Daddy woke up really early but didn't take us out until about 7am. It was already nice and warm then. We recently noticed that all our favourite peeing and pooing spots in the snow have melted and we've been busy looking for suitable other places to go. Hop likes to go in the middle of the road but sometimes those big cars come and honk at him. We don't really care, but Daddy and Mommy look kinda embarrassed. I like to go at the side of a wall of something; I think it's safer that way.

It was really warm yesterday and today. We had to play by ourselves --- fighting mostly --- while Mommy worked on the PC until after afternoon walk. It was so hot we couldn't stop panting and Mommy kinda looked silly in her jacket. After that we were all peaked out and didn't really mind it when Mommy left us in our pen to go out to work. She came back pretty soon after anyways, with the smell of another dog on her! That woman is unbelievable! But she gave us a little snack so we forgave her straightaway. :-)


(From Mugi)

Our First Post

Woof! This will be our first post on our first blog!
(As I'm the older brother, I will write the first post. --- Hop)

Today we spent a mundane morning fighting with each other as usual. Mugi found the frisbee that Mommy bought for us and started chewing away, but I soon showed her who's boss. She went crying to Mommy after I took the frisbee away from her, that tattletale.

But then Mugi found this big box of cardboard and an old "Hot Pepper" magazine and oh boy did we have fun with that! My sister really knows how to show a dog a good time...

I thought I did pretty good job of tearing the cardboard boxes up but Mommy seemed a little displeased and put us in our corner while she was having her Skype lesson. We usually get to see who she's skyping with but not today. No matter; after all that hard work with the cardboard, I'm ready for a long nap. --- Hop


(Wonder why Mommy seemed a little grouchy today...)