Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A Special Request


The other day I got an email from my sister. Attached were some pictures of her two cats, Mouse and Kitty so I thought we'd share them with evryone. Jazz and Dixie are not quite sure about cats - curious but scared. A lot of doggie friends have warned us about the feline kind.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Tagged








We were tagged by our good friends over at AO4 to answer some very important questions.
1.Where is your favorite place to sleep??
We both like to sleep on the sofa and if mum or dad are on there already we sneak in from behind and try to push them off!


2. Is there a specific trick your humans make you do to get treats??
Yes, we have to sit, give both paws one after another, lie down and wait!!! This is pure torture for a beagle!


3.If you could spend an entire day doing anything at all with anyone what would you do and with whom??
Well, we would have to say either going on an outing to some great dog run (our favourite is Dog Field) with mum and dad or going to one of the many pet cafes around here with mum.


4. What is your favorite toy?
Jazz: My loofah puppy! I love soft toys that I can dig on and get the white snow out of!
Dixie: One of my pull toys that I can either swing and shake about my head like a crazed animal or persuade mum or dad to play tug of war with me!

5. If you could change one thing in your life, what would you change??
We are pretty happy dogs but would love for mum to be “on holidays” forever so we could spend lots and lots of time with her. Remove Formatting from selection

We tag Sparky and River.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Wacky Watermelons!!

This post is for Dave over at AO4 who loves watermelon. We were telling him about some crazy shaped and obseenly priced watermelons on sale here in Japan. Well I was in a very posh fruit shop today (just looking!!) and just happened to see those fruits in question. There were square watermelons, three and four sided pyramid shaped ones, snowman shaped ones and the most ridiculous of all was one like a giant dice with the dots indented into the watermelon. These melons were priceless but after seeing the cost of two mangoes from Okinawa ¥31,500 (US$260, A$295, GBP126) I didn't dare ask about the price of them which I read in a newspaper artitle could be up to ¥25,000. Fruit in general in Japan is on the pricey side but this is taking it all a bit too far! These would make for one very expensive watermelon slushie, Dave!



Saturday, July 21, 2007

Rockin' Dog Bloggers!



















We have been awarded a Rockin' Dog Blogger by our good friend from down under, Hammer. Thank you very much Hammer. We would like to pass this award onto our blogging friends, Loui, Fei, Frankie, Umetyan and Toffee. To be honest every dog that blogs is Rockin'!!

Friday, July 20, 2007

Frosty Paws!!


Recently while looking at our friends' blog we have noticed quite a few posts about Frosty Paws which I had never heard of before. It seems they come in various different flavours and forms. From what I gather you can put pretty much anything into them that you think your pup would like and freeze them for a cool treat on these hot summer days. Well Jazz and Dixie are pretty fruity girls so I got out the blender and put some watermelon, a banana and a peach into it and blended it all up to a nice smoothie consistency. Of course we all had to try that before I poured out some into containers to freeze them. Several hours later and after a hot sticky walk I presented them to the girls and boy did they love them. Dixie even tried to chew up the Tupperware! So I guess they were a hit and very simple to make. Thanks to all you Frosty Paw doggies out there for the inspiration!


Thursday, July 19, 2007

Sweet Potatoes!


Yesterday the girls and I went for lunch at Pet Love Cafe for the first time. We've used the indoor dog run there before but today we decided to sample some things from the lunch menu. I had taco rice and the girls each had a sweet potato bone shaped cake. They shared the first one and I set aside the second one so I could eat my lunch. Jazz sat patiently for some time at the table across from me knowing the cake was there just waiting to be eaten! The temptation proved too much for her so I gave in a devided up the second cake between them. After lunch we played in the dog run where Jazz and Dixie met an young, very playfull Irish Terrier.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Sweet Peaches


Summer in Japan is the time to enjoy the most delicous,sweet, juicy peaches! Each one comes individually protected in a little foam nest and looks perfect! Today one of my student's brought us some beautiful peaches. I sliced one up and let Jazz and Dixie have a sniff which got them very excited. No sooner had the plate touched the floor they had devoured their share of a juicy peach and started to look around for more! I enjoyed the other half!



Sunday, July 15, 2007

Is it a Hat or a Handbag??


Jazz and Dixie have big basket of toys they like to play with. Dixie especially rumages through the basket until she finds something that takes her fancy at that moment! This toy was given to her by one of my students and she had me in histerics the other day as she played around with it, first on her head and then carrying it around like a handbag!

Friday, July 13, 2007

Rockin' Girl Blogger


We have been trying to get this logo up on our blog after being nominated by our good friends Stormy and Amber at AO4. Thank you guys! We nominate Girasol, Nugget, Fei, Lilibeth, Frankie and Peaches.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Time Capsule Tag!


Today when we took a walk in Setagaya park with our good friends Fei and Eve, all the girls jumped up on a time capsule and I snapped this cute pic on my mobile. This time capsule was started in 1982 to comemerate 50 years of the Ward of Setagaya here in Tokyo. It is to be opened in 2032! How interesting! I wonder what's in there from the good old 80's. This gave us an idea for a little game we could play with our pup pals. If you doggies/Girl Girl were going to make a time capsule to be opened some time in the future what would you put in there for the doggies/hamsters of the future? Name five important things that you would include and then pass it on to five other friends. We are going to tag Fei, AO4, Oscar,Nugget and Girl Girl and anyone else who wants to play along.
Here are our five most loved things to include:
1. Sasami (chicken breast) jerky - because it is one of the most yummy treats for dogs!
2. Freeze dried icecream - our favourite and being freeze dried it will keep for years.
3. Large Loofah puppy - so much fun to pull apart and makes great sounds.
4. Zoom Groom brush - because finally there is a brush that is not evil and we should share it!
5. Squeaky toys - just in case they have stopped making them in the future due to noise pollution!

Monday, July 09, 2007

A Long Nature Walk


It's going to rain a lot this week apparently so we made the most of the fine day today to go on a nice long walk. We walked along one of the "green streets" in our neighbourhood. Its a very pleasant walk along a small canal and is shaded by cherry trees on both sides. Today we were lucky enough to see a mother duck and three little ducklings and some wood pigeons. Jazz and Dixie were very curious about the ducks and really stretched their necks and my arms to see over the canal fence! Towards the end of the walk the girls insisted we sit on a bench and have snack! Not sure how many kilometers we walked but we were walking for about 2.5 hours! Now everyone is relaxing in airconditioned comfort!



Aftermath!


Last night after all their playing at Fei's Pawty, Jazz and Dixie where so exhausted that they cuddled up together and nodded off to sleep.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

A Pawty at Fei's



What a fun day we had today! Fei and Eve invited the girls and I and another friend with her Weimaraner, Roxy over for a pawty. Jazz and Dixie were so excited and really enjoyed playing with Fei and Roxy. After our lunch Eve treated the girls to cakes from Three Dogs Bakery. Jazz and Dixie made short work of those delicious cakes! Thanks to Fei and Eve for being such great hosts. We are so lucky that we can do this kinda thing with good friends.




Saturday, July 07, 2007

Tanabata - Star Festival



July 7th is Tanabata, or the Star Festival, here in Japan. This festival is based on a Chinese legend, in which Kengyuu (the star Alter) meets Orihime (the star Vega) only once a year on this day over the Milky Way. They can't meet if its raining so everyone hopes for fair weather. People celebrate this day by putting up big branches of bamboo with colourful paper decorations at home. People also make a wish and hang a strip of paper with their wish written on it. While walking in the park we found one such bamboo branch. I wonder what Jazz and Dixie would wish for. Probably something food related!

Friday, July 06, 2007

Playful Pups

Jazz and Dixie are very playful Beagles! At home they are often rough housing together, in the dog run Jazz chases Dixie till she catches her, and at school they both have lots of friends they like to play with. From these great photos I can see what they have been up to during the day at school. (Click on the pics to get a larger view.)

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

The Story of a Little Green Turtle!


In the "All About Us" post a while back one of the questions asked about hunting and if Jazz or Dixie had even caught anything. I mentioned there that Jazz had once eaten one of my pet turtles. People wanted to know more so here's the low down. About 5 years ago I bought 3 tiny green turtles (red eared sliders) for my classroom aquarium which the children loved. Cleaning them was the problem and when I left that school no one wanted to keep them on so I took them home. Jazz was just a puppy when I brought them home so I put them in their tank on top of the fridge thinking they would be safe up there. Anyway one day one of them must have escaped the tank and free fallen to the floor without my noticing it. At that time Jazz had many toys which she liked to chew and so one night as we sat down watching TV I thought nothing of Jazz munching on something. Until that is that I saw blood on the floor!! I thought she'd cut herself and rushed in for a closer look. I was horrified at what I saw - one of my cute little turtles all chewed up. I felt so sick and sad and of course Jazz had no idea as to why I wasn't pleased to see her playing with that "toy". So only two turtles remained and do to this day (although they are a lot bigger!). When I clean their tank and they are out , Jazz and Dixie are very curious but Jazz keeps her distance! So there you have it - the story of the turtle munching puppy!!