Josie has been writing for this site since I helped train her dog, Meatball last year. She's 16, or maybe 17 now, and she writes like how I wished I could write when I was 16. See her other entries here...

behold: the shiba inu

Well, we got two new gates, you know, the oen where it swings open and hits you smack in the toe for the first few weeks until you understand you're suppose to open it a tad slower than how you have been doing to prevent a world of hurt that peels the skin off whatever toe is unfortunate enough to be the victim. Wow, I think that is one long run on setence, my english teacher would cry is she knew how I talk online. I am missing my "n" key on my keyboard so excuse the typos that come from that.
And.... and..... I got my Shiba Inu puppy!!!! her name is Sumi, meaning something in japanese that I have not cared to remember because I am just too darn excited. Okay, this puppy has dispelled any and every stereotype I have ever held in my heart for puppy dogs, and I will name them now.

1. Puppies can hold in their poop or pee for an extended period. They just choose not to because it's so much easier to put their poop everywhere so the house can smell like them. Sumi refuses to go to the bathroom in her (my) room and will hold it in until I bring her downstairs into the living room and then she will proceed to poop. She has no problem with pee but must have her wee wee pad as far from her crate as physically possible. The only problem is, she runs around like crazy and dissappears so I can ever catch her in the act of pooping and most of the time, she does not use the newspaper. I am working on that. But I do not mind cleaning up her poop. In fact, I love her poop because it tells me she is real and alive. I <3 her to bits.

2. Puppies CAN be quiet for extended periods of time. Just because Icy cries herself to death when we put her behind a gate does not mean my perfect baby will do that also. By golly, she does not bark and I thank everything in my life for that. If I leave her in my room with the door closed, she'll look at the door (or so I imagine since I'm on the outside) and whistle a few times, and return to her crate to wait for me to get back. At this point that she stops whistling, I open the door and play with her, she now knows whistling does not get attention. peace and quiet does.

3. Puppies, or at least those with attention spans larger than that of a fish, can learn their names within a matter of hours. If you call for Sumi in a high doting voice, she runs straight for you from the other room with her tongue lolling and piggy tail high up in the air waving like a little flower. "I'm here mommy! I'm here!" But she is not one of those buttkissers that lives in their master's shadow. Oh ho ho no, she thinks of me as an equal but at the same time the person who controls her food intake. In other words, she has a bright personality.

4. Puppies can LOVE their crate. Especially one which I fill up with a giant rug, my baby blanket a stuffed animal almost as big as me and a cage door that is opened. All I had to do was squeeze myself in their and wait for her to fall asleep on my lap, from then on, crate was home, crate was the place where you try to escape the attacking Icy, for goodness sakes, crate was the place where you look at your mommy with bright wide eyes that says "I know you are big... but couldn't you at least TRY to squeeze in here with me?" And, I am guilty for actually fulfilling that wish but if you could just see her! She exxageratedly tries to make room for me by sputing herself in a corner and once I'm in, jumps around all excited and stuff while nuzzling me.

5. Puppies don't HAVE to chew or eat every single thing on the floor. In fact, they can be a vacuum and a picker upper. Sumi MUST have all her chew toys in one area (under my desk) otherwise the world cannot go on and she will run in circles around me. Yes, circles, and she will rear up on her hind legs and proceed to attempt to beat the living pants off me with her skilled boxing paws which weirdly enough, smells like potatoes. She must have her squeaky toy (the one Meatball is deathly afraid of) and squeeze the life out of it. She revels in the fact that it soudns like it is gasping it's last breath... over and over again. She cannot get tired of killing the thing. It is very cute, but very annoying.

6. Puppies understand perfectly what they are doing. Especially torturing their mommy but in the end is something that the mommy desperately needed. I am a very light sleeper, therefore I do not get the recommended quality of sleep, and my Sumi has remedied that by keeping me up for the last sixty two hours with only short, GREAT QUALITY naps in between by the following method: It doesn't help that she has perfect vision and perfect hearing which enables her to walk at night without bumping into things. I now sleep in the crate with her. I do not know how I manage to squeeze myself in there but I do anyway. Every hour she will wake up from her cuddled position against my midriff and take a walk around my room. My room is fairly small but it echoes, her toenails click clack click clack three rounds around my room. I unconsciously stuff any available item to plug up my ears but resort to fingers each and every time. She then comes over and puts her delicate paws on each of my cheeks and looks down at me with a laughing face. I ignore her. She slowly, with infinite care, puts her nose on my forehead, and begin wiping it back and forth in a frenzied state. I groan and cover my head with the blanket that I have managed to put in the crate with me, and she digs and digs until she gets in. My sleeping position is curled up so I am half moon wolf mommy that protects her young. She just HAS to turn in circles inside the blanket and finally settling into a position comfortable for her while I just got punched in the ribs repeatedly by her nose. This process repeats and I am now no longer tired during the day. In fact, I am glad that my sleeping quality is so great now. I am a productive human being with only occassional insane bouts of laughter my teachers can't explain due to lack of sleep. Perfectly normal.

....

Why didn't anyone tell me Shiba Inus are the PERFECT dogs for me? I mean honestly, who doesn't want a puppy who learns everything with the speed of superman and still has enough personality left over to be so uberly adorable? Who doesn't want one that walks with a confident gait and since the legs are too short prances in a funny way that makes you want to burst into laughter? Who doesn't want a puppy that washes it's face like a cat, drapes itself over your lap and regards your visitors coolly, one that will not bark unless... well come to think of it, she hasn't barked yet, one that licks the corner of your mouth whenever she's hungry in an attempt to make mommy wolf throw up food for her, one that looks up at you with confidence that you are the ONLY mommy for her and one which keeps the bad stuff at bay while attempting to play the piano. Yes, I am teaching her how to play the piano and she can only tap out a few notes so far but it's progress. Sigh, my little Mozart. I am also knitting her a sweater and yes, I know by the time I'm done, she'll have grown and I need to redo it. I am knitting it anyway.

Below is a picture of the puppy I am waging war against. This not-so-little she-devil constantly smothers my little Sumi in spit. The first night I brought Sumi home (who is only half her size) Icy looked up at me with hopeful lives. "Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Treat for me? Treat for me? Oh boy oh boy Treat for me!!!" She now tries to terrorize, at any chance given, my little bundle of joy but gets frustrated because Sumi does not submit to her. In the end, Icy is barking her head off "WHY WON'T YOU ROLL OVER AND PLAY SUBMISSION DAMNIT?" And Sumi tilts her head like "I think you need therapy." and calmly walks towards me and plops herself down in front of me, as if posing for a picture. Icy now wants to live in Sumi's crate, the one which she rejected and would not go near for the life of her. But oh no, now that Sumi is living in it, she wants to live in it too. She tries to pee in my room and I am constantly scolding Icy now because of the sheer number of things that she does to piss me off. Peeing in my room, hitting and biting Sumi, howling for more attention, stealing Sumi's food, just to name a few.

My sister loves her (well, like dog like owner) and WE start arguing while the puppies are fighting.
Oh, and how's Meatball and Rask taking this? They're the referees for these little fights, but Meatball thinks she is Icy's mother, which she isn't and brings food to the darn thing and occasionally steps in if it looks like Icy is going to lose the fight. Sumi has managed on more than one occasion, to pin Icy, who is twice her size and weight, down on the floor. Ha, as if my Sumi will lose to you.
My dad was pretty worried Sumi will go after the ferret, after all, the little hunter that she is, Sumi has the best sense of smell ever. So good, that she will not possibly think of even going near the ferret who smells vaguely of... something. Anyhow, yes, SUmi chased the ferret into a corner, but before her muzzle even reached him, she stopped suddenly, eyes widened in horror, fell backwards and began rubbing her nose repeatedly while making little snuffling sounds. That is how good her sense of smell is. Icy either likes smelly sutff or she can't smell anything. I go for the latter.

icy.

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