Shih Tzu Happens

  Me in my favourite spot in the car Not long after settling into my new home, dad carried me into his car. He set aside a lovely soft blanket for me and sat me on the passenger seat next to him. I was a little concerned about this: was I going to be taken to another new home? The last time we went in a car I was taken from my first home with my dog mum, brother and sister to my new family. I didn’t want to go to another family; I loved the one I was with. I was a little unsettled and would not sit down. As the car moved through the city, I kept stumbling and falling. Eventually dad pulled over and moved the blanket onto the footwell floor of the passenger side of the car and snuggled me into it. This made me feel a little more secure, but I was still worried about being taken to a new family.   After a short time, dad stopped the car, got out and came around to my side where he lifted me (still in the blanket) out and walked over to a large building that I had never seen be...

That's me in my garden - I'm not chewing up my ball - honest! My house was all on one floor. There was a small communal garden to the front which I was not really allowed to play in by myself as I was still quite young. To the rear of the house was our own garden this was quite large for a little dog like me (20m x 20m). it was fenced all around and so mum used to let me play here all by myself. There were so many new smells and things to explore, I used to get so excited my tail nearly wagged itself off! I loved playing with my toys in the garden also. RJ used to throw a small foam ball for me which was my favourite. Sometimes if I got too excited, I used to chew this up into little pieces which got me into a little trouble – whoops! One summer, mum and dad got RJ a trampoline for the garden. This was a large circular trampoline with side poles and a net to stop you falling off. Very quickly this net got in the way and so dad took this off so that RJ could get up onto this him...

  "Mazie - Sit" - not a chance! My new family consisted of mum, dad and RJ. RJ was my older brother (human). He was 11 years old when I first met him and we took to each other immediately. This was the start of a magic relationship that lasted my whole life. I remember playing with him in our living room with a Disney squeaky toy. He would sit on the floor and hold to toy at full arm’s length and let me try and jump up to reach it. I was a good jumper and could nearly get it even though it was really high. I sometimes used to pretend to miss the toy and jump on RJ himself. He used to find this really funny and we rolled around on the floor having the best time.  I had been taught some tricks off my mum. I could sit down, lie down and roll over. When RJ was playing with me, he used to try and get me to sit down before he threw the toy. I was far too excited to have any of that, and I used to just jump all over him to try and make him forget to make me sit. When he did throw th...

"Long Dog" I loved my toys. My favourite game was fetch. My mum and dad used to buy me loads of toys, I was really lucky to be part of this family they loved me so unconditionally. I was quite a small dog (7Kg max) my mouth was only tiny and large toys such as tennis balls were far too big for me. This didn’t stop me having a go from time to time, but my jaws ached after a while. The toys I really liked were smaller soft toys filled with the sort of fluffy stuff you would find inside a teddy bear. One such toy was just under one foot long, sausage shaped and had a cuddly dog’s face at one end and a small tail on the other. It was just the right diameter for my mouth and the fact that it was soft made it easy to carry. Aunty L called this toy “Long Dog”. I loved it, or rather should I say them as I had loads of them because after a while, the stitching would split, and all the filling used to come out. Don’t tell mum or dad but I may have helped this filling come out quite a l...

Mum and dad took me to the beach today. This was the first time I have seen the sea. The spot we went to was about 30 minutes’ drive from our house. Mum tells me that this was the favourite place for Millie and so I’m so excited to see this as if Millie likes this place, it must be good. We parked the car and walked along a sea front promenade for a while and then dad took me down a set on concrete stairs onto the beach. Wow I love it! The feeling of the sand in my paws was tickly but nice and the side of the beach nearest to the walkway was full of stones and pebbles – my favourite toys. Dad kept me on the extended lead for a while as there were other dogs the beach then we found a location where we had the beach to ourselves, and he let me off the lead. I ran and ran and ran….and ran some more. Dad chased me and I chased dad, he threw pebbles for me to fetch and it was the first of what became many special moments on that beach. After a while dad walked towards the sea and I followed...