Being a Mum is not a bed of roses

Hectic week with my hubby working late. I have to manage all the kids by myself after work and they are really a handful. It is fortunate that dinner is taken care of at my in laws or I would really have no breathing space. Well, these are some of the sacrifices working mothers have to face. Not that stay-at-home mothers have it easy, I honestly do not think I can be that even if we can afford it. I think stay-at-home mothers have it worse and I really take my hats off to them.

The house may be in a mess, the clean laundry is still sitting on the sofa. But cleaning is not priority for me. I need to get the kids cleaned and fed and ready for bed. If they have homework, need them to finish it and nag them to practise their piano.

If you have me on facebook then you probably would know about my puppy going crazy and destroyed my small little pebble garden. We even set up a 3 feet fence around it but I think she was must have been really bored last night and decided to jump in and murder my plants! Now we are at a lost on how to prevent it from happening again. Just hope she will grow out of this phase SOON! Here is the mess we found this morning.

This is probably an understatement, being a mum for 3 kids and a puppy is defintely not a bed of roses! Thanks mum, for taking care of us 4 and a couple of dogs too. But as Beyonce would sing...

I'm a survivor, I'm not going to give up, I'm not goin' stop, I'm gonna work harder...

Wormy Puppy

I was in the Pet Shop 2 weeks ago to buy puppy food and there they have a Jack Russell Terrier puppy for sale! The shop keeper said that the puppy with MKA cert is priced at RM1300++. Now that we already have Cotton, our Golden Labrador, we cannot get another puppy, just yet. I am surprised at how tiny the puppy is eventhough I know that JRTs are small dogs.

Anyways, Cotton is eating well and she is getting used to living with us, she barks less now. Her little pink nose is turning black as her previous owner told me it was supposed to. She is still chewing and playing with shoes and anything she can find. She even nibbles my feet! The worst is she chews and steps on my plants too! We bought some fence from the hardware shop and had our little garden fenced up. It was really effective. But I was really upset because she killed half my potted ornamental palm, even after we tried to put the pot higher. I hope she will grow out of this chewing habit. We already brought her to the vet and got her 1st shot. She was given deworm medication and she really passed out long worms in her faeces after that, was a pretty scary sight. I didn't expect that, she is just less than 2 months old. We will need to send her to the vet again for further deworming. We do not understand where she could have contracted the worms from but I read that it is pretty common, so I hope a few rounds of deworming and regular follow ups will get rid of the problem. I look forward for her to be bigger so I can bring her for walks outside, she is still quite afraid to go out of the house for now.

Cotton

Last Saturday, I took my 2 sons to watch Karate Kid. We wanted to see Toy Story 3 but because a the time, the only available was in 3D at a much more expensive charge, I convinced the kids to go for Karate Kid instead. It was a good choice, the movie is good and I enjoyed it. After the show, we met the lady to pick up the puppy and we paid the amount due to her by the roadside of Jusco Balakong and got our puppy home.

She is a white lab/golden retriever mixed and her name is Cotton. Cotton because she is soft and fluffy. She is a pretty little white thing and extremely playful. In the past week, we sort of established a routine for her feeding and toilet business timings. It was pretty rough for the 1st few days and she was barking constantly but now she seems to be able to go through the night without any barking. We still have to clean up a lot of poop and pee but I hope as she grows older, we can train her better. She is too young at the moment.

Now I am looking for a vet nearby and also finding out how I can get a dog license. I didn't want to go to the local council without getting all the necessary documents so I tried to call the council office and did research on online but to no avail. The council phone is never answered and the was little info on it on the net. Apparently, different local councils have different rules about dog licensing. This mean that I will need to find out in our local council when I am on leave next week.

My second son likes the puppy very much but he is also afraid of it. Cotton likes to lick and nibble our feet and my children are all so afraid of that. I think they need to familiarise with each other more. I have taken some pics of Cotton but I am too busy these few days to even download it from my camera.

Getting a new 'Kid'

I have been researching on dog breeds for awhile, I was thinking of getting a Beagle or a Jack Russell Terrier.
Then my sister found on mudah.my, a Labrador/Golden Retriever mix and when I saw the pic I wanted it right away. It's so white and beautiful. So I call the seller and we agreed to meet tomorrow. So if everything is as planned we will get her home tomorrow. I know my kids will be excited, at least for a few days. My second son had been bugging me for a dog or a cat for awhile. I am definitely more of a dog person. I have been thinking about it for long time, and I think we can handle it. I know also that my hubby and I will be responsible for another 'kid' for the next maybe 12 years or more! My only worry now is the need to look for a dog-sitter when we need to go away for a few days for a vacation. But I think some pet shops do offer dog hotel services. I am also looking at dog training classes. So I guess we will have plenty to do with our new addition. Not to mention the walks we will need to take with her. It's going to be pretty exciting for us all!

This is her, isn't she pretty? Thanks to my sis for finding her.

Oh yes, we need to find a name for her too, will discuss this with my kids. They are great with giving names to pets and stuff toys like Jelly the teddy bear, Fifi another teddy bear, Princess our ex-rabbit, Maya our dead tortoise and Budi our live tortoise.