Oscar the Maltese

My celebrity lookalike

2011-02-15T23:00:00.000+11:00

You may have read my human lookalike post - where my human concluded that I look most like Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings - but, while looking at some old photos this evening, my human found my true celebrity doppelganger! It's the luckdragon Falkor from The Neverending Story. I think you'll agree that he and I must have been separated at birth!

Do you look like any mythical creatures or fictional characters?

Love, Oscar and the gang

A short note on aesthetics and genetics

2011-02-15T11:54:00.000+11:00

If my human had a shred of observational or mathematical ability she would have wanted to study science, in particular genetics and evolution. She is fascinated by how all people are so similar and yet so different. She is also fascinated by the endless number of different species of animals that have evolved over time through slight genetic mutations. She has great respect for science and anyone who advances the way we think about our world and how it works.

Then again, she doesn’t really like the way some scientists are so absorbed by their work that they will do anything in the name of scientific advancement. My human’s friend was recently telling her about how she harvested rats (!!!). She is doing experiments which involve messing with rats’ blood cells so that they develop leukemia-like conditions then treating them with various drugs before harvesting various bits of the rats to see if the drugs were effective. This research is very important because it may lead to a cure for some cancer sickies and it’s even more important to my human’s friend because her dad died from a cancer-sickie.

Most people say that it’s ok to test various kinds of scientific things on animals because it could save the lives of many people and reduce the suffering of many more but my human is uncomfortable with this kind of reasoning. She says this argument only works if we accept that some lives are inherently worth less than others. If we accept this then we’d have to justify why some lives are worth less than others and figure out some sort of hierarchy of importance. Is an animal’s life worth less than a human’s? Is a child’s life worth less than an adult’s? Is a woman’s life worth less than a man’s? Is a black person’s life worth less than a white person’s? Is a gay person’s life worth less than a straight person’s? And even more complex questions like is a fetus’s life worth less than a baby’s? Is an embryo’s life worth less than a fetus’s? What about a stem cell? And so on...

Note from Timea: I thought I'd spare you a more accurate representation of a lab rat as this post is ranty enough as it is. :P Source.

No doubt some of you are feeling uncomfortable thinking about this. Well except regarding the first question. Most people just accept that it is acceptable to harm and kill animals by the thousands in order to test theories that may save the lives of humans. Maybe the reason people find it so easy to ignore the question regarding the worth of animals’ lives is because we cannot speak for ourselves. There can be no Rosa Parks of the animal kingdom because animals do not have a voice. My human is very uncomfortable with the idea that animals’ lives are worth less than humans’. But then again, maybe if her daddy had the cancer sickie she would feel differently.

Whoa….I digress. I better get back on topic because my head feels fuzzy :P

Anyway my human LOVES to read about different breeds of dogs and borrows all the dog encyclopedias she can get her hands on. She devours hundreds of pictures and can tell the difference between a King Charles Spaniel and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel by the length of their nose and the difference between a Norwich Terrier and a Norfolk Terrier by the shape of their ears. She loves dogs of all sizes, shapes and colours. But the thing she finds most fascinating….the thing that brings out her wannabe-geneticist tendencies and makes her hyperventilate with excitement (I’m not kidding) is a simple coat colour. Or should I say pattern. Blue Merle. You may think it’s silly but until September 2009 my human did not even know this colour existed. Her life changed forever when she attended the Royal Melbourne Show and met her first Australian Shepherd. She says she felt the earth shift and she stared, dazed at the beautiful dog for a good ten minutes before she gathered her wits and asked the owner whether she could touch its speckled coat. The dog was a champion. It was aloof and focused on its owner in the way working dogs, particularly highly trained ones, often are. It suffered my human’s strokes but didn’t interact. And yet, she fell in love. Imagine her delight when she discovered that the gene which creates the blue merle coat occurs in many different breeds of dogs. Enjoy….

Rough Collie. Source.

Smooth Collie. Source.

Shetland Sheepdog. Source.

Pitbull. They get the gene from their staffy heritage but, strangely, I couldn't find a picture of a blue merle staffy. Source.

Poodle. Source.

Koolie. Source.

Great Dane. Source.

Pomeranian. Source.

Dapple Dachshund. Source.

Cardigan Welsh Corgi. Source.

Chihuahua. Source.

Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog. Source.

Border Collie. Source.

Australian Cattle Dog. Source.

Australian Shepherd. Source.

Mudi. Source.

Some breed standards recognize blue merle coat colour while others consider it a defect. My human doesn’t pay much heed to what kennel clubs consider acceptable. After all, some clubs require breeders to specifically select for traits that are downright dangerous to the dogs (the Rhodesian Ridgeback’s ridge, the Pug’s nose, the Cavalier’s head, the German Shepherd’s hips, the Shar Pei’s skin folds, the Irish Wolfhound’s huge size, the Basset’s extremely short legs and long back all come to mind). However, it’s worth noting that the gene which creates the blue merle coat and blue or blue and brown eyes can also cause deafness and eye problems. So, if you have your heart set on a blue merle doggie, make sure you find a reputable breeder and make sure that at least one of the parents is not blue merle (as both parents being blue merle increases the risk).

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this word and image heavy post. To all my blue merle friends out there, I'm kind of jealous.

Love, Oscar and the gang

Dealing with the heat: pt 2!

2011-01-17T13:47:00.000+11:00

What better way to deal with the summer heat than to go to the beach?!

Just last week my humans and I packed various necessities (for me, a portable waterbowl!) and hit St Kilda Beach. I love the beach! I normally go to offleash beaches a bit further out from the city - where there are less people and I can do zoomies to my heart's content - but this time we just wanted a quick trip somewhere central.

On this particular beach there were lots of doggies and people frolicking in the water. It was a bit bewildering. All I could do was sit close to my towel, eyes glued to the action. My human said it was like trying to get through to a brick wall. I was transfixed.

It couldn't have been a better day! I met some new friends and, for the most part, I wasn't scared of them. I also went into the water! What an achievement! I was watching other doggies do zoomies in the water and then my human started doing zoomies too (!!) and, before I knew what had happened, I found myself up to my chin in water! I didn't drown and no scary creature from the deep swallowed me up so, all in all, I would consider my beach trip a success! :P

Love, Oscar and the gang

Dealing with the heat: pt 1!

2011-01-17T12:03:00.000+11:00

Summer has been really strange in Melbourne this year. The sun hasn't come out much and it rains most days. It's still hot, but incredily sticky and as my human eloquently says....gross. (Yes, I use words like 'eloquent' while my law student human uses words like 'gross'....just go with it. :P) It's almost like we're not living in Australia at all...

Australia has been in the midst of a terrible drought my whole life (and much of my human's life). But this year, mother nature has turned the tables. Instead of drought, we have floods. You may have heard of the floods in Brisbane where over a dozen humans have died and thousands have lost their homes and everything they own. We've also had flooding in rural areas here in Victoria. It's horrible for the humans but us animals often get forgotten in emergencies and are often hit hardest by natural disasters. Both pets and wildlife have been severely affected by the floods. Please join us in donating anything you can to help Queensland's animals.

Source: http://www.qt.com.au/story/2011/01/21/rescue-wins-hearts-/

We're all having a hard time dealing with the heat...what with having thick furry coats and all. So I thought I'd share some of the things our human does for us to help us cool down.

My human thought it would be good to use this cool blue ball that you may have seen in this post and was inspired by this frozen kong idea she spied on the Never Say Never Greyhounds blog. I don't love kongs so using a ball was a much better idea in my book.

Anyway, first my human boiled some yummy things like soup bones, celery and carrots.

When they were cooked, she chopped them up.

She grabbed a plastic bag that she normally uses to roast things and put the blue ball inside. She then taped the bag so that it hugged the outside of the ball so all the soup would be contained within the ball. She poured the soup in once it cooled and added the chopped meat and carrots. Then she tied the bag tightly with a rubber band and froze the ball!

Yummy!

Even Iris wanted a piece of the action!

I have my ice cream and my shade....summer is pretty bearable I suppose.

In the future, my human said she will make a much smaller ball for me because there was no way I could eat that whole thing myself and it didn't stay frozen for very long. Also it made a loud clunking noise when I tried to play with it and I got scared! So smaller is definitely the way to go. She also said she wishes I would have eaten it on the grass because she had to clean the greasy soup stains off the pavers after me. :P I admit...I don't have the best table manners.

As for the three little pigs, my human always has to be very careful because they're very sensitive to high (and low) temperatures. So she always places their hutch between the big lemon and grapefruit trees so it's shaded all day. They also received a HUGE! water bottle for Christmas so they never run out of water. My human actually replaced this plastic one with a thick glass one (which was even better because it kept the water cooler), but the lady who was looking after us when our humans were on holiday broke it. So now it's back to the plastic one until she replaces it.

The guinea pigs also get a frozen bottle of water on really hot days. They lie against it and it acts as their own personal air conditioner!

What do you do to beat the heat in summer?

Love, Oscar and the gang

Summer update!

2011-01-17T10:58:00.000+11:00

Boo!

Sock Zombie here!

Sooooooooocks.....

Sock, I am going to eat you.

Mmmm...fresh, juicy sock, a la Oscar!

I've been so so busy lately. I will be writing about my summer-time adventures in a series of themed posts to come, but for now I just wanted to quickly update you on some of the things that I've been up to recently as it's been a while since I've checked in with all my blog friends.

I've been doing more walking on Mullum Creek trail. I love it because I get to do two of my favourite things:

Posing prettily and...

making new friends!

These days really small, submissive female doggies are the only ones I'm not scared of. My human says it's getting ridiculous and embarassing so I have to start going to classes at the RSPCA. My human was quite dilligent about socialisation and when I was younger I was the friendliest, most confident doggie around. Then, around a year or so ago, I got attacked by a big doggie who was off-leash on an on-leash, narrow trail walk and had run away from his owner. It was lucky my human's dad was there or I would have been dog food as the big doggie didn't even stop to sniff my butt and went straight for my neck!

Then, a few months ago, my human and I were just walking down a nearby street, when two smaller doggies saw us from the other side of the road and squeezed under their fence and ran out growling mean things at us! That was the first time my human was actually scared of a doggie. She's walked all kinds of dogs at the RSPCA, even ones who don't like humans very much, but never had she seen such mean, aggressive doggies. Even worse, because there were two of them, they riled eachother up! My human scooped me up and just barely avoided having her legs shredded. I was so scared and, of course, because she was scared too (with good reason!) I became even more scared.

Since then I have become more and more timid with strange dogs and sometimes, if they look really intimidating, I will yell out some nasty things at them first so they know not to mess with me. Well, my human said that's not how she's brought me up to behave in public and I need to go back to school to have an attitude readjustment. Hmmph! It's not my fault!

Meanwhile, we've been practicing meeting different doggies nicely, and what better place than the beautiful and peaceful Mullum Creek Trail? Where we can admire pretty flowers.....

And feathery things who make strange noises...

After all that walking in the wild and overgrown jungles of suburbia, my human has to check me thoroughly for ticks. I figure, since she has to go to all that effort, I may as well donate some of my coat to make her a nice new jumper!

**Note from my human:

For any of you who are interested here is some info on Mullum Creek Trail.

Mullum Creek runs through several suburbs but the section we walk along is in Ringwood, close to Mullum Mullum Reserve. There are also a couple of Mullum Mullum Reserves in different suburbs so here is a map.

Love, Oscar and the gang

Snow Monkeys!!

2010-11-17T13:42:00.000+11:00

When my human was asked what she would most like to do in Japan she said, "See the Snow Monkeys!!" She thought you might enjoy this video of the day she finally saw them. It was snowing heavily and bitterly cold but she said it was all worth it to tick something off her bucket list. (The other things she ticked off her bucket list while in Japan were seeing her favourite whale - the Beluga - and going to Disneyland! :P)

P.S. That's my human (with the yellow umbrella) getting blown away!
P.P.S. About half of the clips in this video were shot by my human's ex-boyfriend. Thanks Myles!

Love, Oscar and the gang

Animal Welfare Law and Post-Exam Shopping Spree

2010-11-13T22:34:00.000+11:00

You'll be happy to hear that both my human and I survived the dreaded and evil time of year commonly known as exam week (or the 'week of death' as my human likes to call it) only a little worse for wear. To be fair, it's my human that's a little worse for wear.

This is what we do: study, study, study.

One of her assessments this semester was a 5,000 word essay for a subject called Animal Welfare Law. My human was very excited to be able study this subject as it's the first time it's being offered in our state. The essay was worth 100% of the mark for the subject and my human had to research into Australia's animal welfare legal regime and put forward a proposal for reform. My human says the current legal regime is really silly (my words, not hers): we have different laws in each state, different regulations in different council areas, even different laws for individual industries and different laws relating to different animals. The result is inconsistent and inadequate protection for animals. For example, the greyhound industry code of practice allows for greyhounds to be kept in cages smaller than the domestic dog code allows for toy breeds. Anti-cruelty legislation also only protects against "unreasonable" cruelty leaving room for perpetrators to argue that the circumstances justified their being cruel to their animals.

Worse still, some animals are completely excluded from the protection of anti-cruelty legislation, like livestock for example, and some animals may lose this protection simply by being transported across state lines (fish aren't considered animals in some states and so aren't protected). In certain industries (such as those exploiting animals for scientific experimentation or for food) the very bodies who develop protective instruments and are charged with enforcing them are those who stand to gain the most from allowing cruelty to go unpunished. Some of you may know that Australia exports live animals, like sheep, to other countries to be slaughtered. What you may not know is that when deciding whether the minimum standards of welfare are met in relation to these live shipments the body responsible for this decision acts on the advice of the representative body for exporters. In other words there's a huge conflict of interest between protecting the welfare of animals and promoting commercial interests. Finally, most of the enforcement of anti-cruelty laws is done by the RSPCA, a not for profit organisation with very limited resources.

Australia does very little to protect one of its icons - the kangaroo - allowing kangaroos to be killed for profit or even for recreation (!!) with little to no enforcement of welfare standards. Photo credit: Voiceless. Follow the link to read about commercial killing of kangaroos in Australia. Don't worry, there are no graphic pictures. However, if you're interested in the reality of 'humanely' killing joeys via a 'blunt force to the head' a quick YouTube search will show you how humane it really is. :(

My human was very grateful to have the opportunity to learn from so many inspirational people about an area of law that sadly receives very little attention, especially in Australia. So she was very proud of her essay and asked me to pass on a little of what she's learned. She'll soon be able to put all that knowledge and the skills she aquired to good use as she recently successfully interviewed for a position as an animal welfare policy research assistant at the RSPCA. My human has been volunteering at the RSPCA in the kennels for about 6 months but she also wanted to use some of the skills she's acquired at university to help doggies.

Anyway, as soon as exams finished my human did something apparently lots of lady humans do to make themselves feel better. She went shopping! And here are some of the things she picked up for me (I'm so excited!):

I got a new collar and leash from FuzzYard. My human said it was time to get a grown up collar and leash because I've had the same short, thin leash and harness since the first day she brought me home.

Yes...my human considers multi-coloured space invaders 'grown up'.

I also got a special shampoo for doggies with sensitive skin. You may have noticed that I got a hair cut. Well....what a disaster! The groomer clipped my hair so short that she left me red raw around the bum and whatever products she used made my skin so itchy I wanted to scrape it all off. Sadly, I think the grooming business has been sold and my old groomer is no longer working there. Needless to say, I won't be going there again.

My human bought the Fuzzyard products from the RSPCA Store in Burwood East, Victoria. She also bought me a fun new ball from PETstock in Mitcham. I love balls! Especially blue ones!

If any of you are interested in learning more about that state of animal welfare protection in Australia, have a look at the following links:

Love, Oscar and the gang

My Human Lookalike

2010-10-23T23:40:00.000+11:00

My friend Honey the Great Dane recently did a post about her human lookalike. I think she looks much more like Cameron Diaz than Walter Matthau! How rude are her humans?! Anyway, if you haven't checked out her post yet, have a look!

I thought it looked like so much fun so, of course, I wanted to join in. Who do you think I look like?

Personally, I think I'm suave and stylish like the silver fox, Anderson Cooper.

Or maybe I look more like Matthew McConaughey. (You're welcome, ladies.)

What about Albert Einstein? I may be cuter than he was but we defnitely have a lot in common in the intelligence department.

My human thinks I am most like Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings. Loyal, sweet and her bestest friend. :) I could protect her from the evil Sauron with my killer licks and deadly waggly butt.

Who do you think you look like?

Love, Oscar and the gang

Doggie in sheep's clothing

2010-10-06T22:20:00.000+11:00

Today my human and I played hide and seek. She couldn't find me....

You can't see me!

Be one with the sheepskin blankie.

Love, Oscar and the gang

What a day!

2010-09-24T09:20:00.000+10:00

You'll never believe what happened!

It happened yesterday while my human, her sister and I were walking to the shops to buy some hay for the Three Little Pigs. Guinea pigs go through a lot of hay - they eat it and sleep in it - so this happens more often than any of us would like. But yesterday I didn't mind as this meant an extra long walk for me!

Anyway, there we were, walking along, next to a main road, minding our own business when suddenly our path was blocked by a strange, orange thing with two legs, big claws and a beak! My human's sister said something like, "Oh my god! A chicken!" What's a chicken? I had never seen such a thing before and I didn't like the way it kept walking towards me, tilting its head this way and that. Then I noticed two more of the things in some bushes by the side of the road! Well by this stage I didn't know who or what I was, let alone what they were.

As you can see, I am still recovering.

My humans kept exclaiming and cooing and laughing because the three feathery things came right up to them and allowed themselves to be petted and picked up. They were clearly used to being handled so my human thought it likely they had come from someone's backyard rather than a farm. She decided to knock on some doors to see if the chickens had escaped from any of the neighbouring houses. No one answered.

Mi casa es su casa, Chickens!

My humans were worried the chickens would run onto the road, which would not only result in them becoming chicken schnitzel but would probably cause a big accident in the busy intersection. So they made the decision to take the chickens home. I was so excited! I could finally chase them around the yard and maybe even grab a mouthful! But alas, my excitement was short lived as both Iris and I were unceremoniously shoved into the garage! Hmmph! No fair!

Let me at them! Let me at them!

Please?

I mostly get to watch them from the window or behind a fence but they don't seem all that great. All they do is dig, poop, eat things off the ground and follow my human around. Well, I can do that too! Worst of all, they've taken over our whole backyard. This morning they were on the balcony and, as my human was helping me write this post, one of them jumped up on the outer window sill!

At least I'm not the only one who has been displaced by the arrival of the walking drumsticks. Apparently, chickens need to sleep in a coop and the closest thing to a coop in our yard is the Three Little Pigs' house. Hehe! The hay we bought for them sure came in handy!

EDIT: We've found the chickens' owner! Some pretty intensive leafleting paid off and their owner is coming to pick them up later today. Good thing too; there's only so much chicken poo one backyard can withstand. Plus, I think 5 animals in one backyard is quite enough, though my human disagrees.

Love, Oscar and the gang + 3 Chickens!

My first blog award!

2010-08-19T23:23:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone! It sure has been a while since we've last caught up. Sorry I haven't updated or been round to see you for a while. My human has been having computer problems and assessments and there have been lots of strange people doing things to our kitchen, so she's had her hands full. But never fear! My human is now on holidays so I'm sure she'll help me update my blog more often.

Anyway, I've been really helpful around the house while the strange humans were bashing and banging and generally making more noise than Iris at dinnertime. In fact, you could say I oversaw the whole operation. Literally.

Oh alright, sometimes I just slept.

Tiles? What tiles?

I also had loads of fun harmonising with a creature called Circular Saw. My human said she'd heard of dogs who thought they were human and she often says I am a dog who thinks he's a cat, but a dog who thinks he's a circular saw is going a bit far.

Here's what we've been up to while we've been away from blogland:

Hangin'

Chillin'

Taking over the world.

Studying.

Napping.

Making friends.

Tiffany.

Eating seafood (left over baby octopus, rice and celery leaves).

Sorry about the low res images, technology hates us at the moment. Anyway, I also wanted to share with you some very exciting news. I recently received my very first blog award from my friend Sammy the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from Missouri, USA. As an aside (completely irrelevant if you ask me) my human has asked me to tell you that Missouri is the home state of Brad Pitt, where he...no joke...attended Kickapoo High School! Well, I don't know what the big deal is. My human is full of useless information like that. She recently played trivia with friends and knew the answer to the two most random questions on the whole quiz:

1. What is the deepest part of the ocean? (Mariana Trench)

2. What are the names of Brad and Angelina's children? (Maddox, Pax, Knox, Vivienne, Shiloh and Zahara)

Anyway...back to the serious business at hand! To accept this award I have to follow 4 simple rules:

1. Thank the blogger that gave you the reward.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto 15 bloggers that you have recently discovered and think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you sent the award to, and let them know about the award.

So here goes:

1. Thank you Sammy, you've made my day! Sorry it's taken me so long to acknowledge your lovely gesture.

2. 7 things about me:

- If I wasn't named Oscar, my humans would have called me Chip, after the little tea cup in Beauty and the Beast.
- My girlfriend is a sock. A pretty, fluffy, stripey, pastel blue sock of loveliness. I love her.
- I firmly believe that possums are the enemy. Just look at those little devils:

Just listen to their beastly bellows. It is my job, as protector of the household, to make sure no possums so much as sniff our fence. It is a job I take very seriously.

- My human's mother thinks I smell more like a sheep than a dog.
- I am scared of big plastic bags and always give hard rubbish a wide berth on my walks.
- I like to give my kitty sister a hand with her dinner. I help her eat a little faster by barking at her, just a little bit. Then I clean up after her. Aren't I a considerate little brother?
- I have a foot fetish. Too much information?

3. Since I am so late in giving out this award, some of my blog friends have already received it, so I will give it out to 10 blogs I have been following and loving for a long time, the writers of which I have not introduced myself to yet.

- The Army of Four
- Jedi the Keeshond and Ahsoka and Fable the Finnish Lapphunds
- Daisy the Curly Cat
- Huskee and Hershey
- Momo and Pinot the Cavs
- Parlance and her dog Penny
- Ginger and Wiggley the Guinea Pigs
- Kona the hiking dog
- Africa the Boerboel
- Luna the Great Dane

4. Now I'm off to visit all my friends!

Polish sausage and my new haircut!

2010-08-15T18:12:00.000+10:00

Phew! It sure has been a long time since I last updated my blog! My human had a sickie again, only this time it was so bad that she couldn't do very much at all, including getting onto the computer to help me write a new post. Well now she feels better and less tired so she said it's time I caught up with all my blog friends. Too right! So never fear, I am back.

I'm back!

It's been really cold and rainy here in Melbourne the last few weeks. My backyard has turned into a swamp. But, of course, I have managed to have a few adventures. (Well, every day is an adventure for me!)

The weather outside is frightful.

Iris has not been impressed by the weather.

She spends most of her time hiding from it.

And looking pretty.

My human and I have been practicing some very basic things that I, being a very excitable sort of doggie, sometimes find too boring to pay attention to. Like my recall. Oh, I absolutely love running up to my human whenever she calls me from any point in the house or yard and I'm also pretty good when we're walking along, but in a park with lots of exciting new smells, not so much. So my human has been taking me to various little parks and ovals to practice random recall.

Let me tell you, I really have a hard time tearing myself away from interesting big sticks and bushes which may hide all manner of stinky treasures! With practice I've gotten better but there are still some smells that prove too powerful. My human was getting very frustrated that sometimes I came the moment she called and five seconds later I seemed to suffer from complete amnesia. Well, she tried to hide her frustration but us doggies are not going to be fooled by all that two-faced human "diplomacy". I could smell it! It smelled kind of like steam coming out of my human's ears. Tee hee! Who'd want to go anywhere near a human with steam coming out of their ears? I stayed well away.

Well, my human racked her brain for ways to overcome my stubbornness (hehe). Finally, she remembered reading something that said humans often underestimate doggies' intelligence. They assume we're going to do something just because humans ask it of us or in exchange for a measly Schmacko. But there are some things that are definitely not worth the trouble for a piece of dried Schamcko. A human puppy might get you a glass of water for a smile and a 'thank you' but if you want them to wash the dishes, it might take a little extra. So my human had to bring out the big guns. Polish sausage! (Shh...don't tell her parents). Now "come" is my fabourite trick!

You called?

In between all that training we also managed to fit in some fun. Like sliding down the slide at the playground.

And zoomies!

And being a doggie hair model!

I call this one: Blue Steel.

And something that's definitely not as fun but probably noteworthy: getting a new hair cut!

Where did my whiskers go?!

Love, Oscar and the gang

Piggy rant

2010-08-03T14:41:00.000+10:00

Our human says there are very few things in life as funny as watching a guinea pig eat. Which is lucky for her because we eat all the time! We squeak loudly when it's time for dinner and get super excited when we can run around in the grass because it means....yep, more food!

The reality of being part of a household with lots of animals is that you have to share the love of your human between, in our case, five animals! And one of the many annoying aspects of being part of a household with a dog is that they always need to be the center of attention.

"Oh look, Oscar is eating his dinner!" Snap. Snap.

"Oh look, Oscar is chasing his tail!" Snap. Snap.

"Oh look, Oscar is rolling in poop, how cute! How adorable!" Snap. Snap. Give us a break.

While this suits those of us who are shy just fine *cough* Neytiri *cough* some of us are clearly born to be stars!

Anyway, we've mentioned before that we live outside on account of the orders of our human's Mum and Dad. Our human isn't completely happy about this but she tries to convince herself that it is better for us because we can live more like wild guinea pigs do (before they become Peruvian spit roast...eek!). She likes to think that, this way, we are part of the backyard ecosystem. Well, today our human found out that we are actually more connected to the ecosystem than she would have liked! In fact, you could say that we have our own little ecosystem going in our hutch. Today, while cleaning our cage, our human came a little too close for comfort to one of our friendly neighbours, a huntsman spider! Our human is not exactly scared of spiders (she kept a huntsman as a pet when she was in primary school) and this particular huntsman was just a baby, but she really wasn't happy when he crawled out close to her hand when she wasn't expecting it.

And where was Oscar, "our mighty and fearless protector", during all this? Watching from a safe distance, of course.

Oh hai...

No, really....you look like you're doing just fine.

Love, the Three Little Pigs

A spoonful of sugar...

2010-08-01T18:42:00.000+10:00

Wow...long time no blog! My human has been busy doing her back to uni thing and has had no time to help me post about my most recent adventures. She's got a backlog of photos so hopefully when things settle down she will be able to sort through them and post more frequently.

Oops...sorry! I was so excited about blogging

again that I forgot to brush my hair!

Among other things, I've been working on a video about all the human words I understand. I'm my human's first dog and she didn't know much about dogs before I came into her life. She'd read books and articles but I guess nothing really prepares you for the real thing. Especially when the real thing is as cute as me! I guess it's like reading those books humans read before they have human pups. Apparently they tell you all about the best ways to turn human pups into supermodels and prodigies because no one wants a mediocre human pup. My human found the same thing with books about doggies. The problem was that once I came along my human found it much harder to be something called "The Disciplinarian". So my training wasn't always consistent.

This may or may not be my guilty face.

Still angry?

You see, I love training and showing my human how smart I am but a lot of the time there are just so many more fun things to do! Plus, my human sometimes LIKES me to do slightly naughty things like licking her and jumping up on the bed. So instead of having very rigid rules my human and I worked on building a really close relationship and good communication. That way I trust my human and I look to her to know what kind of behaviour is appropriate in any given situation. On walks, for example, I know I can pretty much roam free unless my human tells me I have to "wait", or "stop" or go "this way" instead of that. At home I know that my human will generally let me curl up on her lap but I have to be given the ok first. I guess my human is pretty lenient compared to other doggies' humans. Just the way I like it!

Oh come on...how can you resist these eyes?

Another thing my human is not strict about is my diet. I don't follow any specific diet but rather a variety of different foods in appropriate proportions. My human read about Malteses being particularly fussy in relation to food and didn't want to encourage me to be picky. So I usually get a combination of dry food (sometimes premium, sometimes not), wet food, raw food, cooked food, bones and treats. Any given week I might eat raw chicken drumsticks, kibble, liver, schmackos, carrots and tuna loaf from a can. I haven't developed any intolerances because I don't always eat salty, processed foods with tonnes of additives.

Your offering pleases me, human.

By far my favourite thing to eat is my human's special recipe of mince, rice and vege pilaf. Every couple of weeks she buys good quality mince (about a kilo), fries it in a bit of olive oil, adds about a cup of frozen veges (carrot, corn, brocolli, peas and cauliflower) and about a cup of cooked rice. She adds a pinch of salt or some grated cheese for extra yumminess. Once it's cooled down she gives Iris and I a serving, puts another serving in the fridge and freezes the rest. This lasts Iris and I a few days. My human says I never devour any food quite as quickly or lustily as this one. And the best thing is that I know that along with protein, fat and vitamins this food contains a bucketful of LOVE. My favourite!

Omnomnom!

Love, Oscar

Walkies along Mullum Creek

2010-07-20T16:18:00.000+10:00

Well! We've had quite the welcome since landing in blogland. Thank you so much for all your comments and kind words, you've made us all feel really welcome. A special thank you to Honey the Great Dane who introduced me to all her friends on her blog.

All the humans in my house have been sick this past week and they've fallen a bit behind with making sure I get my favourite thing in the whole wide world: WALKIES! I get so excited when I hear the word that I jump up really high and run round and round in circles all the way to the box where my leash is kept. Sometimes I even whimper. My human takes advantage of this to get me to pose for photos. That word ALWAYS gets my attention, no matter what delicious smell or fun toy is in my vicinity. So if you're wondering how she got me to stand in a field, face alert and looking at the camera, that's how. Just remember, when you're admiring my pictures, that an innocent doggie was mercilessly duped for your entertainment! My human is even planning to make a video of my crazy walkies dance to post on here. How mean!

See how good I am at posing?

Anyway, because I haven't been out of the yard much over the past week my human and her sister decided to give me a really big treat and take me to one of my favouritest places: the Mullum Creek Trail! There are always lots of doggies to meet and LOTS of very interesting things to smell. There's lots of mud and slimy things I can roll in and there's even a section where I can go offleash.

Are we there yet?

Here we are! Pretty, isn't it?

I had a really great time on my walkies. I met some doggies through a fence, though I've noticed doggies aren't very friendly when they meet you that way. I tried to tell them I didn't want to get into their yard (truthfully, the park was much lovelier) and invited them out to play, but they weren't interested. Luckily I met a group of doggies with their humans who were much friendlier and we played a little. One of them was very forward with me and well...I just didn't like him in that way. So I ran away!

Oh hello!

Buh-bye!

So, all in all my walkies were a load of fun and more than made up for my human's laziness this past week. Now I'm going to go curl up in my human's lap and nurse her back to health!

Love, Oscar and the gang

Introducing the Three Little Pigs!

2010-07-16T23:23:00.000+10:00

Evolet: Why are we last? We’re always last! Just because we can’t run up to our human when she gets home and lick her to death….

Neytiri: Not that we’d want to…she’s big…and loud...eek!

Jazzy: Squeak!

Meeting Jazzy for the first time.

Evolet: We live outside too. It seems to be a common theme. Just as well because we’re not too fond of being ogled and taken out of our cage into the…the…OPEN!

Our hutch under the lemon tree.

Neytiri: Yeah, I much prefer the smell of the grass that’s just out of reach downstairs.

Jazzy: It’s so mean to keep the door closed so we can’t get down! Our human even weighed down the door with a brick.

Evolet: We thought we had our human fooled. How dare she try to lock us in our hutch? We are herbivores! We must graze. All. The. Time. If we don’t have grass to chew we’ll chew the hutch itself. Which is actually how we got the idea in the first place…

Neytiri: Yeah…we chewed a little hole in the door to the ramp and suddenly we could see grass!

Jazzy: Squeak!

Jazzy.

Evolet: So I stuck my nose right in there, SHOVED it up and slipped under. Grass!

Neytiri: It was quite perfect really. We had a lot of fun seeing the stupefied look on our human’s face. She always muttered that she could have sworn she’d seen us in the run downstairs yet when she reached the cage we were all chewing innocently on the hay upstairs.

Jazzy: And…thinking we hadn’t gotten any grass to eat all day she would give us more!

Evolet: I don’t know what gave us away….

E, N and J were here '10.

Neytiri: But now there is a brick blocking our way!

Jazzy: Squeak!

Evolet: Anyway, I’m Eevee…the boss of the brood. My human says I’m very confident and talkative, and not as much of a scaredy cat (pardon the pun! The cat sure is scary!) as the other girls.

Neytiri: I’m Neytiri and I’d rather be in a small dark space than out in the open. I'm Evolet's twin, but not identical (I have a big white patch on my face!). My human calls me the vibrating pig because, if I’m the centre of attention, I vibrate! When Jazzy joined us a couple of months ago, Evolet and I fought over who got to be her adoptive mother. We chased eachother around the cage and even bit eachother!

Jazzy: And I was sometimes in the wrong place at the wrong time! But finally Neytiri won the fight and now she’s my mummy! Evolet still gets jealous sometimes and I suffer the consequences. Boy, her teeth sure are sharp! Anyway, I’m Jasmine and, according to my human, I’m still semi wild. I run away from her and squeal as though I haven’t eaten for weeks for absolutely any reason.

Evolet: So there you have it. You’ve now met all of the brood. Needless to say there are lots of girly hormones in our household!

Oscar: Just a friendly reminder from our human to store the bits and pieces of things you've been feeding your animals out of reach of children....or grown up humans for that matter. My human was feeding Jazzy a strawberry to put her in a good mood before her bath and left it on the kitchen bench when Jazzy had had enough. Then my human's mother, thinking it was one of her human pups who had chewed on the strawberry ATE IT ALL UP! Uh oh! She made a scary face at my human...but then couldn't help laughing at how silly the whole thing was. Crisis averted!

Jazzy getting her bath.

Introducing....Iris, the Queen Bee (or Wannabe?)

2010-07-14T15:49:00.000+10:00

Well…my annoying little brother has been pestering me about introducing myself to the…let’s see…zero readers of this blog. Pfft! Who wants to hear about the butt sniffing, private-area licking and girly yelping of that smelly mutt? “Small, white and fluffy,” my tail! More like scraggly fur, tinged with whatever he’s managed to roll in on any given day!

I am doing this for three reasons only:

As a public service – everyone has a right to know that a higher intelligence exists. Here I am! You have been worshipping false idols! But it is not too late for redemption – I accept tuna and Mastercard. Have your people contact my people about making offerings.
Because, if I don’t, Oscar’s pitiful blog will get no readers and then he will return to pestering me into playing the endlessly fascinating game of Chasing One’s Tail.
Because there has been some suggestion that I am a tub of lard. I resent the insinuation! I am no such thing! This is simply my winter coat. It has grown fuller and thicker over the years as the humans insist on denying me access to my rightful bed, in the master bedroom.

Things I hate:

Baths...
Too many others to mention.

You will pay for this human...

Things I like:

Eating.
Sunning myself in the garden bed, preferably on strawberry leaves or freshly planted flowers.
Staring at the guinea pigs in their run. I am told they are my sisters…but that’s just until they try to escape…then, they are lunch.
Messing with my human’s head: dashing past her when she’s walking in the backyard at night, climbing up on the second story windowsill when she’s watching TV, asking to be let in then dawdling outside in the rain until she gives up and comes outside to pick me up, getting wet in the process. What fun!
Swiping my annoying little brother (tee hee!).
Punishing my human’s failure to pay me proper respect: turning my back to her and staring at an empty wall for hours or until she repents. And offers tuna.
Eating.
Sleeping.
Eating.

So there you have it mortals, the leader of the household has deigned to introduce herself.

Oscar: *cough* *cough*

Before

After/Food zombie is watching you....

Allow me to introduce myself....

2010-07-14T14:33:00.000+10:00

Me at 2 months.

Ok, let’s be honest…I am really cute. I’d just like to put that fact out there in the blogosphere. If you’re after a dose of cute, you’ve come to the right place. My human says I can also be a little naughty…but really, it’s not my fault if socks from the Clean Socks Bag are the perfect weight to toss around the room or if plastic bottles that fall out from the recycling bin are the perfect shape to gnaw on. In fact I am certain that all the objects in my domain are my playthings and the world is just a big playground made especially for me! I love life and everything in it (except having to sleep in my own bed at night…oh!…and baths!). My human always complains that I am a fussy eater but really, that’s just because I would rather be where she is than where my food bowl is. Who has time for food when there’s playtime to be had?

The king (that's me!) surveys his domain from his cushiony throne.

I’m actually not fussy at all. I was born in the country and ran around in the dirt with sheep until I was two months old. I slept outside, ate whatever and encountered all manner of creatures. My human says that, actually, she’s very lucky because I’ve never been anxious, aggressive, destructive and can entertain myself for hours while she’s at uni. So apart from cute I’m also pretty cool too. In fact, I'm the only "small white and fluffy" I know who sleeps outside! (It's an outrage, just quietly, but I put up with it.)

Where I'd rather be sleeping.

I’ve been trying to get my human to start one of these blog things for ages so I can follow the adventures of other doggies all over the world and maybe make some friends. I live with a cat, Iris, who is 7, and three guinea pigs. I’m sure they will want to hijack my blog sometimes – especially Iris, she thinks she is the boss of everyone. I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!

Love, Oscar