Naughty Louie Day

Last Friday was the last straw. S gated the dogs in the kitchen, but at 8.30am I watched on the webcam Louie whining, and very soon after, gleefully breaking out of the playpen-fence and running to the living room. I did not see him in the kitchen for the rest of the morning. It was ominous.

I came home at 1pm to my worst day ever. There was poop marks on the floor in the wardrobe, with no poop to be found - i.e. Kiya cleaned up after Louie, knowing that what he has done was very, very bad. No pee on the floor, but I know my dog too well. And there, two very yellow pee marks on my precious bed, my haven, my only dog-less spot in the apartment.

To say I was angry was an understatement. But I was surprised at how quickly the anger faded, as I know, and reminded myself, that Louie is after all, a dog.

Two new mattress pads, lots of vinegar and detergent, kitchen towels, vacuuming and bleach-mopping later, all is well again. The entire weekend was poop/pee-free, and so was it yesterday and so far today! Hooray.



Ending with a positive note. Here is Kiya, doe-eyed and sweet.

S' disbelief

It's yet another post about poop. It's just not letting up.

This morning, S sent me an email:

Can hardly believe what I just saw! About 5 mins after I left, I turned on cam, to see Louie crouching taking dump right in front of camera. I should have realized as he was whining a lot even when I was leaving which is not like him - he was probably trying to tell me he needed to go. But then the weird thing - Kiya came on the scene shortly after, looked down at poop (quite a lot of it) then looked up and barked at Louie as if to scold him. And then, she bent down and ate it all. It was excrutiating to watch. Poor kiya.

Not absolutely sure she ate all of it but she ate all the poop in view for sure I think.

Oh my darling Kiya!! She is my heroine.

When Kiya first came to us, she could not be left alone in the apartment without having some sort of separation anxiety, when she could not help but poop, sometimes pee. I remember when her rescuers (a very good-hearted father and daughter team) first left her at our apartment. Within a minute, she started to whine (she was so attached to them), and then she peed. It was not deliberate, that I know. Kiya is incredibly well-trained - she can only go on grass and would not do it indoors, and very reluctantly on concrete.

The early months were very frustrating for us. Kiya would not bond with me (and neither me to her - I was still grieving for Moonshine) and she had separation anxiety issues that took months to resolve.

Kiya eventually grew to understand that S and I would always come home to her. She stopped having these separation anxiety problems. And being such a wonderfully obedient girl, she has now (seemingly) tried to patrol Louie and his house-breaking problem too!


I don't know when or if it is even possible to house-break Louie. In any case, they will be confined to the kitchen tomorrow.

Louie's mischief

I knew Persons D and S were up to their usual schedule again when they went to bed so early last night. Sure enough, Person D took Kiya and I for a walk at 6.15am and she promptly left us. We waited patiently for our patron saint of treats to wake, and soon, Person S got up and gave me two cubes of beef! (Kiya had a beef cube and a chicken feet - glucosamine for her ache-y joints and poor ligament).

I was not happy that Person S left so soon. While Kiya was asleep, I hatched a plan.

There were no TV, stereo or air-conditioner remote control lying on the coffee table for me to chew, and Person D even removed the placemats after she caught me chewing on them on the WEBCAM (this thing that the humans sometimes set up on top of the speakers. A third eye?), but the box of tissue was there, as always. I could reach it most easily, of course..





And by 9.15am I have made a mess. I know how the clumps of torn tissue would look through the WEBCAM - they look like poop! In exactly the same place where I took a dump on Saturday morning! I orchestrated the entire plan beautifully. I'm sure I made Person D very frantic while she was at work.


My masterpiece - blurring the lines between tissue and poop.




Well, my plan did work. Person D rushed home as soon as she could and the moment she saw that the white lumps were mere tissue, she hugged Kiya and I, and praised me. How silly humans are! They are indeed our dogs, and we, the masters.

D's musings: Louie's poop

No, this is not a post on poop, much as I am obsessed with poop-patrolling Kiya's and Louie's, always making sure they are firm and dry (five-star poop, pancake-batter poop, ...etc) (dog owners will empathise, as for the others, sorry!). This post is about the seemingly impossibility of house-breaking Louie.

Today I got out of bed at 9am to find a pile of dry, mud-like, crumbly 'soil' poop smack in the middle of the living room floor. Louie greeted me happily, oblivious. Kiya was already hanging back. She knew.

I believe I have gone past the stage of being angry and frustrated with Louie with his toilet-training. He has peed, and pooped, in the apartment countless times. The bright side is that he has not once done it on our bed or on the sofa (let's hope, never!), but he has done so on his own bed - twice, peed near my xbox games such that a little splashed on them (ughhhh! I washed them), and the poor floor has been bleached and poured with vinegar so often that it is looking the worse for wear.

I have praised him when he goes outdoors, and caught him in the act peeing in the house and yelled at him, so he does know that peeing in the apartment is bad. He has been good with peeing, well, for about the last two weeks. The problem is, I have yet to catch him actually taking a dump in the house such that I can correct him.


Salukis are supposedly very difficult to house-break. I don't know why that is so. They have been called stupid and stubborn. I don't think they are stupid, actually. On the contrary, I think Louie is extremely intelligent, BUT he is independent to a fault, and is not at all obedient. He is rebellious, and has a mind of his own.

It is not that Louie could not hold it in - it was not diarrhea. He probably just did not care, and thought that he could do it in the apartment!


So as I picked up the poop and vinegared the floorboards and wipe it all up, I reminded myself that much as I want to wring that little scrawny neck of his, he is, after all, a dog - Saluki or not.


And he looks absolutely angelic when he wants to. Especially when he is asleep.

Kiya's heart

Today marks the last day of Person Rasmini's almost-daily visits to our home. She is heading back to Indonesia tomorrow.

I first met her when I was sent to stay for a week at a strange apartment (and Louie was gone, and so were Persons D and S?! Person D came back finally, looking very tanned and smelled of the sea). She was initially wary of me as she did not know whether I would 'bite' (what is that?), but Person D assured her I was 'very friendly'.

Person Rasmini always calls my name first when she steps into the apartment, not Louie. Ha! She likes me a lot, as she calls me 'Ki-yaaa', with an emphasis on the 'ya'.

She makes the days when Persons D and S leave the apartment for work much more bearable. Louie, the lucky dit, gets to go for a walk with her, and then she would return and do some housework.

I know Person D is very sad that she is leaving as she said she is 'reliable, very trustworthy and sweet'. All I know is, she is a human that comes to visit me so often and she gives me pats on the head. I hope to see her again soon. So does Louie.




I don't know why I look so grumpy here.. maybe it was too hot that afternoon!




Louie, that git, he wouldn't even lie down properly for a photoshoot. And he was trying to look dreamy. How silly.




Goodbye and take care Person Rasmini! We will all miss you very much.

The friendship of Kiya and Louie

Louie joined the family in June this year. He was initially terrified of Kiya, having forgotten that he had met Kiya a few days before that fateful day, had even played chase with her. He wasn't that happy with me either, and kept both of us up the entire night, whining his head off every other minute.

While Salukis are notorious for only sticking to their own kind, or at least with other sighthounds, Louie has warmed up to Kiya (a Rottweiler of all dogs! chalk and cheese) after a few days. He frequently initiates play with Kiya, but Kiya is never interested. At least they do snuggle together..




and Kiya has grown to be more tolerant of Louie. She used to be more impatient with him, and would not tolerate his attention-seeking antics when she was getting patted by us.

Person DS had to pat both dogs at the same time..




Because if he did not,




Louie would start to paw him, roll about, and throw a hissy fit.




Kiya would wonder what was up with Louie. She sniffed him.




Louie still being a diva. Not at all becoming of a male dog.




















Eventually giving up.




Louie likes to sniff Kiya's ears (and other, erm, parts).






Kiya likes to sniff Louie too, but she is less curious, being older, wiser, and worldly.





I hope their friendship lasts another 10 years..

Louie's deeply-buried water-dog gene

Two days ago, Person DS turned up - with a car! I think it was Person SM's car, the all-round nice guy who pleaded with Person D to adopt me in July. Person D got very excited and took Kiya and I down to the car. But I did not understand why Persons D and DS bundled me into the boot of the car (even with a blanket laid down), while Kiya got to sit next to Person D??

So I put on my most pitiful face.






Hoping to win over the heart of Person D.




But she ignored me! So I tried even harder..




To no avail.. At one point I did try to clamber over the seat but she promptly chided me. Fine! While Person D was patting Kiya, the pretend-to-be goody-four-shoes,




I barfed. HA! Here I am, wide-eyed after throwing up.





We finally got to the beach. It was hot, desert-scorching hot, with bleached white sand. Home-coming! I ran happily into the water but found that I was still leashed. How pesky.







Do I look like a supermodel or what?




Kiya had confided in me one sleepy morning (when the humans were out working) that she loves the water. She is fascinated by anything watery. Yet, when she approached the sea, a freak wave rolled in and frightened her! I laughed at her and jumped into the water again.









I think after a while, she decided she would follow me into the water. We swam abreast, happily. She is quite a good swimmer. I even tried to use her as a float for a while, putting a paw on her solid black raft-like body, but Person D glared at me. So, instead, I got out of the water, sprinted around the pack several times, and play-growled at Kiya to get her to play catch with me, but she wouldn't budge from the water. Huh! She merely paddled on.









I called out to her to quit acting like a black mandarin duck but she wouldn't listen. She was mesmerized by something bobbing in the water - that's Kiya and her 'thing' for watery stuff.

Whatever. I shook myself dry.






Turned out to be a group of boys playing in the water with a football. So it was a double-fetish: large balls and water. Kiya was hooked.

She finally got out of the water.




And she looked like a mutt. Person D somehow found that very endearing.




Person DS found a shady spot, and while it was relief for Kiya's paws as the sand was scorching hot (not me, though. I have naturally-thick hair padding my paws), we wanted to go into the water again.







It was a good day.

D's aside

The kids had their dinner at 9pm, rather late (we had our dinner first, as usual). Kiya was practically hopping in excitement when I finally handed her the quarter chicken - raw, frozen and hard as rock. She worked at it like it was her first meal in weeks. The scrunch!-crunch-crunch were satisfying to my ears, and it is always a good sign seeing how much of an appetite Kiya has as she licked her dinner-cloth clean with her raspy tongue.



After another 15 minutes, Louie was done with his (thawed) half chicken, so I let him out of the kitchen and sent Kiya in - she is my clean-up team. She picks up whatever is left on Louie's dinner-cloth, which is a lot - scraps of bone and the occasional coin-size meat. And then she licks it spotlessly clean, just like with her own cloth.

After dinner, I fed both of them a capsule of salmon fish oil each as they had not have oily fish for some time now. I forced Kiya's jaws open, pushed the capsule as far back in her throat as possible, and held her jaws shut, while massaging her neck with a downward motion. I had thought she had swallowed the capsule, but as I turned to get up, Kiya grimaced and promptly spat out the yellow capsule. I was about to pick it up and repeat the grisly task when Kiya licked the capsule, put it into her jaws, and started to chew it! And swallowed! She is one greedy little dog, to even want to eat a plastic-like lump.