For The Love of Mika!

So I was checking a post I made when I noticed the random profile generated by the pet rescue widget, for a Mika. Mika the ferret!

I know my husband would love a ferret. They are cute and they sleep for most of the day, so really only need stimulation for a short period of time, which are all bonuses. However, not considering the care they will need, food bills, vet bills, basic needs (cage - I hate caging animals >_<) I'm not so sure about running out to adopt one. Besides, one Mika is already a handful for us to handle. Imagine if we had two Mikas!!! Not to mention confusion central when I call for Mika and my whole animal kingdom comes running >_-

Still. So cute! I hope Mika the ferret finds a great new home.

In our home, dad is for wrestles and mum is for cuddles.

We rarely watch TV (No really! Apparently this is very strange to a lot of people!), but we do have a TV to watch DVDs on occassionally. Ever since we've had Mika however, I find myself making time for short bursts of TV every week or so. Most of the time it doesn't really matter what's on. It's our bonding time, we curl up on the lounge together, I pat her, she falls alseep, my heart squeezes with love and I pat her some more, sometimes she wakes up enough to give me a lick or two, sometimes she snores (so adorable!) and sometimes her feet gallop like she's dreaming of running in fields of meat and bones...or whatever puppies dream of. Finally the show ends and I persuade her to go to bed, by which point she's too sleepy to argue and dutifully follows. Cunning, I know.

Lately she's developed a strange/funny habit. She comes in at night, hops up on the sofa, has her two front paws up on the top of the sofa's backrest. Then she looks at her reflection in the mirror behind the sofa and sometimes her tail wags. There are other mirrors in the house which she doesn't care about, but somehow this particular one has caught her fancy. She does it every night. Maybe she has Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)?

The flu has gotten the better of me this weekend. Yesterday I managed to drag myself out of bed long enough to throw some laundry into the washing machine. Then dragged myself out of bed again sometime in the early afternoon to dry the sheets, feeling proud of my one small victorious task accomplished.

Then I came to pick up the laundry later and lo and behold! Magic! In my backyard! From the house, it looked like all my sheets had vanished. Then I saw the tail end of a white sheet from the corner of my eye >_< Mika had dragged 2 sheets, 1 quilt cover and 1 (heavy) woolen blanket off the clothes line. As I raced outside, I was praying to the Laundry gods for mercy. Alas! All my sheets (did I mention that they were my favourite sheets?) had holes in them. The blanket had several chunks ripped out of it. When Mika had presumably tired of her monotonous rampage, decided to scrunch the blanket up, padded with one of the softer sheets and there she lay upon her woolen + 500 thread count Egyptian cotton throne looking at me casually as if to say, "Oh hi mummy! Look what I made!"

Now I have a pile of destroyed sheets, which in the future I suppose could be recycled towards Mika's bedding, since it's already gotten her seal of approval. *Grumbles*

Even despite feeling really frustrated with her, I still love her to pieces. So this is what parenthood is like. What am I going to do with this dog!?

I've been an avid Pet Rescue fan for a while now. Even before we found Mika, I would trawl through their pages and loose my heart to all the gorgeous little faces looking for homes. In the end, the decision was made to get a puppy who would grow up with us from as early as possible.

For some reason though, I've never stopped looking at Pet Rescue and other organisations out there with websites geared towards rehoming animals. I'd love to be a foster carer, but we can't make the time commitment. I'm looking into volunteering at the local pound, hopefully this will come to fruition.

In the meantime, there are other ways to raise awareness and so I've added a Pet Rescue link and little widget showing random animals that are looking for good homes, in the hopes that if I can be the missing link between just one animal and their new home, I'd be over the moon :)

Please check out the links and have a look if you're so inclined. Pet Rescue deserves all the help they can get for their amazing work.

So I found this book of puppy tricks a while ago in a discount pile at my local. You know those books that make you feel guilty everytime you look at them, because you had plans for that book? Or because it was supposed to help you accomplish some task you had set for yourself? That's this book to me :P

Dad already taught Mika how to shake hands, which really is the hardest part. Following on from that, I decided to see if I could use the book's instructions to teach Mika how to high five. Within a few minutes, she was doing it. Then of course came the real test and she did it again for dad on command! And again and again and again.

Now it's gone from a one paw high five to both front paws! Did I also mention that Mika likes apples? :P Combine apples + tricks = win.

Even though Mika was a timid little girl when we first got her, she has grown to love the company of other dogs. She was a bit uncertain when she first visited the dog park, but now she strains against the leash and pulls to get in the gates quicker!

Mika's bestest friend in the whole world is Buster, a 4 year old Whippet. Whenever Buster comes to visit, he gains a permanent shadow the size of Mika. Buster loves being inside with his family, as does Mika. However whenever the families catch up, there's bound to be tea and cake and other yummy goodies on the dining table. Much too tempting for Mika, so the puppies wait outside.

Buster is a gentleman. He quietly puts up with Mika licking his ears (I don't know either, but for some reason, she just loves his ears!), following him around and annoying him like only a puppy can. I can just imagine what he must think when he rocks up to our place. "Oh #%^$ not that crazy bitch again!"

On this particular visit, Buster seemed to particularly approve of our windows. Must have tasted good! :) Mika can't wait for Buster's next visit. I'm not sure Buster thinks the same.

So I'm convinced that Mika hates her kennel.

When the kennel was first assembled, we made it really comfortable in there for her with old rugs and sheets and even a feather pillow which was donated to the cause. Plus some toys too. The feather pillow was used to decorate the lawn and she drags the sheet(s) and blankets out onto the driveway then carefully arranges into a big lump to sit on while she watches the world go by. She also does this in the rain... >_< Can't leave anything in her kennel, it just gets dragged around the lawn, muddied and torn :-/

We've tried feeding her in her kennel, but she goes in there, grabs a mouthful, pops out, chews, then pops back in grabs another mouthful...rinse repeat.

She much prefers sitting on the back step for some reason. Baffling dog!

I'm not sure what to do or how to encourage her to enjoy her kennel more. Has anyone had this problem before? How did you and your dog get over this little hurdle?