For The Love of Mika!

Mika has taken to pulling washing off the line!

So as we do with most major problems in life, I googled it and found forums suggesting water ballooning the clothesline.

The first water bomb scared the crap out of her lol. (I shouldn't laugh but it was hysterical watching her receive a snout shower. The expression on her face was priceless :P) She barked at the others and nudged them with her nose, then she'd sit there and watch them for hours with suspicion! Unfortunately (for me) she was too smart to have a go at another one :-/

Sigh, I just hope she grows out of this madness :P Soon!

We were rubbing Mika's belly (she'll do anything for a belly rub!) when we found a lump just near where her desexing scar is :(((

My first reaction of course, was to panic! Then I calmed down enough to google it and read about lipomas which are benign lumps found mostly on older dogs, although it's not uncommon for younger dogs to get them too.

I knew my heart would not rest until we got it checked out, so we made an appointment to see our Vet and hoped for the best in the meantime.

When we finally went to the vet, we were relieved to hear that it was most likely a lump caused by fatty tissue forming around the knot of her desexing scar. I was under the impression that they used those self-healing/melting stitches internally for dogs. According to our vet, there were two knots, one on the internal layer and one on the external layer of skin which we had to get removed once Mika's desexing scar had healed sufficiently.

The advice we got was to watch and wait. If it grows or changes in any way, come back. If you've found a lump on your dog, please get it checked out by a vet!

At the ripe old age of 10 months, Mika has destroyed and/or damaged an impressive array of items:

1. Pet matresses x 8 (including handmade personalised mattress with name appliqued on).

2. Soft toys:
-Percy: toy puppy she used to cuddle to sleep with died of severe head injuries.
-Sebastian: toy pup lost his eyes and sustained severe head injuries.
-Pingu: toy penguin. Got the stuffing eaten out of him.
-puppy toy with heartbeat (heartbeat mechanism removed before ripping the toy to shreds).
-plush colourful ball
-plush colourful geometric toy
-Houdini: gift from friends also got his internal organs rearranged.

3. Shoes:
-Mum's new leather shoes,
-Completely destroyed the top of dad's steel toe caterpillar boots. Permanent indentation on steel toe section of one large canine.
-Dad's Nike airs

4. Rubber door stoppers x 2.5

5. Tennis balls x 2

6. Towels x 2

7. Blankets & bed linen x 8

8. Old feather pillow donated for her kennel was used to decorate the lawn.

9. Various sports balls that unfortunately fell over the fence from kids next door.

10. Nylon dog leads x 3

11. Bathroom mats x2

12. Outdoor toys (all doggy chew toys):
- red rubber motorcycle (just like dads) x 2
- mini soccer balls x 2
- sausages on rope x 2
- tennis balls on rope x 2
- tug rope with tennis ball

13. Dad's motorbike goggles reduced to bits of foam and plastic.

14. Expensive and sentimental Akubra hat from Nigel's mum - inner lining ripped out

15. Toy water pistol

16. Cardboard packaging x 3

17. Numerous rubber bands and misc. plastic bits (don't ask how we found these)

18. Dining chairs "imprinted" with new patterns.

19. Back door permanently scarred with deep gouges.

20. Outdoor kennel wood "decorated" with new patterns strangely resembling teeth marks!

21. Outdoor dog hammock chewed so the mattressy bit has fringes. (Update: This hammock was completely chewed through from end to end, but she still likes to lie in the torn bits.../boggle)

22. Several "Haha Gotcha!" holes dug around the clothesline.

23. Panel of common fence between us and neighbour completely removed.

24. Numerous advertising catalogues and junk mail material ripped to shreds.

25. Dog food packs and treat bags x 6

26. Dad's wet jujitsu gi (when it's wet it's quite heavy, so she must have put some effort into this one) dragged off the line and "re-scented" with au de mud.

27. Numerous laundry pegs of mutated appearance have appeared on the grass strategically placed under the clothes line.

28. Lawn clippings dragged around to "redecorate".

29. Zipper tab from mum's varsity hoodie removed after also being "re-scented" with au de mud.

30. Scratch marks on our buttery soft, very comfortable and very expensive leather sofa :-/

31. Plastic registration holder on dad's motorbike x 3 destroyed.

32. Registration label removed from above mentioned plastic holders and destroyed x2. (Yes dad really had to say "my dog ate my registration label").

33. Yellow rubber frisbee which also worked as an aqua toy chewed through.

34. Outdoor broom had a plastic cap on the top which was found disfigured and abandoned in the garden. The broom itself had been dragged to Mika's favourite spot :P

35. Mika is now tall enough to pull clothes off the highest setting of our wind-up clothes line. Among the items of clothing she has gotten to:
- Mum's pantyhose.
- Numerous socks.
- An assortment of underwear.
- Sheets and Blankets

So Mika was the largest puppy there, but she also happened to be the most timid. She spent most of her first class at puppy preschool hiding under the chair. Whenever she dared to peek out at the big scary world, we'd shower her with treats. Towards the end of the class when all the other puppies were winding down, she felt brave enough to come out and wanted to play!

One of the vet nurses said she looked like a baby giraffe compared to the other dogs, which I suppose she did. She was spent when she got home and slept...well...like a baby. So cute to see her all curled up into a tight little ball, dreaming puppy dreams.

It's been a very special week for us since Mika came home.

Lots of heart clenching "aww" moments. Many cuddles were had and lots of getting to know each other. It must be so scary for a little puppy to leave the warmth and security of her mum to enter a new environment where absolutely everything is foreign.

Mika was nine weeks old when we brought her home. Most breeders will let you have their pups from six weeks old, but we are happy that she got to stay with mum and her siblings that little bit longer.

Mika had her first vet visit this week and she was petrified! But once she got treats and won over the hearts of the girls at the animal hospital, she decided that it wasn't all that bad. She took her two needles like a champion and wasn't crazy about having her ears cleaned, but she really wasn't expecting the thermometer "up there". Who would?

Still getting used to the idea of being completely responsible for this little girl who is depending on us for everything! Likewise we have a lot of learning to do. I'm enjoying it! :)

We spent most of the time on the drive down to the breeder and most of the drive back talking about what to name "the puppy".

We went through a whole bunch of names, but we couldn't find anything that we both agreed on. The breeder affectionately called her "Patch" because she has a tiny white crest on her chest, but that didn't feel right to us. We had about a week to think about it and get back to him so that he could submit her papers. The pressure was on!

Finally when we were on the final stretch of highway on the way home, in the final 20 minutes of our 6 hour journey there and back again, we had a breakthrough.

I was driving and looked over and said, "How about Mika?"

At that moment, puppy looked up at me. Dad mulled the name over and said a tentative, "I like that one".

We've been asked since if we named her after the singer Mika. The answer is no. We lived in Japan for a while and have a beautiful friend called Mika, whose name we love because it's short, elegant and sounds cute. The name itself appears to have several meanings, but the one we giggled over the most was "beautiful fragrance", because there were times there on the drive home when the fragrance was anything but beautiful!

After much researching and a few disappointing leads, we set off early one sunday morning and drove for three hours to meet our (maybe) new puppy.

Lets just say that we didn't even stand a chance! It certainly was love at first sight when we met our curious little girl. She was absolutely beautiful and we were smitten.

This is her on the right meeting dad for the first time at the breeder's home.

Strange how things work out because we wanted a red doberman and the last puppy the breeder had in his litter was our little red girl, waiting for a good home :)