My pet dog Koffee has recently learned some new tricks! Contrary to what I’ve read that shih tsus are a bit difficult to train, Koffee has learned how to sit, down, play dead, fetch and come towards me. He learned how to sit and come even without food as motivation! I am quite proud of him.

Want to get an obedient pet too? Check out this site - I do dog tricks (idodogtricks.com) and see a cute terrier (?) do the tricks your own pet would do! Try the usual: sit, up, down, play dead, jump, dance, Make sure to type “kiss” and see what he does.

I recently read about a pet-sharing-ownership-rental company in San Francisco called FlexPetz, “a company that contracts out dogs by the day to urbanites without the time or space to care for a pet full-time.” They have a set of 10 socialized and trained dogs who are “rented-out” on a similar “time-sharing” basis as with some hotels and rest houses. Basically, you pay an annual fee ($99.95) , a monthly fee ($49.95) to cover expenses like insurance, training, healthcare of the doggies as well as a per visit fee ($39.95 a day) which should cover the packaged food for the rental period as well as accessories such as bowls, etc.

I don’t frown at the whole pet-shared-ownership idea completely. I understand it would just be cruel to have a pet and neglect them completely. I don’t know how much profit the owner of FlexPetz is actually making from this – perhaps the charges are just enough to cover her fixed costs, but that the pets are well adjusted and bring others joy – you can’t argue with that.

You guys have heard my pet Koffee’s recent or indifference towards me because I haven’t been spending time with him – which was one of my concerns before I got a pet in the first place. However, after a few hours or a day of “bonding” we were back on track. He would be a good candidate for the pet-sharing thing since he’s very friendly and adjusts well to different kinds of people.. I don’t mind sharing him with friends and such… but to rent him out for profit maybe not.

Hi Everyone! It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve just been really busy with a lot of things: work, studies, health issues, etc. I also haven’t spent much time with my pet shih tzu; Koffee. Since I’m not home most of the time and usually too tired to spend much play time with him when I get home (around 10PM), I noticed that he’s being indifferent towards me. He still gets excited when he sees me, but he does not come when I call him nor does he hang around with me much.

My first few attempts at cutting fur- see his mustache? teehee..

I had planned to get Koffee groomed last Saturday. Some of his fur had become matted… and I had given him a nice fur-cut … but only on his head! LOFL. So he had a small trimmed head… on a fluffy body. He looked a bit weird.

Just as I was rushing to the pet-grooming center to drop him off before going to work, all the shops were still closed! I had to get to work for a meeting so I had to bring him to work. He seems to have enjoyed the change in scenery. He patiently waited for me while I spent almost the whole day in the office. I was quite proud of how he behaved.

On the way home, I dropped him off at the pet-grooming salon where he got bathed, cleaned, nail cut and a nice puppy cut.

Tada! He looks proportioned now and seems quite happy with his new cut. He is more active now and also seem to have overcome his indifference towards me after the “quality time” last weekend.

Tired after running around the whole day

There were a number of animals I wanted to see on this trip to Palawan. For some of the animals, I didn’t have the agility to run and get my camera to capture them (birds particularly).

For some, I just had to settle for these pics. Haha!

Dugong or Sea Cow

Peaceful Killer whale

While lazying around Club Paradise in Palawan (an island in the Philippines), I found it interesting that my American friend was so facinated with our local butiki (lizard). It seems every home in the Philippines has a lizard of this sort - they eat insects such as cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes. These lizards can disconnect their tails if a predetaor catches it by the tail. I’m not sure if they will grow back a new one though… From the looks of it, this little one has had a close encounter

While snorkling, we had to watch out for these stinggy jellyfish. There were not many of them though I was steering clear of them nonetheless. They looked so soft and …yummy.

Here are some of the other animals I saw when I was in Palawan.

My friend had such a blast chasing these little crabs across the beach! They are the same color as the sand and they can dig into the sand really quick!

The rich sea offered a lot of fun fishing for the 14-yr old boy who joined us in the boat. Although the boat was travelling in high speed (perhaps around 40 km/h), he just let down his fishing line and caught 4 fish in the span of around 15-30 min intervals! Here are some of the pics we took with the fish.

I got the chance to see some of the unique animals of Palawan during my recent trip.

This particular red heron is the resident bird at Club Paradise. This fiesty bird has been known to attack the guests that accidentally get too close. She is 17-years old, even older than the resort itself. Her bad temper has lead to her injury as well, when one of the guests hit her too hard and twisted her left foot. Now she walks with a limp and just flies around in short distances. I was feeling bad for her, but then saw her try to peck one of the staff!

On our 2nd day at Club Paradise, we had to wait for a while for the rain to stop before we proceeded for our island hopping boat trip. It was during this time that I spotted this monitor lizard. I wanted to take the picture with the full “arrival” sign on the left side of the picture, but the lizard scuttled away too quickly before I got my next shot. Can you even spot the lizard??