Clients' Pets - Photos

My clients' pets have been wonderful companions while I was at work with them. Their personalities are so diverse that none of them share the same personality. Each of them have their respective quirkiness.This makes it both enlightening and entertaining for me to observe and learn.

SWARLEY & BOO

Swarley is a Poodle, while Boo is a Chihuahua. Both are male, and Boo is more dominant. In fact he humped Swarley on many occasions. They are very inclined to play with the ball. Each of them will want to possess a ball and keep it away from the other. Swarley prefers to keep the ball by his side, while Boo likes to play fetch with it. Depite these demonstrations of possessiveness, they never get into fights. Concerning meals, Swarley is a very slow eater, and after Boo has finished his meal, he will eat Swarley's share - even though Swarley is still eating.




Meal comprised of chicken wing, rice and blended vegetables.

 


Swarley snuggling to me for much needed tender loving care




CHING-CHING, MAUSER AND DINO

These three female cats are extremely shy and cautious toward humans. I have been sitting them for over 30 times, and they are still shy and reclusive. If I were to take pictures of them during every visit, it will appear you will be seeing the same ones - with similar  hiding places. According to their owner, AC, they were all rescued cats, but she does not know their background to ascertain why they are behaving like this. The level and type of shyness is different among each of the cats.

This is Mauser. She is the fiercest of the lot. She will not hesitate to claw and bite. The closest I could get to her is 1 feet from her. From the picture, you can see the transformation from cautiousness to aggression. Her favourite (and only) hiding place is in the owner's clothes cabinet (as below). She will be at the same spot every time I go pet sit at her place.

From cautiousness....

.....To aggression

Mauser at her usual hiding place in the cabinet

 

On the washing machine - One of only twice that Mauser was unprepared for my arrival and could not go to the cabinet in time.



This is Ching-Ching. The words on the box aptly describes her. She is extremely shy, but not aggressive at all. Her favourite refuge is beside the box, which is on the same cabinet which Mauser is in. She allows people to stroke her, but will easily get stressed and begin to stand up to move away. Jumping down from the cabinet is one option. The picture above is one example of her finding a way how to stay away from me. Unlike Mauser, she does not show aggression in any way.

 

Can't get a higher and safer spot than that

 

You are irritating me! Let me eat in peace!



The third cat in this household is Dino. She is the friendliest one, though still always cautious of people. She will always be at the hall, under either a chair or a table. She will also claw and bite if I insist on touching her. But the level of aggression is not as serious as Mauser possesses. One rare occasions, I get to pet her when approaching from the side. If she does not like to be touched, she will run from one spot to another. Either under a chair or a table. The only reason she likes to be in the hall, and not at any other place, is because she wants to get to the meal first. Preparing them meals - rice and fish - is the last thing I do before I leave because I want to show the food to the Mauser and Ching-Ching. Otherwise, Dino will eat more than her share, especially the fish.

Which one should I eat from first?

    



You enjoy watching me eat, isn't it?

 

According to the owner this was caused by Dino. It happens when she is frustrated at being home alone



To prevent subsequent destruction, I put a towel over it.

JERSEY & JACK-JACK

The owner once advised me of how to differentiate between these two male cats. Jersey, as shown below, has one patch over his eye. And his tail is shorter. Match this with his shorter name. Jack-Jack, on the other hand, has one patch over each of his eye, and has a longer tail. Actually the patch on the right eye is not completely covering the eye. Anyway, these features represent the longer name.


Personality-wise, Jersey is more reserved. He will greet me on the first greeting. After that, he will disappear and be by himself isolated somewhere. He will appear again when his meal is served. Then, after eating, he will disappear and be on his own again.


Jack-Jack is more outgoing and friendly. I am always greeted with a loud, continuous meow when I enter the condo unit. He will then rub himself (view video) on the wall and my leg. He will be present near me, and I presume it is because he is waiting for his meal. However, he is unpredictable because while he is being belly rubbed, he will suddenly snap and scratch at me. He also does this to the owner. The safe duration to belly rub him is about 10 seconds.

Jersey



Jack-Jack



Jersey is watching TV (it is not turned on)



Since they can't offer "hand" before eating, "look up" will do

MAX

Max is a 8 year old Malamute-Husky. He loves to greet me by licking me full on the face. He prefers to be by himself in the house. Thinking that he could be lonely cooped up in the house, I had wanted to spend some time petting him. He does not fancy that. However, during walking time, Max likes to walk on a particular route which has a few stray cats for him to chase.

I found out that if I wanted to walk longer with him, I must not pass by anywhere near the road leading to his house. He will be very insistent to go back, and will just sit down and resist any movement. At that moment, there will be no choice but to go back home.

On this particular day, he was lazy to walk. After a belly rub, he was ready.

IVORY & TIPPY

Ivory and Tippy are Golden Retrievers which are blood-related. 9 year-old Ivory is the mother, and Tippy - which is 6 years old - is the daughter.

On my first visit, Ivory was not friendly. She kept walking past me and avoiding contact with me. Perhaps this was her policy: No touching on first visit. On the other hand, Tippy was so welcoming. However, when it came to walking time, Ivory made this an exception of her "no touch" policy.

When I went over to see them the next day, Ivory had behaved the way all Golden Retrievers should behave. She took the initiative to come over to greet me.

 



SKIPPY & SCRAT

Scrat is a 2 year-old Spitz-mix breed, while Skippy is an 8 year-old mongrel. I go over to their place to give them twice-a-day walks. They are both female.

Skippy and Scrat share a common trait in terms of walking. They don't like to walk after it has rained. Whether it is because the floor is wet, or that the cold weather makes them lazy. Scrat is willing to reluctantly walk after some coaxing, but Skippy is another matter altogether. In a similar stance to Max, she will position herself by standing or sitting steadfastly and resist any movement. there was once when the collar came out when I pulled the leash to coax her to walk. Like Max, she will run back home.

Scrat's character is the happy-go-lucky type. She likes to roam around with other male stray dogs, and rummage through garbage. She has managed to escape many times through strong wirings that were fixed on the gate. Finally, metal sheets were drilled on the wooden gate, and her days of galavanting had ended. One thing strange about Scrat is that she does not fancy a belly-rub. Only on rare occasions does she go belly-up for a request to rub her.

Skippy's character is the laid-back and prima-donna type. She is contented being in the compound of the house. If she had a choice, she would prefer to walk off-leash. Well, I can't allow that because she is not mine. However, her owner lets her do it while in her presence. She likes a good and long belly-rub.

DANA & TOM

This assignment will be remembered as the first overnight stay of pet sitting. The two dogs which would be under my care will be 4 year-old Tom and 11 year-old Dana. Tom is a Great Dane-English Mastiff, while Dana is a Great Dane-Bull Mastiff.

Dana

 Tom

If there is a short description of them, Tom will be known as affectionate and conforming. Dana is laid-back and behaves like how an alpha should behave. Yes, age does matter when deciding which dog is the pack leader. This is in spite of their weight difference of only 6kg (46kg vs 40kg), and that they are nearly similar in physical appearance.

The sessions with them begins at 10pm, and ends at 6am. During the first 1 hour, I will keep their quarters in the kitchen and garden clean. Since they are allowed to go into the house , I regularly keep the area clean of their fur and sand. The next 1 hour plus will be spent with them by playing tug-of-war and belly-rubbing.

Rub me. Please...

I have been told that Dana will bark unnecessarily in the garden. It was my duty to keep her quiet by spraying her with water from a bottle. It did have an effect of keeping her quiet. The first three nights needed a lot of getting used to, because I had to wake up and go downstairs to ask her to keep quiet. On the fourth night, I decided to sleep on the couch downstairs, and let them into the house. The result was not good. Dana had the habit of waking up several times and walking around the house; and pruning herself. On the other hand, Tom continues sleeping. Whether he was actually sleeping, that is another matter, because he tends to open his eyes to monitor the surroundings while lying still. On the fith night, I still slept downstairs, but I let the dogs go to their quarters and garden. This way, the frequency of Dana barking was reduced due to the fact that I had a shorter time to respond. By the sixth night, I realised the solution to stop Dana's barking is to close the door which separates the kitchen from the garden. It worked. Before doing this, I made sure they had one full hour to access to the garden to eliminate. From that night onwards, I had a peaceful sleep.


In the morning I would take them - one at a time - for a 25 minute walk.  Dana does not pull much on the leash, and she walks beside me 80% of the time. This could be because she is nearing to being an octogenarian, and is taking it slow. Tom is a puller. He is leashed by using a nylon muzzle attached with the leash attached to one end of the muzzle so that when the person jerk the leash, his head will be pulled to the left. This method only reduced the pulling for a few seconds, and he would resume to the intensity.