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Patrick has decided to send Chandler off on a dog-show tour of China this month. He has some handlers here are the moment prettying Chandler up ready for a show tomorrow.

Apparently I am not the best of influences, and show dogs aren’t supposed to stand up on their hind legs to give hugs or to chew on people’s ears.

Between shows, Chandler is going to stay at a doggy retreat in Beijing, where he is going to meet some girl Chandlers and relearn how show dogs are supposed to behave.

What am I going to do without Chandler for a whole month?? NOOoooo….

I was devastated to find they had trimmed Chandler’s lovely socks today. He has the hairiest feet, and when he runs, the hair flaps about in front of his feet as if he is wearing socks that are starting to fall off just a little. Makes me laugh every time.

I managed to rush in with a camera and take a pre and post trim picture…. socks or no socks… what do you think?

The handler just thinks I am odd.

Chandler has many odd habits.

All through summer, he refused to sleep on any sort of bed or blanket, seeming to much prefer the hard tiled floors.

We didn’t mind so much when it was warm, but have been worrying about what he will do in the winter when it gets really bloody cold here.

I caught him one wintery evening last week curling himself up into a very small ball in the corner and covering himself up with the corner of the curtain.   Although he looked very, very cute I decided it probably wasn’t doing his joints any good so went on a mission to find a blanket he approved of.

I folded up and put down an ugly old bright green rug and Chandler was mightily impressed.  He rolled about on it snorting and grunting happily for a minute then dashed off about the house to collect all his toys.  After he had collected all his belongings and placed them carefully on his new bed, he curled up around them and promptly went to sleep.

As we only have the one Chandler-approved bed, and Chandler must sleep within 3 feet of wherever I am situated, I now have to drag the great ugly rug about the house with me wherever I go.  Generally, when I move the thing about, Chandler just follows along and plonks himself down wherever we stop.  If he sees me drag it into the bedroom in an evening, however, he realises it is real bed time and rushes off to find a toy to sleep with.

Seriously, Chandler is just SO CUTE.

Lucky for me, cuteoverload.com can still be read in China, so I am able to borrow pictures of pugs from them to beautify my posts while I wait to get myself organised with my own photos…

Now that we have a nice big apartment with a huge park just downstairs, I have asked Patrick to buy me a puppy.
I couldn’t decide for ages between a miniature poodle (without the silly haircut) or a pug.

I finally decided on a little ugly pug, because they are just so ridiculous looking, and I like a dog that makes me laugh. I also read somewhere that they hate the heat, aren’t very athletic, and if you take them for too much excersize they start to wheeze, and you have to take them home.

Hold on a minute, I thought… That’s ME!

Ugly little pugs and I seem well suited. The final point that sealed my decision was when I heard Patrick asking around about where to buy a good pug in China. “Pug” in Chinese is pronounced “Bugger”. TeeHee!

‘Where are you going?” … “I’m taking the little Bugger to the park.”

We went on a search for craft books today, which was partially successful and partially a failure.

It was partially successful because I unexpectedly found one particular book I had seen on the internet and liked, and partially unsuccessful because that was the only book I found.

There were lots of really beautiful knitting books, but I didn’t prove to be too good at knitting last time I tried, so I will leave those for next time.

I also bought some really cute tiny rubber stamps for Patrick’s little cousin’s birthday. Patrick has promised to ask her if she likes them and steal them back for me if she isn’t really keen on them.

I have been planning to take Patrick to Shimokitazawa for cake and coffee one afternoon, as he hasn’t seen it yet, and I think it’s worth a visit.I checked Google quickly to see if we could take an express or not, and somehow accidentally came across a website about Gotokuji Temple.

I wasn’t aware earlier, but apparently the lovely little beconing cat that can be seen in Asian restaurants and businesses all over the world, originated in Setagaya ward in Tokyo, just a few stops down the line from our apartment.

The story goes that a feudal lord had been sheltering from rain under a large pine tree outside a small monastery. As he was waiting for the rain to subside, a cat beckoned to him from the doorway of the monastery with his paw.

Just after the lord entered the building, a bolt of lightning struck the tree he had been sheltering under; his life had been saved by the cat.

The lord then decided to make the monastery the family temple of the Ii family, and built a large new temple building. The story spread among the local towns and soon the cat became a well known lucky charm, attracting many visitors to the temple.

I had always known the cat to be beckoning wealth and money, so I am not sure how and at what point it morphed into a cash-cat from a luck-cat…

Temples and cats are two of my favourite things, so it was nice to see them all in the one place. The weather was dreary and drizzly, but it made the temple all the more enjoyable as it seemed to make everything greener.After wandering about for quite a while trying to find the place, and then taking the tram (Tram in Tokyo!) the wrong way for a stop, we ran out of time for coffee in cake in Shimokitazawa… there is always next time.