Herbiesphere

Freud needs a new home!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:13:00 +0000

My M just got an email from one of my readers, Jo, asking to help publicize Freud's plight.

Freud is a 3 years old black mongrel whom Jo has rescued about 4 months ago from his very irresponsible previous owner who neglected him by locking him in the balcony for over a year with no walks and no attention. He was severely malnourished. I can never ever imagine a life with no walks and no attention. My M calls me the 'attention-seeking boy' and I think I'll just die if no one loves me.

Anyway, Jo has managed to fatten Freud up a little, but as she already has a dog and cat at home, her family is not keen to foster Freud, so poor Freud has been staying in the boarding place for the last 4 months.

Well, I guess a boarding place is better than his previous home, but it's not as good as a proper home and it's not a long term solution. So Jo would like to find Freud a new home, or if a foster for now until he finds his furever home. She says that Freud is very sweet, takes easily to people and very very smart. (But I still think I'm smarter, although my M calls me silly)

Here's what freud looks like:

So if any of you can help, drop me a mail.

Fishy Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:28:00 +0000

I realise now that my baby sister is a cat too, like me! But I still don't know why I'm a cat when I'm obviously a dog. My M calls me the scardey cat, and now my baby sister is the copy cat. There sure are a lot of cat names around.

Maybe we're called cats coz we both like fishies. I've heard that cats like fishes.

Everytime I pass by the fishies' home, I like to pay them a visit. I will pull my M towards them so that I can say hi. But I think fishes are not very friendly coz they usually ignores me.

Visiting the fishes!

And look, even my baby sister is fascinated with fishes! And she's got bigger fishy friends than me. *pout*

Artistic Project

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:17:00 +0000

My M is now embarking on another of her project and she intends to do something with it. She won't tell me what she's doing, but she did give me a sneak preview.

Can you tell who's who?

I wonder what she's making this time....

Love that transcends species and dimension?

noreply@blogger.com (Herbie) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:50:00 +0000

As I was sorting my mail over at the rainbow bridge the other day, deleting spam mails that promised me riches beyond my wildest dream (I wonder why no one ever sends mail to tell me that I've won a whole lifetime supply of dinners? Oh wait, I used up my lifetime. Darn!)

And then one of the mails popped up. It was something different. It was written with so much feelings, I can feel that this writer truly loves me, nevermind the bad english.

This is what she wrote:

Hello dear new friend.
Glad that I'm just browsing now in the Internet and I come acros your contact and i was much feelings oaver it,I'm miss angel wilson by name,please i will like us to hold a good relationship with a real love,I'm happy to look at your contaact today ,you sound so gentle to me that was the reason why i fall very much interested in you,contact me personal with my private box for more introduction also i will sent my pictures to you so we can know more about each other,i will be happy to see your mail my dear,age or colour even distance can't deny any genuine love,so please lets give our self a trial,thanks till i hear from you,
miss angel

Oh wow, my very first love letter! And I truly agree with her that genuine love transcends age, color and distance! But I must say she has really chosen for herself a really testing love story, for I am 8 years old (at last count), golden brown (with a pale gold underbelly) and currently living over the rainbow bridge.

But wait, she's Miss Angel! I wonder if there's a chance she might be living somewhere near the rainboe bridge. Maybe around St. Peter's gate? If that's the case, it would make travelling so much shorter.

Now I just wonder if she minds an 8 year old (and dead) brown dog.

Do you think she will accept me?

Over-strained

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:01:00 +0000

My MM has driven the car to the neighbouring country for the next 2 days so we were left car-less. My very adventurous M then decided we should all have a long walk on Thursday morning to my baby sis's infant school. Since I did not have my regular Sunday shower last sunday, she thought it'll be perfect to shower me and then air-dry me as we walk.

It's a 10 minutes drive usually, but it ended up being a 45 min walk because my M complained that I was behaving like a tourist taking pictures at every landmark. Because I was taking pit-stops... I mean, pee-stops at every other tree. But I can't help it, the trees were all so fresh and un-peed on!

Well, we finally reached the infant care safe and sound and took another 45 minutes walk back home.

We passed by our regular park and my M decided to unleash me for a while and she was amazed that I could still run after such a long walk. But never did we expect I'd start to suffer in the evening.

That night at Scuba's house, while I was horsing around with my M (she was slapping my bum in play), I suddenly screamed. Tommy looked kinda worried and Aunty Viv thought what happened as she has never heard me scream. And I was shaking and looking VERY worried, which got my M worried too. She pressed my thigh a bit and I screamed again. But I could still walk, so the humans deduced that I must have strained my muscle, like what happened to my tail when I swim too much.

Anyway, you'll be glad to know that I have totally gotten over my muscle strain after a good night's sleep, although my M said she won't be bringing me out for long walks today.

Awww.....

Sicko family

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:03:00 +0000

It's official! Everyone in the house is sick, except for me! I am such a strong, healthy boy! It first started with my baby sister 2 weeks ago with flu, then my M got it, then my baby sister decided she must win so she went ahead and had diarrhea, then my MM joined in by having stomach flu, then my M got fever and cough again.

So today all of them are on medical leave! The good thing of them being sick is that all of them get to stay home, with ME!

Being sick is not such a bad thing after all.

Healthy me, the healthiest one in the family!

Sunday Park

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:50:00 +0000

I finally get to go to the park again after 2 weeks! I was initially quite happy to be there.... until I got chased by some dogs.

What happened was, I was the second dog to reach the park, and there was already a JRT in there. After that a family of 4 westies came in. I think 2 of the westies are more dominant as they were kept on leash, but it was all right coz we were all minding our own business. Then came a family of 5 shih tzus! Now we have 2 different packs of small dogs, both in different corners.

Then I managed to find an empty plastic bottle and was playing with it. My M threw the bottle and I was running after it when 2 of the STs came charging and barking at me. I was not too happy so I showed them my teeth and ran back to my M. The owner pulled the STs back into their far corner and my M decided to pause my bottle game.

After what seemed like an eternity everything seemed calm so we started the bottle game again and they came charging at me again. This time I snapped at them and my M had to drag me off but she didn't scold me coz it's not my fault. Anyway that's the thing with a family of dogs, as they say, power in numbers.

It was only after the 2 packs left that I finally get to have fun with my bottle!

But I think after the scuffle I was on wary mode so I got into a near fight with another dog who came in later. My M didn't see what triggered it but she and the other owner quickly broke up our quarrel and we ignored each other after that.

And then came a Mini Scuba! There was a 5 months old MBT puppy who kept wanting to make me play. My M said that finally I get a chance to taste my own medicine (ie: being irritated to death). I must say I don't think I was every that irritating. Was I? I'm not.... right?

All these happened in a mere 1 hour. I must say my sunday morning park's schedule was quite packed.

Wet Wet Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:42:00 +0000

It was a rainy weekend, in fact it was wet, wet, week. So with it being so wet, my M can't bring me out to the park. So we took pictures with my baby sister and I played ball along the corridor.

Resting with my ball and baby sis

And my baby sister tried to run me down when I wasn't looking. Don't they give driving licenses out for this kind of thing? I think she seriously need one.

Bad driver...

But it's ok, I still love her, coz she loves me too...

.... but only after checking that my ears were clean (they were, in case you want to know)

And I can't go to the park again next weekend coz my M will be out of town.

I'll miss my weekend park.

Customized Collar

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:20:00 +0000

A lot of people has been asking my M recently where she got my customized collar from. Actually, since my big brother herbie's days, we've been wearing customized collars. All our fabric collars have our names sewn on it.

Our names!

And because my M doesn't like the sounds of clinking tags, we don't wear dog tags, but she had her phone number sewn on the inside of our collar so that if we every get lost, which is unlikely, there's still a contact number.

I hope the founder will look on the inside for the number!

Anyway, the collars are normal collars bought from any petshops, but she took the collars when she went on howliday to Bangkok, Thailand and got the names and numbers sewn at this shop called Seven Sisters located at the 6th floor of Mah Boon Kong (sp?). It's very cheap for the sewing to be done there and you can choose the fonts and colors of the thread.

But for those who are not going to MBK, maybe you can check with the local Beach Road army shops to see if they can sew the names. My M reckons that if they can sew names on the army uniforms, they should have no problem sewing collars.

So now you know where to get your personalized collars as well!

My successor

noreply@blogger.com (Herbie) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Hey guys! It's been a looong time since I was away and while over at the rainbow bridge, I pondered long and hard as to who should take over my place as the Kitchen God and King of Begging.

Of course, Helios is one of the obvious choice, but I've realised that now there's a competitor to that position, who is none other than our baby sister!

The humans have been wondering if our baby sister is me reincarnated since we both share similar traits (begging and sleeping) but I must make it clear that much as I love my family, I won't want to come back as a human. Humans have to study, take exams, work, earn money... all those stressful things. I'd rather come back as a dog and just eat, sleep and play all day.

Actually, I might be coming back. My M was speaking to a friend's aunt who was a psychic and my M asked in passing if she sense dogs. So I managed to pass a message to her. Anway that's another story.

Back to my successor. Why do I say that my baby sister can be a candidate as well? Well, look at the photos below and tell me if you spot any similarities.

Then: Me and Tommy...waiting outside the kitchen....

Now: The potential successors.... still waiting outside the kitchen...

Then: Waiting to be fed...

Now: Still waiting to be fed...

And this video....

So now you understand why I say my baby sister can be my successor as well?

Now all she has to learn is to plonk her head on the human's lap.

Long lost friend - Found!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:42:00 +0000

I just found my long lost friend, Oscar! We used to play together a lot at the park, but he had to move to a far away place called Dubai a year ago coz his dad was sent there.

I think Oscar had enough of the sand in Dubai so he made his dad come back here. I'm not sure what's wrong with the sand in Dubai, I thought sand always comes together with the sea, and that would mean swimming?

Anyway, after 1 year away, Oscar's back! The first few times at the park we were a little awkward with each other so we didn't really play but yesterday, we got our groove back!

We started playing like old days...

And he even has his boxer gang with him. I was seriously outnumbered...

But it didn't matter coz we all had fun!

I'm so glad I now have a friend to play with at the park.

Growling baby

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:50:00 +0000

My M thought it was quite funny that my baby sister, I mean my baby brother... was making growling noises when I played with Scuba. I think she's a copycat, coz I sometimes growl a little when I play.

Maybe when she's a little older we can be a tag team!

Where's my sister?

noreply@blogger.com (Herbie) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Something very strange happened recently. One day, my M and MM went out with my baby sister...

... and they came back with a baby brother!

I think they traded my baby sister in for a new brother coz my baby sister was pulling out her own hair so much that she became half bald and quite ugly.

Half bald baby sister

I better not shed more fur then I can afford to lose, otherwise they may trade me in for a labrador too!!

Can someone help me find my baby sister?

Baby's 1st Barkday!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:11:00 +0000

How time flies, my baby sister just had her 1st barkday on Sunday, but the humans celebrated it early for her on Saturday.

Of course, I had to be around to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Like checking out the decorations.

I think the balloons are a little crooked

I wonder if the food's gonna be up to standard...

I must say the cake looks very nice, but I wasn't given any coz it has chocolate, and alcohol in it. :(

The barkday girl was pretty knocked out by the end of the party and actually fell asleep! What a lousy host!

She didn't even wake up when there was a human change.

Luckily I was still going strong, checking out everyone if there's still food left... I mean, if they had a good time.

Scuba the living backdrop aka Bullying the Bully

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:26:00 +0000

Last weekend, my M carted the whole portable backdrop to Scuba's house for a shoot. Scuba, as the host, was the most co-operative. The humans just plonked him in the middle and he didn't even attempt to move away, so he was featured in EVERY photo.

So he had photos taken with Tommy...

with J&J...

and with me!

My M said I have a goofy grin but I thought I just looked handsome.

And since Scuba was being so co-operative, the humans decided to put the babies on him.

Tommy's baby brother so liked being on Scuba that he would climb up on Scuba on his own. There must be something about Scuba's ears coz all the babies seem to like to pull it.

Tickle ears

My baby sister was not very happy to be on Scuba coz she wanted to crawl around but the humans keep putting her back. Look how grouchy she looks!

The humans wanted us to take a group picture but gave up in the end coz we were all too excited to sit still. They said there'll be a round 2.

I hope they don't get the babies to sit on ME.

Doggieshoot - Me Behind the Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:37:00 +0000

We had a very successful round 2 of photoshoot, collecting a total of $760. Including other personal donations, re-orders and the last round of shoot in June, the total stands at $3080! Thanks to all the doggies and helpers and doners for making this successful!

And here's some 'behind the scene' shots of me... and the rest of the people.

Look at the Men in Black!

Look at what they have to do to get the dog's attention! Uncle Chris will make an excellent dog in my opinion!

My M didn't take any nice pictures of me but luckily Uncle Nicholas was there to save the day! He took nice pictures of me....

trying to be the Big Head Dog....

trying my best trick.... food on the nose!

and of course, me at my natural best... looking handsome!

But my M wants me to take to take what Uncle Nicholas calls, my Casanova Shot.

Getting ready...

Casanova me!

There might be more BTS shots after Uncle Chris sorts thru everything.

What's happening?

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:28:00 +0000

What are all of them looking at?

Oh... it's bath day for the toys...

PS: My M took this pic of drooly me this morning at the park. And I have grass stuck to my drool too! Strangely all the humans ran away from me. I wonder why...

Drool boy!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:54:00 +0000

Check out drool boy! The boy with drool on the nose!

When I run too much, I tend to drool a lot. The other day at the park, a guy commented to my M that she should bring me to a vet coz I had drool hanging down my lips. He has a non-drool dog (I think it was a small silky/ yorkie type?). My M thought it was quite funny coz he has not seen worse drool cases than mine.

On a separate note, thanks to everyone for the photoshoot support. All slots have been booked!

Charity Doggieshoot - Round 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:23:00 +0000

Hey everypup! Due to the good response we had last weekend for the doggieshoot (we collected a total of $2130!), the organisers have decided to do it again next week!

They'll open up Sat 11 Jul for bookings and if there's enough response, they'll do it on Sun 12 Jul as well. However, if there is not enough bookings, the shoot will be cancelled and the money paid will be refunded (unless you still want to donate to Charmaine).

Charges are:
$30 for 1 layout and 2 digital files.
$50 for 2 layouts and 5 digital files

Extra digital file at $10 each
Additional layout at $20 each
Maximum 2 dogs, if you have more than 2 dogs, additional dog at $10 each.

Please note that this is for CHARITY, and ALL proceeds will go to the family. Bookings are confirmed with payment. Changes subject to slot availability. No refunds (except in the case of shoot cancelled due to not enough bookings)

Please email your preferred time slots or any enquiries to
doggieshoot@gmail.com

PS: Please feel free to cross-post this to any other dog forums

Here are some sample pics taken over the weekend!

Help spread the word!

Doggie Photoshoot and Grooming

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:36:00 +0000

This was a really eventful weekend! First there was the charity doggie photoshoot, and we managed to raise almost $2K for Charmaine. My M hopes that the figure can past $2k after the nice doggie owners have seen the nice pictures and decide to buy more.

The Shoot was held at Aunty Cynthia's grooming shop, which is called the Doggy Salon. Aunty Cynthia has kindly agreed to let us use her shop for free for the shoot, and she donated a handsome (but I'm still handsome-er!) amount to our cause too!

Anyway, my M decided to bring me in for grooming at the same time since she won't have time to bath me, not that I would have minded. At the same time, she reminded me not to 'sia suay' (ie: to embarass her) during the grooming coz I'm such a scardey cat and she even reminded the groomers that I'm a scardey cat. I tried to tell her I'm a dog but I don't think she cares.

Here's me getting ready to be groomed!

From this vantage point, I can check out the doggie 'studio' below.

Can you see me??

Another look at the 'work in progress'. We had a lot of human dogs that day too, coz everyone was barking mad! They wruffed and howled and barked their way to get the dog's attention.

If you thought taking pictures of dogs were hard... try taking pictures of dogs AND kids!

Ok, back to my grooming.... first they combed out my undercoat.

That's my butt....

Check out all the fur they combed out! I'm glad I still got loads to spare!

Ohh.. that tickles!

Remember my M told me not to do anything to embarass her? Well, I did 2 things.

Firstly I tried to hang myself.

From the grooming table.

Not that I wanted too.

I think I slipped and fell coz my M saw me going down butt first instead of head first.

And then I pooped as well.

The groomers thought the smelt something funny, and it was me. My M thought maybe I'm so frightened I pooped my pants coz I'm reliably toilet trained... unless I have a tummyache, which I don't yesterday.

After that I was washed...

And placed in the oven at 220 degrees for 30 minutes.... to be served hot....

Hotdogs!

All right, that was a joke! I wasn't baked.... but my M did call it the Oven.

And that's nice smelling me after the grooming, although you can't really smell me now.

But to make sure I don't distract the other doggies in the shoot, I had to be imprisoned.

Let me out!

It was a exciting and tiring day for me and I was glad to meet some of my fans! Thank you for continuing to read the blog even after my big brother Herbie left! Also thanks to all the nice doggie owners who supported this event!

Slots still available!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:11:00 +0000

Hey, we still have the following slots available for the shoot this weekend to help Charmaine.

27/06/2009 (Sat) 28/06/2009 (sun)
10:30 - 11:00 NA taken
11:00 - 11:30 taken reserved
11:30 - 12:00 taken taken
12:00 - 12:30 taken
12:30 - 13:00 taken taken
13:00 - 13:30 reserved
13:30 - 14:00 taken
14:00 - 14:30 taken taken
14:30 - 15:00 taken taken
15:00 - 15:30 taken taken
15:30 - 16:00 taken taken
16:00 - 16:30 taken
16:30 - 17:00 taken
17:00 - 17:30 taken taken
17:30 - 18:00 taken

Please help to spread the word! Also many thanks to those who has already signed up!

Waiting.... for more takers...

Helios Potter!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:21:00 +0000

My M always thought I look a bit like Harry Potter if she pretends my cowlick is the 'lightning scar'.

Abracadabra! Or... explodimous!

Harry Potter?

But apparently her friend thought I look more like Dumbledore... or rather, Dumbledawg.

I don't care.... I still think I'm Helios Potter! Be careful about your comments or I may turn you into a frog!

PS: Sunday afternoon slots for the photoshoot are all taken, but we still have slots for Saturdays and Sunday morning!

The bully bullying the Bully

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:16:00 +0000

That sounds like a tongue twister!

Anyway, here's further proof that my baby sister is bully. Look what she's doing to Scuba!

PS: We still have slots for the doggie photoshoot, please help to support or spread the word!

Doggieshoot Charity Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:13:00 +0000

Hey everypup! Need your help here! My M is helping to organise a Doggieshoot Charity drive for this poor 4 year old girl called Charmaine.

Here's her story:
www.ourfeistyprincess.com

"Charmaine, a sweet and cheerful girl (she’s turning 4 years old this July) is unfortunately suffering from Stage 4 neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a cancer that forms in one’s nerve tissue and is the most common cancer in infancy.

For her case, the cancer cells were first detected in her liver some time around February 2009, which started off as a 12cm tumour. It was later discovered that traces of cancer were also detected in her bone marrow, which led to this final diagnosis of neuroblastoma.

According to the doctors, Charmaine has a 10% to 20% chance of recovery after undergoing the strongest chemotherapy available, which is what she has been going through.

There is another treatment available which would increase the chance of her survival to 40%, but it could only be done in the US since the drug is still in its clinical trial phase. Requests to have the drug shipped to Singapore have been rejected.

Unfortunately, the treatment requires a US$350,000 deposit upfront, which is about half a million Singapore dollars! This is a ridiculously large sum of money to most of us, and it’s no different to Charmaine’s family and friends."

So we're gonna have a doggie photoshoot.

All proceeds will be donated to Charmaine. We're all doing this out of our own time and pockets and we have volunteer photographers waiting to help out. All photos will be given in soft copies only.

It'll be a make-shift studio set-up, location will be confirmed at a later date. Each time slot will be 30 minutes.

Charges are:
$30 for 1 backdrop and 2 digital files.
$50 for 2 backdrops and 5 digital files

Extra digital file at $10 each
Additional layout at $20 each
Maximum 2 dogs, if you have more than 2 dogs, additional dog at $10 each.

We're looking at starting next weekend, ie: 27 & 28 June, starting at 10:30am.

Please note that this is for CHARITY, and ALL proceeds will go to the family. So please don't ask for refund, or book a time slot and decide not to show up at the last minute.

Please email your preferred time slots or any enquiries to
doggieshoot@gmail.com

So doggies, please help spread the word, or come down to take nice handsome/ pretty pictures of yourselves and help save a life at the same time!

Photos!

noreply@blogger.com (Helios) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:36:00 +0000

My M went to buy some cloth yesterday, and put up a DIY studio in our living room. Guess who's the model?

Handsome me!

Actually, I was just the test subject while she tried to get the setup correct. :(

Very smart test subject

Do I look like a genius?

And then my baby sister joined in. I was kinda worried what sort of nefarious plan would she have for my paw.

Luckily she only wanted some loving...

So I loved her back...

My M thinks she need to improve on the shoot, so I think there'll be more to come...